Featured comment
I made these last night and ate 6 of them; and then had them for breakfast today. I hadn’t cooked with tofu in YEARS, and it was so fun! I love this recipe!!!
Denise
Firecracker Lettuce Wraps – I see you with your browned crispy tofu bits, your sticky brown rice noodles, your delicate lettuce leaves, and your creamy umami sauce. I see you and I love you and I want you.
These lettuce wraps are a big deal, because a) they taste, obviously, aaaamazing, and b) they are lettuce wraps that know how to actually keep you full. That’s right. I said ACTUALLY KEEP YOU FULL. None of this two-tablespoons-of-ground-chicken-in-a-lettuce-leaf-counting-as-a-meal business. I LOVE lettuce wraps. I also love to be full after a meal, and sometimes it is hard to find a lettuce wrap that can deliver. Enter this delicious mashup.
Why it’s a mashup:
- There are noodles.
- But wait, seriously, NOODLES. Brown rice noodles. Inside the lettuce. Like… noodle stir fry meets lettuce wrap. (I’ve done it before and I’ve done it again!)
- Also tofu, so this is vegan!
- But you know you can use other protein, right? Can be vegan, doesn’t have to be vegan. For our traditionalists, ground chicken is a winner, too.
- Everything in this lettuce wrap is drenched in my Favorite Of All Time sauce. From way back here.
Naturally I am a huge supporter of anything that involves wrapping up a essential noodle stir fry and delivering it straight from plate to hand to mouth. So yes, these are my new thing of the moment.
How To Make Our Vegan Lettuce Wraps (1 MIN):
Yeah. Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
Here’s what we’re working with: lettuce, tofu, sauce, noodles.
Pause here to stand over the pan and eat several big forkfuls.
And finally, your saucy masterpiece.
There is a 99% chance that you will end up with a firecracker sauce bomb all over your face / lap / fingers, but please, for the love, do not get all proper on me and start eating this with a fork. Grab a few napkins and a few friends who aren’t going to judge you for getting savage with it and just get in there. That’s the way to do it, pals.
More Amazing Lettuce Wraps
Firecracker Vegan Lettuce Wraps
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 8 large lettuce wraps 1x
Description
HELLO YUM. Firecracker Lettuce Wraps that are happily vegan – with crispy tofu bits, saucy brown rice noodles, and a creamy sesame sauce.
Ingredients
For the Firecracker Sauce:
- 1/2 cup peanut butter
- 1/3 cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup sesame oil
- 1/4 cup rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons chili paste (like sambal oelek) ++ for more firecrackery-ness
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- a small knob of fresh ginger, peeled
- a clove of fresh garlic, peeled
For the Lettuce Wraps:
- 1 block extra firm tofu (see notes)
- 4 ounces brown rice noodles
- 1 head butter lettuce for wrapping
- 1/2 cup peanuts for serving
- 1/2 cup cilantro for serving
- 1 lime for serving
Instructions
- Noodle Prep: Soak your noodles in a bowl of lukewarm water for at least 30 minutes while prepping the rest of the recipe. You want the noodles to be soft and flexible.
- Sauce: Blend all the sauce ingredients together in a small blender or food processor until smooth and creamy.
- Tofu: Press the tofu with a few paper towels to get some of the moisture out. Cut the tofu into small pieces. Heat a little oil in a nonstick skillet. Add your tofu. Stir-fry until golden brown. I usually let it sauté for at least 15 minutes. Add about half of the sauce to the pan. Stir-fry for another 3-5 minutes. As the sauce browns, it will form small crispy pieces around the tofu. Yum! Transfer tofu to a bowl.
- Noodles: Drain and rinse your noodles. Add another swish of oil to the pan and plop the noodles in. Add about half of the remaining sauce. Stir fry for just a minute or two until coated. Add a splash of water if it’s too sticky. Remove from heat immediately and toss with the tofu.
- Lettuce Wrap It Up: Fill your butter lettuce leaves with the noodle/tofu mixture (it’s okay if it’s sticky – you’re just wrapping it up in lettuce). Top with peanuts, cilantro, lime, and more sauce. YUM YUM YUM!
Notes
Air Fryer Option: To get really crispy tofu, you could also consider air frying your tofu!
Protein Options: It’s super easy to swap out your protein here. My two favorites are tofu (as written) and chicken!
