Healthy Low-Calorie Slow Cooker Asian Lettuce Wraps

This Asian lettuce wrap recipe is so delicious and healthy! It's healthy comfort food, for sure! The Asian sauces give the recipe tons of flavor! Feel delightfully content with just 133 calories per lettuce wrap! It's very easy, quick to make, and perfect for meal prepping! 

Makes 12 lettuce wraps

Serves 6 

266 calories per serving = 2 lettuce wraps

Nutrition per serving: 266 calories, 16 carb, 11.8 fat, 23.5 protein

Nutrition in entire recipe: 1601 calories, 96.4 carb, 71.2 fat, 141.1 protein

Ready in 2+ hours

Low Calorie/High Volume - so you stay fuller longer on fewer calories!

Ingredients

1/2 cup hoisin sauce (281 cal, 56 carb, 4.3 fat, 4.2 protein)

3 Tablespoons soy sauce (reduced sodium) (27 cal, 2.4 carb, .3 fat, 3.9 protein)

2 Tablespoons rice vinegar 

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil (80 cal, 0 carb, 9 fat, 0 protein)

1.5 pound raw lean ground turkey (1020 cal, 0 carb, 57 fat, 127 protein)

1 small bunch green onions, thinly sliced (5 cal, 1 carb,  fat, .3 protein)

1 Tablespoon dry granulated ginger 

2 teaspoons dry granulated garlic

8 ounces mushrooms, finely chopped, such as portabella or baby bella cremini (50 cal, 7.6 carb, 1.3 fat, 7.6 protein)

1 1/2 cup grated carrots, from about 3 large carrots (90 cal, 21 carb, .6 fat, 2.1 protein)

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (reduce or omit if you are sensitive to spice) 

2 heads of romaine lettuce or butter lettuce (12 large leaves) (48 cal, 8.4 carb, 0 fat, 3.6 protein)

Instructions

1. In a large slow cooker, add in all the ingredients except the lettuce. Stir to combine. Set the slow cooker to low heat. 

2. It will be cooked and ready to eat in about 2 hours. If you want to wait to eat, you can leave it for a few hours longer. 

3. With a sturdy spoon, mix up the lettuce wrap filling in the crock pot and break up the large pieces of meat. 

4. To serve, fill 12 lettuce leaves with an even amount of filling. Eat them like a taco. 

5. If you want to save the filling for later, refrigerate in an airtight dish for up to 3-5 days. Do not put it on the lettuce leaves until you are ready to eat it or else they will get soggy. 

You can easily double this recipe. Just increase the cook time by about 30 minutes. 

1. In a large slow cooker, add in all the ingredients except the lettuce. Stir to combine. Set the slow cooker to low heat. 

2. It will be cooked and ready to eat in about 2 hours. If you want to wait to eat, you can leave it for a few hours longer. 

3. After it has cooked, with a sturdy spoon, mix the lettuce wrap filling in the crock pot and break up the large pieces of meat. 

4. To serve, fill 12 lettuce leaves with an even amount of filling. Eat them like a taco. 

5. If you want to save the filling for later, refrigerate in an airtight dish for up to 3-5 days. Do not put it on the lettuce leaves until you are ready to eat it or else they will get soggy. 

You can easily double this recipe. Just increase the cook time by about 30 minutes.

Meal Prep

This is a great meal prep recipe! Keep individual servings of the lettuce wrap filling in an airtight microwave safe dish in the fridge for up to 5 days. When you want to eat it, microwave on high for 1-2 minutes, stirring it one time in the middle of heating.

Health Benefits of Using Herbs and Spices

Everyone knows that herbs and spices are a great way to add flavor to your food without adding additional calories, but did you know that they also have many health benefits? 

Garlic

Garlic is one of the world's most potent natural medicines. The medical database of the National Institute of Health contains more than 3,200 studies on the therapeutic power of garlic. Many of those studies are about preventing, sower, and reversing cardiovascular disease-- the heart attacks and strokes that kill more Americans than any other health problem. 

Onion

Onions are rich in quercetin, a powerful antioxidant that has been shown to slow the growth of cancer cells, stow the growth of cancer  cells, stop cancer cells from migrating to other parts of the body, and force cancer cells to die in a variety of ways, such as cutting off their blood supply or activating cancer-killing genes. Additionally, the "Journal of Medicinal Food" showed that onions lower blood sugar. 

Chili Pepper (Cayenne)

All chilies have healing properties, but the hotter the chili the ore therapeutic it is. Two of the many awesome effects of chilies are it's a pain killer, and can help you burn more calories. 

Capsaicin is a proven pain killer. Capsaicin creams, which are approved by the FDA, can have a dramatic and long-lasting anesthetic effect on a variety of painful conditions. Additionally, several studies show that eating chilis increases the rate at which you burn calories. The effect can last for 20 minutes to six hours. As if that wasn't reason enough to eat more chilies, dozens of studies have found that capsaicin causes death to tumor cells in test animals and human cell cultures. 

I wrote a very informative blog post about the health benefits of cooking with spices, go here.

For expert level learning about healing spices, I recommend the book "Healing Spices" by Bharat B. Aggarwal, PhD. Get it on Amazon here. 

This tastes better than restaurant lettuce wraps, and it's healthy!!