lettuce wraps with ginger-tamari sauce
I’d be lying if I said I we had a fabulous day.
The truth is, Taylor and I spent the majority of our day poking tiny holes into our drip irrigation because all of the silt in the water has clogged it up. We live at the bottom of a glacier and the water is full of silt. Unfortunately, all of our hot weather crops that are hooked up to this system have been suffering. We lost a handful of them today. (Thank god we didn’t lose them all though!)
My evening harvest was the one highlight to an otherwise crappy day.
The one thing farming has taught me over the years is that you can’t get overly upset about each failure that occurs on your farm. If you did that you would never get anything accomplished (and you would live in a constant state of depression.) Failures are inevitable. We learn so much every time something doesn’t work out. This isn’t to say I haven’t shed a ton of tears over the loss of certain crops because that happens too!
After a long miserable day we finally sat down to dinner (and a beer!)
The recipe below is going to contain a surprise ingredient…. PORK!!!
For all of my vegetarian friends please don’t look away. I have a veggie version of this to share with you as well.
Here’s the deal. We swapped a few bunches of kale for a pound of ground pork. As you all know, I am not a huge meat eater. However, when you can shake the hand, drink a beer, and get to know the person who has raised the meat you are going to eat the ball game changes. This pork was amazing!
We enjoyed our pork with our own lettuce, carrots, kohlrabi, cilantro, and scallions. This meal was so stinking good. The tamari-ginger sauce was a huge hit as well. If you are vegetarian I would suggest swapping the ground pork with diced eggplant or tofu. Either way I think it would be awesome!
Lettuce Wraps With Tamari-Ginger Sauce
Prep Time: 5 mins. Cook Time: 15 mins. Serves: 4
- 1 large head of bib lettuce (torn into individual large leaves)
- 1 TBS peanut oil (or oil of your choice)
- 1 medium size kohlrabi, leaves removed and finely chopped
- 1-2 large carrots, shredded
- 1 large bunch of scallions, diced (white and light green parts only)
- 1 bunch of cilantro, stems removed and chopped
- 1 LB of ground pork
- For the Sauce
- 1 large garlic clove, minced
- 1/4 cup low sodium tamari
- 1/4 cup water
- 1-2 TBS grated fresh ginger
- 1 TBS honey
- 1 TBS rice wine vinegar
- 2 tsp sesame oil
- 1 TBS tahini
Preparation
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the sauce and set aside. This works well with an immersion blender.
- In a large skillet over medium heat add peanut oil.
- Add scallions and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add pork and stir fry until pork is cooked through. (About 5 minutes)
- Add carrots and kohlrabi and stir fry until they are tender. About 3 more minutes.
- Slowly drizzle in tamari-ginger sauce (reserve any leftover sauce for dipping or refrigerate for up to a week.)
- Scoop a healthy portion of pork mixture into each lettuce leaf. Add chopped cilantro and enjoy!
Notes
Use this recipe as a guide. Taste test as you go and adjust measurements and ingredients as needed.
My back aches for you thinking of all those holes you had to poke! Glad you caught the glitch in time to save most of the plants! Your lettuce wraps look awesome – I hear ya on the meat…I tend to not be too interested unless I’m confident in the folks who raised the animal. Deeelicious!
Yum yum! I love that you can barter with other farmers 🙂 And I totally agree, it changes things when you know the farmer who raised the animal. It’s definitely the lettuce wrap kind of year – I have a recipe post for some of my own coming up!
Just looking at that picture makes my back ache – I don’t know how you guys do it! It always looks worth it when I see your meals though and this is no exception .. I have been meaning to make lettuce wraps forever and these look delicious!
I grew up on a farm so I totally get it (we had a New Holland that looks like the blue version of yours!) and it’s like this weird grief and you blame yourself even if it isn’t your fault. Like you’re the plant mom and you were supposed to handle everything. But you’re so right, there has never been a farm in the existence of the world that hasn’t had these things happen.
You’re doing a fabulous job!
Gorgeous! I love seeing the beautiful trees in the background of these pictures. I’ve actually never tried chilled soup but it’s been hotter than a witches you know what here so I’d be up for a refreshing soup like this.
Gorgeous! I love seeing the beautiful trees in the background of these pictures. I’ve actually never tried chilled soup but it’s been hotter than a witches you know what here so I’d be up for a refreshing soup like this.
Looks good!
Test
sounds PERFECT in this hot weather and your presentation is beautiful.
This soup is gorgeous and I’m sure totally refreshing after a long day in the sun! Plus I LOVE that bowl of yours!
I needed this a week ago! It’s been too hot to function here and it just finally cooled down. I’m sure we have more hot days ahead of us, so I’ll keep this recipe handy, sounds delish.
Hope today is a better one for you!! I just received a couple of cucumbers from my CSA – I was looking for something creative to do with them and now I know 🙂
Oh these photos and the recipe look like they are straight from a magazine!
I’m always impressed by the lovely things you make and eat for dinner after a long, hard day’s work on the farm — whereas I’d probably eat a whole pizza from Domino’s and then pass out on the couch by 5 p.m. 🙂
This soup looks marvelous — I definitely need to make this soon!
Yummm this looks so good. Kind of like tzatziki soup? So refreshing – I’m all over it!
You make exhausted look so good. This soup needs to happen in my house!
I made this last night and it was SO good. I have more lettuce in my garden than I know what to do with, so it was perfect. Thanks for always posting such yummy stuff!