Tempeh Thai Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce
30-minute vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with a protein-packed tempeh and mushroom filling, lots of bright, crunchy toppings, and a simple peanut sauce that’s so delicious, you’ll want to lick the blender.
This week is not unlike the last, with lots of trip planning happening, the beginning stages of packing, and more playing with aquafaba because it continues to blow my mind. A couple of posts ago I shared the first leg of our one-year road trip itinerary, which took us from Boston through Chicago. I’ll share the full, albeit ever-evolving and expanding, list of stops sometime soon. For now, here’s the next round of places we’ll be visiting (some destinations, others passing through/places to crash):
Devil’s Lake State Park, WI → Cashton, WI → Sioux Falls, SD → Badlands, SD → Hot Springs, SD (Black Hills Forest/Ogala Grasslands/Custer State Park) → Thunder Basin, WY → Sheridan, WY (Bighorn Mountains) → Fort Smith, MT (Bighorn Canyon) → Pray, MT (Yellowstone) → Teton Village (Grand Teton) → Bear Lake, UT → Craters of the Moon, ID → Sawtooth Lake, ID
It’s overwhelmingly exciting, and yet those places should only take us through the first 2 months! We’re all booked through most, which we didn’t want to have to do so far in advance, but traveling with our two dogs requires some foresight to find pet-friendly places and also, anything even remotely near-ish to Yellowstone seems to get reserved the previous year?! We hope Yellowstone is worth the hype, but on the off chance it’s not, there is a ton of awesome stuff sandwiched on either side. After Sawtooth, the tentative plan will be to swing on up to Glacier National Park (so pumped!) and Washington, then make our way down along the Oregon coast to California, where we’d like to land sometime in August for prime wine country season and stay put for a while. I feel some anxiety about returning to the bay area because living in San Francisco was such a low point for us, but I have a special place in my heart for the towns north of the city and especially Healdsburg. That was our little, sunny getaway spot and I hope it’s as wonderful this time around. If you have any tips, recommendations, or must-sees for anywhere along our very lengthy route, we’d love to hear them! There is only so much Google maps tells you about the places you’ll be driving through.
When we’re not obsessing over the many, many places we hope to see, we’ve been all about these easy vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with lots of peanut sauce and extra sriracha (always). They have so many good things going on, not the least of which is the super filling, protein-packed tempeh, mushroom, and water chestnut filling sautéed with onions in fragrant toasted sesame seed oil. Crunchy, meaty (without the meat!), and perfect for layering atop fresh, brilliantly green lettuce leaves and thin, chewy rice noodles. I think the sauce and toppings are what make this dish: shredded red cabbage and carrots, chopped peanuts, thinly sliced green onions, black sesame seeds, and a simple peanut sauce so good, you will want to lick the blender. I love meals that are more about assembly than cooking and these vegan Thai lettuce wraps are a new favorite for sure.
Tempeh Thai Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce
Tempeh Thai Lettuce Wraps with Peanut Sauce
Serves: 4
Prep Time: 15 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Total Time: 30 mins
30-minute vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with a protein-packed tempeh and mushroom filling, lots of bright, crunchy toppings, and a simple peanut sauce that's so delicious, you will want to lick the blender.
Cuisine: Gluten Free, Vegan Servings: 4
Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 15 mins Total Time: 30 mins
30-minute vegetarian Thai lettuce wraps with a protein-packed tempeh and mushroom filling, lots of bright, crunchy toppings, and a simple peanut sauce that's so delicious, you will want to lick the blender.
Instructions
- Combine all of the peanut sauce ingredients in a blender. Process until smooth. Set aside.
- Prepare the filling by adding the sesame oil to a large non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add in the crumbled tempeh and onions and stir to coat with the oil. Cook, stirring every so often, until the onions are translucent and the tempeh is golden brown (about 7-8 minutes). Stir in the mushrooms and water chestnuts and cook for 2-3 more minutes, stirring a couple of times, until the mushrooms are tender. Add in the peanut sauce, stir to combine, and cook for 1 minute. Remove the pan from the heat.
