As the days get longer and the sun finally starts to show its face, there’s nothing I love more than hosting a laid-back summer dinner. Feeding a crowd, though, can quickly get pricey—unless you’ve got a go-to like my favourite lettuce wrap recipe.
It’s fresh, flavourful, and always a hit, yet it comes in at just £2.50 per serving. Best part? With guests bringing dessert and drinks, I’m only spending £13 to feed the whole table!
Serves around 4-6 people
Ingredients:
- 2 packs of tofu: £5.45
- 2 carrots: 69p
- 1 white/yellow onion: 99p
- 1 pack shiitake mushrooms: £1.70
- 1 iceberg lettuce: 89p
- Vermicelli noodles: £1.50
- Hoisin Sauce: £1.40
- Soy sauce: 65p
- 1 lime: 24p
- Paper towel is not required but recommended!
Instructions:
- Keep the lettuce leaves intact as you remove them one by one. Give them a good wash and set aside to dry.
- Pat the tofu with paper towel (or a cloth) to remove excess liquid. Then tear apart the tofu into small chunks, around half an inch in size (doesn’t have to be perfect, but think the texture of ground beef).
- Heat up a large pan with oil and cook the tofu on medium heat until golden brown. Remove from the pan.
- In a separate pot, heat up an inch of oil (canola or peanut) on medium heat. This will be used to fry the vermicelli noodles (do not cook the noodles in water, they get fried dry). Wait around 5 minutes for the oil to heat up. Make sure vermicelli noodles are separated so easier to fry.
- While the oil is heating, dice the onion and add to the pan where the tofu was with a bit of oil. Sautee until soft. Slice the shiitake mushrooms and carrots thinly and add to the onions. Cook on medium heat until they have a bit of colour. Add the tofu back to the pan with the vegetables along with 3 tbsp of hoisin and 2 tbsp of soy sauce. Cook until the sauce becomes thick and set aside to cool. Squeeze lime juice for flavour.
- Test the oil to make sure it is hot enough by adding one vermicelli noodle. If the noodle puffs up immediately, the oil is ready. Add small batches of vermicelli, making sure to remove them from the pot once they puff up. Set aside on a paper towel to remove excess oil. Fry around 200g, or however many you would like!
Assembling:
It’s always more fun when guests get to build their own wraps. Once the tofu mixture has cooled slightly, I set everything out family-style and let everyone dig in. I like to start with a crisp lettuce leaf, pile on the savory tofu filling, then top it off with some crunchy vermicelli noodles. Just fold it up like a burrito—tuck in the sides and roll—and you’ve got a fresh, handheld bite of summer!
