Ground Beef Recipe: Lettuce Cups

We made this tonight, a great recipe to use with ground beef! It was so good. I did a lot of substituting though to cut down on extra costs. Also, I keep lots of oriental staples on hand, so if you find them on sale, they are great to stock up on!

Here is what I did differently.

:: Omitted:

• tofu
• sherry/cooking wine
• water chestnuts

:: Substituted

• fresh ginger ( added 1/2 tsp ground ginger to sauce instead)
• fresh red bell pepper (added 1/2 of a red pepper to meat while cooking, was previously frozen)
• Bibb lettuce (I used romain hearts I got at Costco)

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Lettuce Cups with Beef

• 1 tablespoons bottled chili-garlic sauce
• 1 1/2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
• 3 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
• 1/4 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons sherry or Chinese cooking wine
• 8 ounces extra-firm tofu
• 2 teaspoons canola oil
• 2 tablespoons fresh minced ginger
• 4 scallions, greens trimmed and reserved, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup each greens and whites – 3/4-ounce each)
• 1/2 pound lean ground beef (on sale this week at Kroger!)
• 1/2 cup finely diced water chestnuts
• 1 large head Bibb lettuce, outer leaves discarded, leaves separated
• 1 red bell pepper, finely diced
• 1/4 cup chopped peanuts

Directions

In a bowl, whisk together chili-garlic sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, vinegar and sherry.

Slice the tofu into 1/2-inch thick slabs and lay the slices on top of paper towels. Use more paper towels to firmly pat the tofu in order to remove as much water as possible. This should take about 2 minutes and use about 3 paper towels. Finely mince dried tofu and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wok or extra-large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger and scallion whites and cook until scallion whites are translucent and ginger is fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add ground beef and tofu and cook, stirring, until beef is opaque and just cooked through, about 4 to 5 minutes. Add reserved sauce. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook, stirring, an additional 3 to 4 minutes. Add water chestnuts and stir to incorporate.

Fill each lettuce leaf with the filling. Serve garnished with scallion greens, red peppers and peanuts.