Spicy Pork Lettuce Cups with Noodles (or without noodles)
These spicy pork lettuce cups can be low carb or keto if you omit the noodles. It’s a great skillet meal that’s super flavorful.
Spicy Pork Lettuce Cups
Spicy, tomato tangy, savory ground meat. It has become one of the WORC household’s staple instant meal accessorizers. The zingy muse came from Korean rice cakes. The spice, the touch of sweet, the savory drool inducing rice cakes are highly addicting. Ever hit Momofuku’s Ssam Bar in New York and you’ll know exactly what I mean.
With that in mind, I started sautéing up my own concoction. The idea of spicy pork lettuce cups came to mind. Cooking by taste, touch, and smell I came up with this magic meat. I’ll use whichever ground meat I jonesing for, from ground pork to beef to chicken to turkey. Lamb would probably rock too, I just haven’t tried it yet. Grab Diane’s uber tasty chili sauce from the fridge, some tomato paste, garlic, shallots, fish sauce and green onions. Oh yeah, and a little sugar to sweeten the deal and diner is a breath away from being done.
How to Serve Spicy Pork
- After the meat is done, we’ll toss it over rice
- if we happen to actually have rice cakes they go great
- toss it up with some noodles.
- Pile a bunch on some bread with some pickles and it makes a great Asian style sloppy joe.
- The variations are endless and awesome for these Spicy Pork Lettuce Cups.
But to put an end to this post, here is one variation which is great for a party. Toss the meat mix with some Asian noodles then swirl up the coated noodles onto lettuce cups and top with Thai basil and serve. Double delicious. And if you’re on a low carb diet, then you don’t need the noodles. The pork and lettuce are equally satisfying.
-Todd
*Disclaimer- This recipe isn’t based off of any actual Korean recipes. The Korean dish was and inspiration and this is what we created based off that inspiration.
Spicy Pork Lettuce Cups
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon Cooking Oil (we prefer grape seed, peanut, or canola oil)
- 1/2 cup coarsely diced Shallots or Onions
- 6 cloves Garlic , crushed or minced (about 2 Tablespoons worth)
- 1 1/2 pounds ground Pork
- 2 Tablespoons Fish Sauce
- 1/2 cup Tomato sauce
- 2 teaspoons Chili Sauce (we use our house made chili sauce)(more or less to spiciness preference)
- 1/2 cup Water
- 4 Green Onions , sliced in 1/2" pieces
- 1/2 pound cooked Noodles (your preference - rice noodles, egg noodles, soba noodles)
- 1 head Butterleaf Lettuce , washed and separated
- 5-6 stems Thai Basil
Instructions
- Heat large sauté pan over medium heat. Add oil and shallots and cook until soft (1-2 minutes), stirring occasionally.
- Stir in garlic and cook for another 30 seconds.
- Add ground pork and increase heat to medium high. Brown meat, stirring occasionally to break up meat and help it brown evenly and cook through.
- Add fish sauce, tomato sauce, chili sauce and water to meat and stir to combine. Add green onions and cook for another 30 seconds or until green onions soften slightly.
- Taste for seasonings and add a little salt if needed. Toss cooked noodles with meat mixture.
- Put about 1/4 cup of noodle/meat mix in each lettuce cup. Garnish with Thai Basil.
Any thoughts on a dipping sauce to serve with this? Or do you just eat it taco-style?
Taco-style. Make the meat mix plenty spicy and flavor packed and that should give everything its punch.
I love lettuce wraps, but have never tried them with noodles before. They looks incredible, can’t wait to try them!
What a great idea! I’m going to head down to the farmers’ market at the weekend and grab some nice, crisp lettuce to try this one with!
I love this. Any time I can serve dinner in an edible vessel, the kids are nearly guaranteed to eat it up. Thanks!
Ooo, this looks perfect for when you have one of those cravings for a little of everything. 😉 Us ladies get those a lot. But first, I need to make up some of that sauce… thanks!
I feel like spring has sprung looking at those light kissed lettuce cups filled with noodles and pork. Plus I’m drooling (only a little bit) reading over the recipe. Dinners at your house must rock!
OK, I am printing this out, and we have a freezer full of ground venison, so why not try it on that, right?
I’ve long wondered this but have never asked, is there a substitution for fish sauce? I’m highly allergic to fish and always just use dark soy sauce if fish sauce is called for but I was wondering if maybe there was some other option. Just curious. Thanks! These look amazing and I can’t wait to try some version.
Whenever we are making vegetarian version of a recipe with fish sauce, we’ll do the same as you, substitute in soy sauce. Our main soy sauce we use in the house in the Maggi sauce, but any soy sauce will work. Gives the salt and the umami hit. Flavor is a little different of course, but it serves the same roll as the fish sauce.
If anyone has any other substitutions for those who can’t have fish sauce, please share. We’d love to know of the favorite alternatives.
Todd
Thanks! Good to know I guessed right initially 🙂
I won’t be able to stop thinking about these until I make them. Pinning!
mmmmmm LOVE that dish at ssam bar. can’t go there without ordering it.
flavor, kick, chew – it has it all.
want to make it at home but don’t know where to get those rice cake sticks!
any idea what they’re officially called or where to buy them??
either way, your dish looks *fantastic* and i can’t wait to try it
[and the homemade chili sauce as well]
thanks for sharing!
We usually only see the rice cakes around here in the Asian grocers. There are two versions, fresh rice cakes which only have a day life span (kinda like good baguettes) or the dried ones which you boil before using. The English labeling usually just calls them rice cakes. The Korean dish that uses them is called Ddukppoki. Don’t ask me how to pronounce that 😉 Of course our Korean grocers in So. Cal have them, but the Japanese grocers usually have both the fresh and dried. And the Chinese or Vietnamese usually have at least the dried.
If anyone has found them online, please share.
Good luck!
Todd
PS- I love Diane’s chili sauces. Both the garlic chili listed in this recipe and her Sriracha style sauce. Highly addicting!
HAHA I love the white boy qualifier. I say pshh to recipe authenticity anyway, in the sense where everyone should adjust these dishes to their own tastes and preferences (even if it’s not the “traditional” way). These are just beautiful and look so enticing!
Love this recipe – sounds so yummy! We had lettuce wraps last night but totally different from these so maybe I’ll add this to the menu for next week!! Thanks!
Hi There,
The lettuce cups are looking so delightful and appetizing and I wud simply love to add it to my meals. A very well made post with beautiful pictures. Have a wonderful week ahead. Thanks & Regards, Sonia !!!
Yum! I love lettuce cups, but haven’t had any with noodles in them. On my to-try list, though! 🙂
The Vietnamese have quite a few dishes with lettuce and herbs together with noodles, leading to this combo. I love the fresh greens with the noodles. Gives a contrasting texture and temperature with the noodles and spicy pork. Hope you get to try it out!
Todd
I have tried something similar to this before and they are delicious! Healthy, too! So happy to have discovered your wonderful blog, hope you can take a look at mine some time. I recently featured your spring roll recipe on an On the Menu feature! I am a new follower of yours on Bloglovin 🙂 x
Kate {Something Fabulous}
http://thesomethingfabulous.blogspot.com
I am cooking my way through, well, a little bit…of the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook. Holy moly. And what I wouldn’t give to try their restaurant meals, first hand.
These cups look awesome and love the light and the butter lettuce and the plates…so pretty!