Hand-Held, Healthy Recipe: Turkey Lettuce Wraps

June 18, 2010 | Written By: Healthy Schools Campaign

By Mark Bishop, HSC Deputy Director

This may sound weird coming from me, but my wife and I realized that we have been in a bit of a food rut. Henry is going through a stage of not
eating his veggies, and we haven't pushed it much. But we recognized it
and felt like we needed to shake things up a bit and make a veggie-filled dinner that would be irresistible to a three-year-old. So last night we made turkey lettuce
wraps.

Like much of what I make, it's based on what's in my
fridge at the given moment. (So my challenge is to always keep an
adequately stocked fridge!) This is what I did:

Ingredients
1 lbs. ground lean turkey
1
medium onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 head
fresh broccoli, diced
1 medium zucchini, diced
1 bunch
asparagus, diced
1 tbs olive oil for pan
1/3 cup nuts, diced and
toasted
4 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs flour mixed with
1 tbs water
1 teaspoon powdered ginger (fresh is better if
you have it)
1 tbs sesame oil
Salt to taste
1
head lettuce (iceberg or romaine work well) with leaves pulled apart
and washed
Directions

Caramelize the garlic and onion in a
large wok. Then add your hard veggies. Carrots work great, but I didn't
have any. So in this case, I added the broccoli and let it get bright
green and just slightly soft. Then I added the soy sauce and ginger,
and mixed. Then I added the turkey. I mixed it up and let the turkey cook
mostly through. About 10 minutes. Then I added the softer veggies —
asparagus and zucchini, and the nuts. At this point you'll have a lot of
liquid from the veggies in your pan. Add the flour and water mixture
and make sure it comes to a boil and thickens. Mix it well so it
doesn't get lumpy.
Taste. If necessary, add a bit of salt
and pepper.
When done, top with the sesame oil (don't cook
the sesame oil because it will lose its flavor).

I serve
this with lettuce leaves. We fill up the leaves and wrap them around
the stir fry. Tons of protein, tons of veggies and tons of flavor. It
makes a meal that's tasty, crunchy and really fun to eat.

Even for a
kid who has been a bit picky lately.