Banh Mi Turkey Lettuce Wraps

My work had a sponsored cooking class that will last for 6 weeks every Mondays on our third session, we made an Vietnamese inspired Bahn Mi using lettuce wraps and turkey as the meat. These cooking classes are great in giving recipes that are easy and economically. The chef teaching us comes from Le Cordon Bleu which is pretty neat. Wish I could share the recipe online, however I am not allow to share.

To describe the prep and cooking process, cucumbers and carrots were julienned and pickled in an equal parts brown rice wine vinegar and Vermont Maple Syrup (grade A if anyone cares, personally, I like grade B better) with salt. While that was soaking, 2 knobs of ginger was peeled (back of the spoon technique is great!) and minced finely. Ground turkey was browned in a skillet and the ginger was mixed to sauté. I added some chili oil sauce, roasted sesame seed oil and pepper to give some more flavor. Then simply build the wraps with little gems lettuce wraps and top with cilantro, crushed salted peanuts and squeeze a lime over everything.

The dish can definitely use some carbs so getting a baguette or using some jasmine rice to make a rice bowl will definitely elevate the dish. Top off with red cabbage to get more vegetables. I still used the lettuce wraps with the mixed rice bowl style and satiated for the rest of the night.