Soaking the Noodles: This is important. If you don’t soak the noodles long enough they will require more liquid in the pan to cook, which kind of makes them boil into a big glob. Edible? Yes. Awesome? Not really. Be sure to soak them until they are very, very soft – almost ready to eat soft.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: Asian-Fusion
Keywords: lettuce wraps, vegan lettuce wraps, vegan recipe, tofu recipe
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our collection of easy tofu recipes. Check it out!
Vegan recipes please.
Thank you.
Very good!!!!
These were the BOMB! Takes a bit of prep but worth the effort. I recommend to make enough for a left over salad for the next day.
I’ve been making this recipe for years and it’s always a winner. Recently gave some to a non-tofu eater, and she was instantly a believer! I love how versatile this recipe is (you can easily sub in any meat) and the flavor is never compromised.
Love love love – couldn’t stop eating! We eat a lot of tofu so it’s hard to impress the family but this was great!!! Thanks for recipe.
Glad to hear it, Lori!
I made this today for a ladies lunch. It was fabulous. I added extra garlic, cilantro and basil to the sauce. I also used fettuccine pasta. It was a huge hit! I will make it again and again! Thank you!
1/3c sesame oil? Isn’t that too much?
That’s what we’d suggest for this sauce. 🙂
We did crispy tofu in the air fryer (recipe from New York Times) and added a few extra veggies but otherwise followed this recipe. So tasty! We thought it could be from a restaurant, it was that good!
I love this recipe! For the peanut sauce I added a squeeze of lime and for the wraps I added bell pepper and it made it really good! Thank you for this recipe! Keep up these amazing vegan recipes! 😀
I make this recipe alllllll of the time! My changes: crumble the tofu vs. chopping it up, 2 blocks of millet & brown rice ramen, lazily serve it over lettuce as a salad using leftover sauce thinned with H20 as dressing. YUM 🙂
Thank you for sharing the recipe and ingredients . we really loved this method of cooking.
Can this be made ahead and served cold or is it best warm?
Hi Lindsay, Thank you for your awesome recipe and I can’t wait to try. For another recipe where you would do ground chicken, approximately how many ounces would you use? Thank you kindly, Melissa
Hi Melissa! We’d probably use 16 ounces!
I used a large zucchini instead of noodles – roasted at 425 for about 20 minutes..delicious addition!
Amazing, spectacular, make this immediately
I made these once as is..Delicious! The second time I had a red pepper and some mushrooms in the fridge so I cut red pepper strips which i blistered and put on the side (still crisp) and added some mushrooms in with the tofu to add more texture. I also added a tbs of tamarind to the sauce mixture because I added it. They were so tasty and pretty with the extra colors with the blistered red pepper and green and I had a little shredded red cabbage. They were the hit of the party.
I had made tofu in the past but it was never as good as in restaurants, then I found this recipe and realized how to correctly cook it! These are wonderful, and so flavorful even my husband who typically requires meat with every meal will happily eat these. I make them often.
On of our all time favorite recipes!
On my regular rotation – very delicious. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
This was delicious. Next time I make it (again soon 😋) I will omit the sesame oil. The sauce was amazing before adding and it truly didn’t need it. The sesame oil overpowered those amazing flavors. I also skipped the noodles (only because I didn’t have them & they were not missed). My super picky preteen enjoyed this thereby making this dish a WINNER. Thanks Lindsay!
I must tell you, this is one of the best meals I have ever cooked in my entire life. I would eat this easily twice a week! I did coat my tofu with cornstarch salt and pepper before I sautéed it.
So glad to hear it, Tracy!
I absolutely loved this dish! I made the whole recipe of sauce but only ended up using about half of it and it was still super tasty. My local grocery store was out of rice noodles but udon noodles worked perfect! I got home and realized I was out of rice vinegar but used apple cider vinegar and it was delicious. I am vegan but my partner isn’t and he loved it too! 🙂
I know I’m late to this party but made this tonight and SO yummy! Added some julienned carrots and cukes. A bit messy as lettuce wraps so thinking next time a deconstructed salad — bed of chopped lettuce with all that goodness on top. Thanks for all your fun recipes!!
I love the sauce, but substitute monkfruit sweetener for the sugar and use the sauce in stir fry. I don’t bother with trying to blend in all the sauce ingredients together, I just add them all at the end to the stir fry and find they all blend together quite well with the heat of the stir fry softening the peanut butter
Looking delicious! I love the texture! Great recipe, thanks!