- To assemble the wraps, layer the lettuce leaves with the rice noodles, tempeh filling, cabbage, carrots, chopped peanuts, green onions, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds. Drizzle with extra sriracha and enjoy!
Copyright © 2020 Amanda Maguire for Pickles & Honey
You must stop in Walla Walla, WA! They also have an excellent wine industry with an amazingly cute downtown and plenty of vegan food options!
We’ll add Walla Walla to our list of places to check out! (such a fun name to say!) Thanks for the suggestion, Ashley!
I’m so excited for your adventure! I can’t wait to follow along. I know it’s going to be amazing.
Thanks, Cadry! We’re really excited and very much looking forward to sharing our adventure along the way.
This recipe is so mouthwatering… beautiful captures too. Thank you for this! What an inspiration you two are, heading out on such an incredible journey! Rob and I have discussed something similar to this, but have not taken the leap (it’s a BIG deal, as you know!). A place to see? Come to Washington, to the Olympic Peninsula and see the it’s temperate rainforest and old growth forests. It’s breathtaking! Oh, and so looking forward to messing around with chickpea brine… picked up too many cans yesterday!
One can never have too many cans of chickpeas! I was experimenting with a vegan angel food cake this week, but so far, it’s a total fail! I’ll keep at it…one day it WILL happen.
Thanks for suggesting the Olympic Peninsula–it sounds incredible! And also, your comment is so sweet. It’s definitely a big deal to take the leap and travel for a while…lots of planning and a little craziness too (personally, we have to push back on our more practical/stability-focused inclinations). I hope you and Rob will be able to go on your adventure. <3
Amazing looking photos!
i cannot wait to follow along on your adventure and be super envious 😉 ps thai food is everything to me and i want a huge glass of that peanut sauce to drink.
Maybe we will inspire you and Dayv (and Mina!) to go on a road trip adventure?! 😉 I hope we’re able to meet up at some point for Thai food, extra peanut sauce.
From all my family who have gone to Yellowstone it is worth it because there isn’t ANYTHING like it. I know my Father and Mother in Law got really close to a brown bear mother and baby, and took photos when they weren’t suppose to (they were legally too close). I think their recommendation would be go to the tourist popular places first thing then the less popular sites later in the day to avoid crowds.
Good idea about going to the more popular spots earlier in the day! I don’t think I’d want to get anywhere near a mama bear and her baby…eep. I’ll (hopefully) only see that from afar. 😉
YELLOWSTONE IS WORTH ALL THE HYPE. It is my number one favorite national park. Ever. We took a week long road trip for my birthday two birthdays ago just to drive there and back when we were living in southern CA. It is a magical wonderland. Like the Disneyland of theme parks. The crown jewel. The most wild and intense place I have ever been. Be prepared to have your minds BLOWN. And my personal recommendation? Skip Old Faithful. But do not miss hiking down into the waterfalls of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. And make sure to stand on the black sand at Yellowstone Lake. And be prepared for sunshine, rain, thunder, and snow potentially all in one day. Oh my goodness I want to go back so bad. And if you can, drive out the south entrance through Teton national park. It was, and still is, the most incredible mind blowing beautiful jaw dropping drive I’ve ever driven. Scott and I were in hysterics laughing the majority of the drive cause the beauty drove us that nuts. Okay I’m done. (haha!)
Jessie! This is AWESOME! You just got me so pumped to see Yellowstone. Can I just text/face time you as we’re visiting these places and you can give us all of your insider tips on what to see/skip?! Virtual tour guide! haha I’m adding your notes to our spreadsheet now (yes, I have one because this trip is so massive!). For Yellowstone, we’ll be coming in from the North (a town called Pray, MT), working South and then staying in Teton Village right near the entrance to Grand Teton. When we drove through Yosemite on our way to San Francisco a few years ago, I thought nothing would ever top those views…I can’t wait for this drive!
