Asian Beef & Lettuce Wraps

SandwichQueen's Note:

This is a culmination of spinoffs from several different recipes. They were so yummy, I had to write it down. It looks long, but that's mostly marinating time and cutting-up vegetables (which you can do while the meat is marinating and the rice is cooking), so you can easily do everything in about an hour or so. An impressive appetizer or wonderful light dinner. Even my anti-vegetable 6-year-old ate them! So after receiving my first review about not using marinades, I looked into the matter and have changed the recipe so that you discard the marinade and use fresh marinade when cooking the meat. Thanks to my reviewer...you learn something new every day!

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs
• Cook Time: 1 hrs

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 15.0 wraps

• 2 lemons , juice of
• 2 oranges , juice of
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• 1 lb beef , cut into 1/2-inch by 1-inch slices (roast or steak meat)
• 2 ¼ cups water
• 1 cup brown rice
• 2 tablespoons reduced sodium soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 tablespoons honey
• ¼ teaspoon ginger powder
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 head bibb lettuce (or similar)
• 3 green onions , sliced diagonally
• 1 cucumber , julienned
• 3 carrots , julienned
• 1 (15 ½ ounce) can black beans , rinsed and drained
• 1 avocado , cut into thin slices
• ½ bunch cilantro , chopped

Directions:

1. Combine first six ingredients then divide in half; add beef to half of marinade and let sit at least 1 hour at room temperature. Reserve remaining marinade for cooking later.
2. Bring water to a boil; add rice, reduce heat to just below medium, and cook 38 min then let sit 15 min without opening lid (from "Plain but Perfect Every Time Brown Rice).
3. Drain meat, discarding marinade.
4. Heat oil over med-high heat 1 min then add sesame seeds and continue to heat 1 min more, stirring.
5. Add beef to pan and cook, stirring gently, 4 min or so until beef is mostly cooked.
6. Combine cornstarch and fresh, unused marinade and pour over cooked beef; cook 1 min, stirring, then remove from heat.
7. To partly cooled rice, add soy sauce, vinegar, honey, and ginger; stir.
8. To assemble wraps, layer rice, beef, beans, onions, cucumber, carrots, avocado, and cilantro on leaf of lettuce and roll up.

Reviews

[Chef #1315984]

As written, I found there to be a lot of salt - I substituted crushed garlic for the garlic salt (the soy sauce provided more than enough salt). Also, NEVER use leftover marinade as a sauce. I doubled the marinade recipe and only used half of it to marinate the meat (which I did all day in the refrigerator). The flavor of the meat was fantastic. I really loved the idea of all the veggies and serving it in lettuce wraps, but it didn't work well with the kids. I omitted the lettuce and put the cucumber and carrots on the side. All the extra ingredients really make this recipe go a long way.