Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!  The luck of the Irish is not with me today, in spite of the fact that my heritage is Irish and Welsh.  Nope, just wrote almost this entire post and then accidentally erased it (darn you insert photo for being near the new post button).  I realize this could be corrected by doing this in a word format, and then possibly copying/pasting, but I’m not sure how the format will work from one source to the other.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now, and had hoped to get another recipe or two up, but based on the fact that I just had an hour of work erased, I’ll be lucky to get this one up.  With the help of some sangria, I’ll be lucky if this isn’t riddled with typos, but at least those will be fun to make!

One of my favorite things about these lettuce wraps is the filling usually lasts for 2 days.  On the second day I like to add broccoli and some crushed peanuts and serve over rice.  It makes it seem like you’re eating a whole new dish instead of leftovers.

For some of the ingredients used you will have to visit the “Ethnic” aisle of the grocery store.  We use the Hokan brand for the Five Spice powder, water chestnuts, and Hoisin sauce and we use the San-J brand of soy sauce.

Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Prep/cook time:  Combined total of about 40 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 block extra firm Tofu (we like the Marjon brand)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 3 1/2 tsp Five Spice Powder, separated into 1 1/2 tsp and 2 tsp.
• 1 bunch scallions (also known as green onions)
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 can water chestnuts
• 1/2 cup matchstick carrots
• 1 1/2 Tbsp vegetable or peanut oil
• 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 1/2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
• 2 1/2 Tbsp Hoisin Sauce
• 1 head Iceberg lettuce

Optional Ingredients for Topping

• Peanut Sauce
• Asian Hot Sauce (Thai Kitchen or Sriracha)
• Cilantro
• Fresh Lime Juice

Tools

• Cutting Board
• Knife
• Glass casserole dish
• Skillet
• Cooking Spatula

What To Do

1. Preheat oven to 275.
2. Drain tofu.  Tofu is usually packed in some water.  For this dish, you do not need to remove all of the water.  Just drain the water from the package, and lightly squeeze the tofu to drain additional water.  You can do this by pressing the tofu between your palms and alternating sides along the cube.
3. Cut the tofu cube in thin slices along the width, like so:
4. Take half of the “loaf” and cut in thin strips.
5. Cut into small squares and place in the glass casserole dish.
6. Repeat step 4 and 5 with the other half of the tofu, and put the casserole dish in the oven for about 20 minutes.
7. While the tofu is cooking…
8. Clean and dry vegetables.
9. Remove paper from garlic and mince finely.  Place in skillet.
10. Prep scallions by cutting off the stems and the top 1/4 inch of the greens.
11. Remove the whites from the greens.  
12. Discard any part of the greens that are limp, and remove any outside layer of the whites that is fibrous or looks dirty.
13. Dice the whites into small rings and add to the skillet with the garlic.
14. Slice the remaining greens into thin rings and set aside.
15. By this time, it’s probably been 20 minutes since you put the tofu in the oven.  Remove the tofu (keep the oven on) and sprinkle 1 1/2 tsp Five Spice Powder over the tofu.
16. Use the spatula to stir the tofu to make sure it gets well coated with the Five Spice Powder.  You may need to scrape the pan to help stir all of the tofu. Once the tofu is stirred, and coated with Five Spice Powder, return it to the oven.
17. Now, take the red bell pepper, and cut along the outside of the green stem (you’re cutting into the red pepper).
18. Then, flip the pepper over, and cut straight lines, separating the pepper into the different segments (most will have 3-4 segments).  The pepper I used has 3 segments.
19. Pull the segments apart to expose the seeds.
20. Remove the seeds and any of the whiter skin on the interior.
21. Cut the bell pepper by removing the curved top and bottom.  Cut the majority of the pepper in strips.
22. Dice the smaller pieces of red pepper and set aside.
23. Open the can of water chestnuts and drain the water.  Dice the water chestnuts into small pieces.  Set aside.
24. Take the matchstick carrots and cut smaller.  I recommend doing this by placing the carrots in a small pile on your cutting board.  Cut in 2 sections one way, and then do a crosscut with 2 sections as well.  Set aside.
25. Prep your lettuce by washing and draining.  You can either cut the stem out of the lettuce, peel the leaves off, or use my preferred method of hitting the lettuce just next to the stem on the counter edge, and pull the stem out.  I recommend placing the prepped leaves in a bowl and sticking in the fridge until the dish is ready to serve.
26. Add oil and crushed red pepper to the skillet (with the garlic and scallions) and heat on medium heat.
27. Let this saute for about 2 minutes, stirring / tossing consistently.
28. Add red bell pepper, carrots, water chestnuts, remaining Five Spice Powder and ginger, and stir.
29. Remove tofu from the oven (turn the oven off, now), and put in the skillet.
30. Add soy sauce and hoisin and mix thoroughly.
31. Remove from heat, and stir in scallions.
32. We like to serve this dish by putting all the ingredients on the table and building them as we go.  If you’ve never built a lettuce wrap before, you take a small amount of filling and put in the “cup” part of the leaf.  Top with your preferred sauce, and fold the sides in like a burrito.  Keep lots of napkins nearby for this one!

And enjoy!