Turkey Lettuce Wraps

I planted my garden quite early this year, at least compared to last year’s June 2 date. I don’t have a very large yard so I decided to take part in a community gardening initiative through Mid-Sun Community Gardeners. I have two fairly small plots planted with beans, mixed lettuce, chioggia and golden beets, purple carrots, and parsnips. I didn’t plant the parsnips this year, they are leftovers that wintered in the soil, then started to grow again in the spring. I decided to let them go as an experiment and now they are taller than I am! I bet all the other gardeners think I have a green thumb….

So far we’ve only been able to enjoy the lettuce mix and I use the term ‘enjoy’ loosely. The kids don’t like any lettuce that is spicy or has any flavour so they won’t eat the arugula. Just last weekend we got invited to a friends for a West Coast Salmon cedar plank barbeque and I decided to bring them a large bag of our homegrown lettuce. Our hosts were very happy because they had only grown romaine and wanted a change of flavour. They ended up giving us some romaine in exchange and everyone was happy.

One of the first things I did was make Turkey Lettuce Wraps using the romaine lettuce as the wrap. This meal is quick and easy to make, low in carbs and high in fibre. It’s great for a hot summer evening when you want a fast meal and don’t want to heat up the house. We also had fresh corn on the cob as a side.

Turkey Lettuce Wraps

1 lb ground turkey thigh (I prefer thigh meat because it has more flavour)

olive oil

2 carrots; peeled and cut into matchsticks

1/2 onion; small diced

1 avocado; diced

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1 tbsp minced garlic

1 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp sweet chili sauce

3 finely diced bird’s eye chilies

green onions

salt and pepper

cilantro

Add olive oil to the pan and brown the ground turkey. Add the onion, carrots, bird’s eye chili, garlic, and ginger about halfway through and cook until the meat is cooked through. Add the sauces and season. Spoon into washed and dried lettuce cups and top with avocado, green onions, and cilantro.