The general idea for this recipe came to me when I was out for a snowy walk with my pup, Hudson. It was clear, I needed to immediately make these lettuce wraps.
Let’s start with the tofu. Whether baking or pan frying, I feel like I have finally mastered crispy tofu. The key is gently tossing the tofu with cornstarch before cooking. This creates a beautiful golden crust around the tofu, thus creating “crispy tofu”.
The other important thing is to be patient and allow the tofu to hangout on the pan without flipping or tossing until that first side is nice and golden brown. Then do your best to flip the tofu to a new side with a spatula. Personally, once at least two sides are quite golden and crisp I will finish browning the tofu with occasionally shaking the pan to flip the tofu. I don’t worry too much about making sure all four sides have a perfect golden exterior. Not necessary. The crispy tofu is eventually combined with sautéed shiitake mushrooms and the sweet and spicy hoisin sauce. The sauce is a mixture of garlic, fresh ginger, sriracha and more. The bottom line here is, it’s delicious.
Of course, you can’t forget about the noodles in lettuce wraps. In my opinion, lettuce wraps aren’t complete without them. I used brown rice ramen noodles but feel free to use whatever variety you want or have on hand. These lettuce wraps are completed with some lime tossed purple cabbage, cilantro and cashews. Yum!
While this recipe is quite simple I would suggest having a helper in the kitchen if possible. Someone can work on the sauce, tofu/mushroom mixture and noodles while someone else works on getting the lettuce cups, cabbage, cilantro and cashews all ready to go. Things will come together quicker and with more ease. Or if you are planning on making these on an evening where you are tight for time, you could prep the lettuce cups, cabbage, cilantro and cashews ahead of time to eliminate some steps the night of.
Before I leave you so you can go make them for yourself, here’s a lettuce wrap pro tip: double up your lettuce cups. The wraps magically become a lot less messy, extra crunchy and can hold way more filling.
reshared from tuttalavita.ca