Lettuce Boats

Have you ever had lettuce-wrapped chicken at an Asian restaurant? Or stuffed a big lettuce leaf with sandwich fixings instead of using bread?  Lettuce wrappers are crisp, fresh, and delicious, not to mention super healthy.  One of our kids said these Lettuce Boats are like lettuce-leaf tacos! This recipe, based on one from WebMD  (great website - WebMD.com) was really fun to assemble.  As with some of our other dishes, the colorful ingredients really encourage creating edible artwork!  Feel free to change it up and use different veggies, such as shredded red cabbage or jicama. Or add tuna, a rolled-up slice of turkey, or other items.  One of our young chefs insists the recipe should include mushrooms.

Ingredients

  • Stack of large Romaine lettuce leaves (the long narrow ones, often packaged in threes)
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1 avocado
  • shredded carrots
  • shredded low-fat cheese (we used a Mexican blend)

Instructions

  1. Wash and dry the lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado and pepper.
  2. Cut the tomato, cucumber, and red pepper into small pieces (about the size of your little fingernail). Have a grown-up help you with this.  Put into a bowl and mix, or put into individual bowls.
  3. Cut open the avocado and remove the pit. Scoop out the insides into a small bowl, and mash it up.
  4. Take a lettuce leaf, and spread some avocado on it (like “glue” for the veggies.)
  5. Sprinkle on carrot, then tomatoes, cucumber and red pepper.
  6. Sprinkle cheese over the top.
  7. Gently fold the sides of the leaf up around the filling – and there you have it!  It’s good to eat these over a plate or the table in case any filling goes overboard.

More Information

Print
Email

Subscribe to the newsletter!

You’ll get periodic updates with recipes, Q&A’s with chefs and kid food experts, observations, quizzes and simple activities for your kids — i.e., a fun farmer’s market treasure hunt. Don’t worry – we won’t bombard you with mail or ads.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *