Inspired by the classic P.F. Chang’s appetizer, we set out to make healthier vegan lettuce wraps. These wraps come together in less than 20 minutes. They’re delightful served as an appetizer, over lunch, or for a light dinner.
How To Make This Recipe
To nail that iconic meaty texture, we’re using textured vegetable protein–better known as TVP. We’ll soak this in vegetable broth, and we prefer chicken-style for this recipe. Our aromatics include garlic, onions and ginger. And, water chestnuts deliver a welcome crunch. Our sauce includes vegan hoisin sauce, liquid aminos, rice wine vinegar, and sriracha.
For our lettuce wraps, we love using heads of lettuce with full cups. Our favorite lettuce varieties for wrapping include green leaf, bibb, or boston. Iceberg also works in a pinch.
Lots of flavor in these wraps.
WFPB Variation
Because the creation of TVP involves processing, it’s not WFPB-compliant. When we want to make this WFPB-compliant, we have a few TVP replacement options–finely chopped mushrooms, crumbled tofu, or pulsed lentils. We’ll also choose a WFPB-compliant hoisin. We particularly like this hoisin sauce recipe from Kim Campbell.
Prepare Filling
We begin by placing our TVP in a large bowl along with our vegetable broth. After giving it a quick stir, we allow this to stand for between 5 and 10 minutes. Our granules will soften, rehydrate, and pull in that broth flavor. Once softened, we squeeze out any remaining broth as we drain our TVP.
We soak our TVP in vegetable broth.
Next, we warm a thin layer of broth in a non-stick saucepan over medium-high heat. Then, we add our TVP and cook until lightly browned and warm, about 3 minutes. If our TVP begins to stick, we simply stir in a small splash of water.
Our TVP warms in a non-stick skillet.
Once our TVP is warmed through, we add our garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and sriracha. We’ll continue cooking for another minute or two until those onions until translucent. As before, we just stir in a small splash of water of the mixture begins to stick.
Flavor deepens with aromatics and seasoning.
Finally, we add both water chestnuts and green onions and cook for another minute or so. Before removing this from the heat, we season with salt and pepper to taste.
Finish with water chestnuts and green onions.
Ready To Serve
And, just like that, we’re ready to serve. We like to serve this dish family style in a big bowl with a giant pile of washed lettuce leaves on the side.
We’re ready to serve.
To serve, we simply spoon a few tablespoons into the middle of a lettuce leaf. Then, we eat them taco-style with our hands. They’re messy, so we always have napkins nearby.
Serve with extra hoisin sauce on the side.
Because life is more fun with condiments, we like to keep a small bowl of hoisin sauce nearby for drizzling.
Hoisin sauce on the side for dipping.
Now, let’s grab a wrap and dig in!
Grab a wrap, roll it up, and dig in!
More filling options for lettuce wraps:
Recipe Card for Vegan Lettuce Wraps
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Vegan Lettuce Wraps
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup TVP
- 2 cup vegetable broth chicken-style, plus more for sautéing
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1/4 cup hoisin sauce vegan
- 2 tablespoons liquid aminos or soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ginger grated
- 1 tablespoon sriracha or to taste
- 8 ounces water chestnuts drained and diced
- 2 each green onions thinly sliced
- salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
- 1 medium head lettuce green leaf, bibb, or Boston preferred
Instructions
- Place TVP in a large bowl, and pour over hot vegetable broth. Stir and let stand for 5-10 minutes to rehydrate. Drain and squeeze out any remaining broth.
- Heat a thin layer of broth or water in a non-stick saucepan over medium high heat. Add TVP and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. If the TVP starts to stick, add a splash of broth of water.
- Stir in garlic, onion, hoisin sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, ginger and sriracha. Cook onions until translucent, about 1-2 minutes. Add a splash of broth of water if the mixture starts to stick.
- Stir in water chestnuts and green onions and cook until tender, about 1-2 minutes. Add a splash of broth of water if the mixture starts to stick. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- To serve, spoon several tablespoons of the filling mixture taco-style into the middle of a lettuce leaf.
