Ginger Beef Lettuce Wraps are exploding with flavor and texture. Ground beef is cooked with garlic and green onions in a ginger hoisin sauce, then piled into tender lettuce leaves and topped with carrots, radish, crushed peanuts, cilantro and for some spice, sriracha! Serves 6 in about 25 minutes.
Want to make dinner with a snap of your fingers? Are you looking for a recipe that’s light in calories but not on flavor? Me too! That is why these wraps are must make for busy or lazy nights.
This recipe may take a smidgen longer than a snap of your fingers. However, a delicious, flavorful and healthy dinner can be on the table in 30 minutes or less! Or maybe it’s the weekend and you’re meal prepping for the week, these easy ginger beef wraps are excellent for meal prep and can all be made in advance and assembled for a weeks worth of healthy lunches. There’s not even a real need to reheat the beef, because it’s delicious warm or cold.
That’s my kind of recipe.
To Make These Ginger Beef Lettuce Wraps You Will Need:
- 3 cloves fresh garlic
- 4 green onions (sliced, light and dark parts separated)
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 1/3 cup beef stock or broth
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 3 tablespoons of low-sodium tamari (or low-sodium soy)
To serve, try slicing up a few radishes, a carrot and chopping up some lightly salted peanuts.
First, in a medium bowl, whisk together the hoisin, ginger, red pepper flakes, tamari and beef stock, then set aside.
Once I tried making my own hoisin sauce. It was disgusting. So for now I purchase it, until I figure out a way to make it myself. I just read labels and buy one that has ingredients I feel good about [aka ones I can pronounce]. 😉
Next, heat a 10-inch skillet or wok on medium heat. Then spray with olive oil cooking spray and add in the light parts of the sliced green onion and all of the minced garlic. And then stir and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
Next add in the two pounds of ground beef, using a wooden spatula to break up the beef into small crumbles. Then, cook until no longer pink and then drain off any fat and discard.
Next, pour in the ginger hoisin sauce and bring to a simmer. Continue to cook for 5 minute or so, I did add a little cornstarch slurry (this time 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 1 teaspoon cold water) just to thicken the liquids a little.
I wish you could smell this right now.
How ever you serve this ginger beef, it’s delicious. Warm or cold, on a salad, rice or stuffed into wraps.
Next, to assemble these ginger beef lettuce wraps, start by piling the ginger beef into a couple lettuce leaves and then topping with matchstick carrots, radishes, crushed peanuts (<— my favorite!), green onions, a little cilantro leaves.
And since I love a good spicy kick to my tastebuds, then I like to drizzle my wraps with sriracha. SO GOOD!
These ginger beef wraps are seriously amazing.
Not only because the satisfying texture of the lettuce when you bite into it, but also the flavorful ginger beef and all those crunchy toppings (hi, peanuts!👋) and of course the sriracha. Delish with a capital D.
Looking for more wrap delights? Here are a few more you can find on SS:
Spicy Sriracha Steak Lettuce Wraps
Pork and Vegetable Lettuce Wraps
Side note: Any leftover ginger beef is delicious on top of spring greens with, peppers, onions, radishes, carrots, avocado, sesame seeds and chopped peanuts drizzled with a sesame ginger dressing. Just sayin’.
Enjoy! And if you give this Ginger Beef Lettuce Wraps recipe a try, let me know! Snap a photo and tag me on twitter or instagram!
Easy Ginger Beef Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
- 2 tablespoons ginger paste, finely grated or a 2-inch piece finely minced
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/3 cup beef stock, or broth
- 3 tablespoons low-sodium tamari
- olive oil cooking spray
- 4 green onions, sliced, light and dark parts separated
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pounds lean ground beef
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch, plus 1 teaspoon cold water for slurry
FOR SERVING:
- 2 heads Bibb lettuce, iceberg or romaine lettuce (depending on size)
- 1/3 cup chopped lightly salted peanuts
- 1/2 cup matchstick carrots
- 1/2 cup matchstick radishes
- cilantro leaves
- green onions, dark parts
- Sriracha hot sauce
Instructions
- In a bowl whisk together the hoisin, ginger, pepper flakes, beef stock or broth and tamari. Set aside.
- Spray a 10-inch deep-sided skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium. Add in the light parts of 4 green onions (saving the dark parts for serving) and the garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Next add in the ground beef, using a wooden spoon to break the beef up into small crumbles. Cook until no longer pink, about 10 to 15 minutes, then drain off any fat and discard. While the beef is cooking, I prep the finishing garnishes.
- Pour in the ginger hoisin sauce and stir. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch slurry and stir until thickened.
- Let the filling cool slightly before piling into lettuce leaves and topping with carrot, radish, cilantro leaves, the dark parts of the 4 green onions, crush peanuts and sriracha.
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THANK YOU in advance for your support!
Love the recipe. Made them last night and my husband and I really enjoyed the flavor. Thanks.
That’s fantastic, Maria! I’m so glad 🙂 Thank you for taking the time to make this recipe!
Really enjoyed this recipe. Unfortunately I forgot the radishes but they were still good!
Aw bummer! But I’m so glad you liked it, Kelli!
My family and I really enjoyed this! Excited to have leftovers for lunch today! Great way to incorporate veggies into our diet!
Wonderful, Laurie!
Happy New Year to you and yours! Like us, I believe you are experiencing extreme winter temperatures, and I hope you are managing to stay warm!
Thank you for this really delicious recipe; one that is a breeze to make and easily customized!
I actually started out to make your Hot Honey Chicken Lettuce Wraps and then realized I did not have as much ground chicken as I thought! I will get to this recipe as well in the future! (With full transparency, I did not want to go out to the grocers for more ground chicken in this weather!)
After reading through your alternative suggestions, I did have ground beef on hand and voila!
The Ginger Beef filling is so flavourful and was a treat to build the lettuce wraps perfectly. I used Cos (Romaine).
I did not need to add the cornstarch slurry as my filling came out just exactly the way I like it . . . it was not overly loose, but not dry either.
Out of necessity and preference, I did have to make a couple of modifications. I happened to have some simple (rice wine vinegar + sugar + salt + water) quick crispy pickled carrot and Daikon radish juliennes already made so I used them instead of the raw vegetables and I thought I had enough Tamari, and I did not! So much for ‘thought’! LOL! Instead I used 1-1/2 TB of Tamari and 1-1/2 TB Dark Soya Sauce to mimic the viscosity and closest (in my opinion) flavour to the Tamari.
What I purposely omitted was the Sriracha as I am not a fan personally of that flavour profile.
Overall, just a delicious recipe, Laurie! But I am not surprized as I have loved so many of your offerings in your book and online!
Please take very good care and keep cozy!
Kind wishes from the Canadian Prairies!