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Do you see all that green? All that color? I made that!!
And umm, I am just now realizing that these wraps have ZERO cheese. Seriously, who am I? What have I become?
A person obsessed with color and mangos (and pineapple…and now passionfruit too. YIKES, maybe I have a fruit issue?) and basically all Thai food… but I have a feeling you guys have realized all this by now. Hey, it is spring though, and all these colors are totally spring approved. PLUS, I woke up to a good few inches of fresh snow this morning. Basically all that fresh snow just makes me CRAVE fresh foods even more.
You’d think the snow would make me crave soup or something, but I have now hit the point where I have had a glimpse of nice, warmer weather and I NEED it back! Like, winter I am so over you, and summer, ok spring, I am so ready for you!
Better yet, I am so ready for Florida. Florida is way better than a snowy Colorado spring.
You know? Sometimes I wonder if I live in the wrong place. I pretty much love the heat and never get it. Starting to think that my dad and his idea of packing up and heading to south beach for a couple of months out of the year sounds pretty good. He may be going slightly crazier with every year that passes, but I have got to say, that is a semi brilliant idea. Maybe someday…
OK, sorry enough Florida dreaming here. Clearly I am pretty excited for my mini vacay to Florida for Easter with the fam to start. The closer it gets the better it sounds!
These wraps though. Let’s talk about these meatball lettuce wraps with jungle mango salad. They’re basically like a salad, but so much more fun! I can’t remember the last time I made a REAL salad. I have made many, many salad-like things, but not a salad with actual lettuce. Lettuce just tends to make me board. I get the feeling you can understand that though. Butter lettuce is my exception though, it’s one of my favorites…probably because it’s called butter. Duh.
Anyway, these wraps are so flavorful and also so quick and easy to whip up!!
Yeah!
The mango salad and that sauce are to die for, but when paired with the simple Vietnamese meatballs? Mmmm! That’s so cheesy, but it’s true. Sometimes cheesy is just what’s needed when explaining food. It’s the only way to get the point across. Well, aside from an obsessive amount of words all spelled out in caps with plenty of exclamation marks (another favorite of mine)!
These wraps are the perfect healthy anytime food. Fun enough for the weekend (happening in t-minus one day – depending on when you are reading this from), but easy enough for a busy weeknight. They take about thirty minutes start to finish, but please don’t hold me to that, everyone cooks at their own pace. Some of you may need twenty minutes, some an hour, but they took me about thirty minutes to prepare…subtracting all that time for photos of course.
Oh, and they are gluten free for any gluten free readers out there! Nice!
And now we can all go eat one too many lettuce wraps, because hey, it’s only lettuce, and you can never have too much of that!
Vietnamese Meatball Lettuce Wraps with Mango Salad + Cilantro-Basil Cashew Sauce.
Servings: 4 Servings
Calories Per Serving: 812 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Mango Slaw
- 1 mango peeled and julienned (sliced into thin strips)
- 1 carrots cut into small matchsticks
- 1 cucumber cut into small matchsticks
- 1 red onion sliced thin (optional)
- 1 red fresno chile pepper chopped
- juice of 1 lime
- 1/ 2 cup roasted peanuts or cashews chopped
Green Cashew Sauce
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
- 1/4 cup fresh basil
- 3/4 cups roasted cashews
- 1/3 cup coconut milk plus more if needed (I used canned coconut milk)
- juice of 2 limes
- 1 teaspoon thai red curry paste
- 2-4 tablespoons sweet thai chili sauce I used 4 tablespoons
Meatballs
- 1 pound ground pork sausage or links and casing removed
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce check for gluten free labels if needed
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce check for gluten free labels if needed
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 head butter lettuce
- 1/2 cup sweet thai chili sauce for dipping
Instructions
Salad
- In a bowl, combine the mangos, carrots, cucumbers, red onion, red fresno pepper and a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Toss well. Store in the fridge until ready to serv. Toss in the nuts just before serving.
Green Cashew Sauce
- Add the cilantro, basil, cashews, coconut milk lime juice, thai red curry paste and sweet thai chile sauce to a blender or food processor. Blend until completely smooth and creamy, about 3-5 minutes. Taste and adjust as needed, adding more sweet thai chile sauce if desired. Can be store in the fridge for 1 week.
