Years ago I made these turkey lettuce wraps – that I stole from my mom of course because many of my great recipes come from her (She’s at Real Food Real Life, check it out!) – and brought the leftovers to lunch the next day. I happened to have enough to share with some co-workers, and they loooooved them. So much in fact that they wanted the recipe.
My mom graciously typed it up for me, and I handed over to a few folks at work. Since then, most of those co-workers have moved on to other jobs and we only remain Facebook “lurker” friends (you know, the kind that happily look at each other’s posts but never actually interact).
Then last week, out of the blue, one of these friends sent me a Facebook message asking for the recipe again because she lost it. It was that good! I figured it had been too long since I made them myself, so whipped them up (actually, my husband did as he does all the cooking), and remembered how delicious they were. So here you go, the best turkey lettuce wrap recipe out there!
Ingredients
- (Note: all measurements are approximate)
- 1 pound ground turkey
- 1/2 onion, chopped
- Spoonful oil (for pan, I used coconut oil)
- Scant teaspoon chopped garlic
- Handful shredded carrot, chopped
- 5 or 6 mushrooms, chopped (optional)
- 1 can water chestnuts, drained and chopped
- 4 to 5 green onions (scallions) chopped
- Hoisin sauce (about 1/2 jar)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 - 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
- Sprinkle powdered ginger
- 2 - 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Instructions
- Brown ground turkey, chopped onion, and mushrooms (if using) in oil until turkey is cooked.
- Add garlic and carrot, stir and cook about 5 minutes more.
- Add water chestnuts and scallions, stir and cook 1 minute more.
- Add hoisin sauce until you have the consistency you like -- I used about 1/2 of jar.
- Stir to combine and coat meat and veggies with the sauce.
- Stir in soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger (chopped fresh would be good, too) and cilantro.
- Ready to serve immediately or even better if allowed to sit a bit and let flavors blend.
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