OMG yes please FaceTime me! Haha! That sounds amazing – so pumped for you! Ah get ready Amanda, that drive is going to blow every other drive you’ve ever taken OUT OF THE WATER. For every bit that Yosemite is peaceful and surreal, Yellowstone is wild and other-worldly. We are only 8 hours from it here now in Denver so you know I’m already planning our trip there soon! Eeeee now you have me getting all way too excited!
(Kind of) picky eater question: any ideas about what can we replace the water chestnuts with?
Because this is making me drool and I do have some tempeh that needs a little loving…
You don’t like water chestnuts?! Kidding. You could skip them, or replace them with something mild and crunchy to keep the texture the same. Maybe daikon? I bet you could just stir a couple of handfuls in at the end.
You give me far more credit than I deserve…as in I couldn’t pick out daikon in the store if I wanted to. 😉
However, if I”m going for broke with peanut sauce (aka the manfriend is travelling so I’m eating it all because I don’t have to worry about his allergy) mild and crunchy = peanuts. Not as healthy by any means but give me all the peanuts!!!!! *noooomz*
xoxo
kait, so funny that you asked that question. i brought this wrapper for my co-worker to try and she looooooved it. when i mentioned the water chestnuts (which she likes), she happened to mention that she sometimes subs jicama for water chestnuts and that made so much sense to me! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing Shannon!!!
THAT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE! Having a total *d’oh why didn’t I think of that?!* moment over here.
made these a few nights ago… We loved them! The tempeh mixture was delicious. My husband actually used the leftovers and created a sandwich out of it. We will definitely be adding this to our rotation.
Have an amazing trip!
That’s so great to hear, Britt! Tell your husband he’s a genius using the leftovers to make a sandwich!
I just wanted leave some feedback on this recipe. Made it last night and it was amazing!!! It was absolutely delicious! That sauce is so yummy. It reminded me of a sauce for hot sauce cold noodles that we eat at a restaurant we frequent. I didn’t have white miso on hand but the red I used worked fine. And they were sold out of those type of particular rice noodles, but I had some long rice noodles and they worked. The real test was my teenage kids. And well, they really liked it! Husband did too!!! This is so yummy that I’m sharing some with friends so they can try it! Oh, and I just love the water chestnuts in the mix! This will now be in our regular rotation! Thank you for sharing!!!
Thank you for the glowing review, Shannon! That makes me super happy that your family loved the lettuce wraps! I really like the water chestnuts too-the crunch is addictive. 🙂
very addictive! and yes, i wanted to lick the blender…that sauce is amaaaaazing! also, just wanted to give you a little more feedback and incentive for others to give this recipe a try…this was so delicious that i had to share it with a friend and 2 co-workers. using my leftovers from last night, i made one wrap for each of them to sample…they all absolutely *LOVE* it and have asked me to forward the recipe! thank you so much again!!! 🙂
I made this recipe a couple weeks ago and I’ve been wanting more since! The sauce is fantastic and hard to mess up (didn’t have miso so just skipped it; ran out of brown rice vinegar so added lime juice).
The tempeh/mushroom/water chestnut combo is genius! I love water chestnuts but my husband is very wary so I didn’t tell him and he loved every bite!
I used these fantastic noodles made only from black beans (http://m.vitacost.com/products/explore-asian-organic-black-bean-spaghetti-pasta-7-05-oz-2) so amped up the nutrition even more. So light but satisfying! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! The sauce is very forgiving, and your lime juice addition sounds like it would be great. I’m going to keep my eye out for those black bean noodles…yum!
These wraps truly look tasty! I can’t wait to try them out.
This recipe is beautifully captured in your photos! The recipe screams healthy and delicious for me! Love the mushroom and water chestnuts! The recipe looks really fresh! 🙂
Made this for my work lunches for the week. So yummy! Thank you for sharing.
That is so great to hear, Elizabeth! Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. 🙂