Pork & Salad Lettuce Cups

4

Nutritional
Information

  • 938.8kj
  • 12.3gm
  • 4.3gm
  • 128.84mg
  • 22.98gm

An eat with your hands, San Choy Bow inspired dish that’s easy to prepare, involves little cooking and is loaded with goodness.

What's In It?

  • 400g Lean pork mince
  • 100g Mushrooms, finely chopped
  • 1 Clove garlic, grated
  • 2cm Piece ginger, peeled and grated
  • 1 Tbsp Tamari
  • 1 Tbsp Chopped chives
  • 1 Brick vermicelli noodles
  • 2 Gem or 1 baby cos lettuce, cored removed and leaves thoroughly washed and dried
  • ½ Lebanese cucumber, sliced
  • 12 Cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 Carrot, zoodled or grated
  • 2 Shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2-3 Coriander
  • 1 Tbsp Sunflower seeds
  • 1 Lime, cut into quarters

Let's Get Cooking

  1. Heat a non stick pan over medium heat. Add the pork, garlic and ginger and cook until meat has completely browned and cooked through.
  2. Add mushrooms to the pan and cook until softened. They should absorb any juice remaining in the pan.
  3. Add tamari and chopped chives. Stir to combine then remove from heat and set aside.
  4. Place vermicelli noodles in a bowl. Cover with boiling water and set aside for 5 minutes or until the noodles have softened. Strain and set aside.
  5. Prepare lettuce leaves by washing and drying. Remove any outer, wilted leaves.
  6. Prepare additional salad ingredients.
  7. Assemble lettuce cups by adding noodles, pork mixture and salad ingredients. Top with seeds and a squeeze of lime juice.

Why is this so Good?

This recipe is pretty adaptable to what you have in the fridge. Don’t be scared to swap the cucumber for capsicum or switch the coriander for mint. Feel free to add a little fresh or dried chilli if you prefer a bit of heat.

The lowdown on some of the ingredients and preparation:

  • This recipe uses regular white rice vermicelli noodles which are readily available at the local supermarket. Brown rice vermicelli was previously only available in specialty health food/whole food grocers. It’s now available in the Asian aisle at major supermarkets. Keep an eye out for it! The brown variety offers more fibre than its white cousin.
  • If you have a zoodle cutter it’s a great idea to cut the carrot for an interesting, fun and easy to eat option. Kids will love it! Otherwise, grating the carrot with a regular box grater will work just as well.
  • Baby cos leaves are a perfect for this recipe (and any San Choy Bow for that matter) due to their firm structure and palm size portion. The traditional iceberg lettuce leaves can also be used by cutting the leaves down. This can be done quickly and easily with a pair of scissors.

Eating raw vegetables on the occasion can provide some additional health benefits. Cooking (or overcooking) can often deplete vegetable of their water soluble vitamins. Loaded with beneficial vitamins, minerals and fibre, raw vegetables have a higher satiety value so will leave you feeling nourished and full.

Many Asian recipes are flavoured with natural ingredients like garlic, ginger, chilli and fresh herbs. This recipe is one that doesn’t need the addition of excessive sauces. You might be tempted to add a dash of sweet chilli or kecap manis. Keeping it simple is going to maximise the goodness and avoid the added nasties that often appear in premade sauces.

Flavoured with fresh herbs and a squeeze of lime juice, you’ll find plenty of punch.

Published