Recipe File: Asian Lettuce Wraps

So you've get your raw hoisin sauce and and your yummy meat substitute just a sittin' there in the 'fridge. Who you gonna call?

Non-problem solved: It's time to serve up some Asian Lettuce Wraps. The fancy-shmancy kind. The appetizer everyone drools over.

The basic ingredient list makes it Asian. The optional ingredients make it less Asian, more Caribbean or Mexican.

Basic Ingredients

• Big Green Leaves. (I like romaine. Other folks prefer chard, kale, or butter lettuce (bibb))
• Walnut-based meat substitute
• Enoki mushrooms (available in the produce section of Asian groceries)
• Bean sprouts
• Garlic cloves (available peeled and packaged in produce section)
• Pickled ginger (fresh grated ginger tastes more Szechuanese, less Japanese)
• Chopped green onions
• Hoisin sauce

Optional Ingredients

• Red onion
• Tomato
• Cucumber
• Bell pepper
• Diced celery
• Carrot
• Avocado
• Cilantro
• Corn
• Mango
• Pineapple
• Grated coconut
• Lime peel

Instructions
Layer ingredients in lettuce leaf. Roll like a burrito, or fold ends in and create a pouch. Hold together with bamboo skewers or toothpicks.

Drizzle with hoisin sauce before serving.

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And as the mother, mother-in-law, and future grandmother of Chinese girls, let me say: This song is totally offensive: I Like Chinese.