Wraps
- Season the pork with salt and pepper and then roll into 20-30 tablespoon size meatballs, place each meatball on a tray as you work. In a small bowl, combine the sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce and honey.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat and cook the meatballs until cooked through, about 5 minutes, turning them 2-3 times throughout cooking. During the last minute or so of cooking, add the sauce and give the meatballs a good toss through the sauce. Cook another minute longer you until the sauce glazes the meatballs. Remove from the heat.
- To serve, double up your lettuce leafs and divide the meatballs among the leaves. Top with mango salad and the cashew sauce. Eat!
Well, you can (the boring kind), but you can’t have too many of these wraps. These wraps are flavor bombs of freshness!
Thanks for delicious recipe Amaze-nummz! Have a great vacation:) love it
Thank you!
I have made these few times over and each time I make them, I wonder why I don’t make them more often. Like many HBH recipes, they have a lot of steps and ingredients, but it’s so worth it. Definitely restaurant quality from your own kitchen. I’ve served this two different friends when I had them over for dinner and both loved them. I highly recommend.
It makes me so happy that you love this recipe Rachel! Thank you so much!
What is the best type of lettuce to use? Bibb lettuce or Iceberg? It’s hard for me to tell in the photo.
I like to use Butter/Bib lettuce. Thanks!
Although I had intended to make the entire combination, only the slaw and sauce got made. The mango slaw is very refreshing, and can be served as a side dish. The green cashew sauce has a distinctive, delicious flavor, which I used on turkey burgers and panko-breaded fried fish.
Thanks Rob!
You might be my favorite person. Your personality shines through your writing which made me forget about the recipe and just read more. I am also a total food nerd and can’t get enough recipes put together fast enough. all and all it was a delight to read and a fantastic recipe.
Haha! THANK YOU!
I hope you are have a great weekend and really, thank you again for the kind words! 🙂
Came across this recipe after googling “lettuce wrap recipes” in an attempt to deal with the out-of-control bibb lettuce in our garden. Yours made my mouth water, and we just tried them tonigh – so, so delicious! We will be making this all summer for sure!
These look absolutely mouth-watering, and your photography skills make ’em look real’ good !
We love what you’re doing. Are you interested in becoming an official Chicory App recipe partner?
Thank you so much!
I made these last night. OMG that green sauce! I could have eaten it all with a spoon. Definitely will be making this again. And again. Thank you!
I made these tonight for dinner for the first time, and we absolutely loved it! I took Jean’s advice and crumbled the meat instead of making meatballs. To lighten things up, I used Italian spicy turkey sausage instead of the pork. We are not crazy about mangoes, so I substituted two nectarines instead. I think it was a very good substitute.
I will be making these on a regular basis in the future!
Oh these are beautiful. You really rocked the lettuce wrap in this one. The mango slaw seems like a winner even on it’s own 🙂 I hope you have enjoy your vacay!
My husband and I made these for dinner the other night. AMAZING!!!! We were absolutely blown away 🙂
We did find the prep time to be a lot longer than 20 minutes, and that was with two of us!!! Once you’ve got the slaw and the creme made, it goes very quickly from there.
We also decided that next time we’d crumble the meat instead of rolling into meatballs so it is a bit easier to eat. I also used Bob Evan’s spicy sausage and added a tsp of thai chili paste to the meat mixture.
This is a definite keeper! Thank you so much for a wonderful meal!
Hey Tieghan! I have been following you instagram and afraid I am now addicted to your recipes! My kids and I just sit and drool over your pictures! I made your pork ramen noodle yesterday and everyone loved it and now I am going to try these. I know it will be a big hit. Hope you have a great time here in Florida, we are having such great weather so I guess we should share it:) Thanks for all the eye candy and food inspiration, I sure can use it with my husband, 4 boys of my own and 1 girl to feed!
THANK YOU! I am beyond excited you are enjoying my recipes, that makes me SO happy!! Also, so excited for your Florida warmth! 🙂
This looks soooo good! I am obsessed with thai curry and mango, so this is my kind of food! Gorgeous pictures and great recipe!
Love lettuce wraps! These look so great and I’m so happy they’re so quick! I’ve been needing some fast lunch options recently! You’ve read my mind. Loving the mini meatballs – so cute! Have a great mini vacay!
Thanks so much Amanda!! Have a great weekend!! 🙂
Amaze-nummz! Have a great vacation:)
Thanks so much, Gerry!! Have a great weekend!!