I absolutely love Vietnamese food. If you haven’t had it from an authentic Vietnamese restaurant, you’re in luck. With a couple of key flavours, you can make these fantastic lettuce wraps at home in your Ninja Foodi. They’re keto and a fresh, vibrant meal or appetizer, fit for sharing on a warm day.
The Ingredients
Fish sauce is an ingredient that is key in Vietnamese cooking, especially for these lettuce wraps. Not only do they season the patties but they also are key in the dipping sauce. You can substitute with soy sauce if you’re allergic to fish or don’t want to use it. I used a mix of pork and chicken for my patties, but feel free to use only pork for a more traditional flavour or just chicken to make it lighter. All the other ingredients are to make a traditional nuoc cham dipping sauce, as well what’s known as a ‘table salad’.
- ground pork
- ground chicken
- lemongrass
- garlic
- fish sauce
- brown sugar
- lime juice
- chili
- garlic
- lettuce leaves
- bean sprouts
- carrot
- mint
- cilantro
Make the Pork Patties
Mix together the pork, chicken, finely chopped lemongrass, garlic, fish sauce and brown sugar. If you’d like to taste out the balance of flavours, fry off a small piece in a small pan just to double check if you’d like more of anything. I like to use a cookie scoop to form them into mini patties and then place them on a tray as I form them.
Air Crisp in the Ninja Foodi
Preheat your Ninja Foodi along with the trivet inside of it. Spray with cooking oil and place the patties in without overlapping. This full recipe fit in my Ninja Foodi with a little bit of tetris. Cook until nice and golden brown and cooked through. Meanwhile you can start making the dipping sauce and lettuce wraps.
Making the Table Salad
This is a traditional accompaniment to many Vietnamese dishes. Nuoc cham, a dipping sauce made, in this case, with brown sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, water, Thai chili and garlic. Feel free to omit the sugar if you want to keep it keto and the Thai chili if it’s going to be too spicy for you. I like to arrange the lettuce leaves, carrots, bean sprouts and herbs on a platter and serve everything family style. You can sit down and assemble everything at the table.
Vietnamese Lemongrass Lettuce Wraps
Equipment
- Ninja Foodi
- cooking oil spray
Ingredients
Meatballs
- ½ lb ground pork
- ½ lb ground chicken or more ground pork
- 3 tsp lemongrass white part, minced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp fish sauce or soy sauce
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Dipping Sauce
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp water
- 1 thai chili sliced thin on an angle
- 1 clove garlic sliced
To serve
- whole lettuce leaves
- 1 handful bean sprouts
- 1 carrot peeled and julienned
- 1 sprig fresh mint
- 2 sprigs fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Mix all of the meatball ingredients together. Form into small patties, about 12-16.
- Preheat Ninja Foodi to Air Crisp at 400F. Spray grill and patties with cooking oil spray. Place half of the patties on the grill insert and cook until internal temperature reads 165F, about 8 minutes. Remove and keep warm. Repeat with the remaining patties.
- While the patties cook, arrange a platter with all the serving suggestions. Also stir together all of the dipping sauce ingredients together in a bowl. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.
- To eat, place a meatball patty in a lettuce leaf then garnish with bean sprouts, carrot and mint. Roll up lettuce leaf and dip in the sauce between bites.
Video
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Enjoy these lettuce wraps with some of Ninja Foodi Shrimp Stir Fry or if you just want some dessert, these Thai-Inspired Fried Bananas are delicious.
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