HEALTHY Curried Beef & Chickpea Lettuce Boats

SO quick, easy, and DELICIOUS! These curried chickpea and ground beef (or turkey or chicken or whatever meat ya like) lettuce boats are filling and healthy too! These are even RESTART-friendly!

Mmm... who knew lettuce boats could be so satisfying?

DISCLAIMER: I did not create this recipe. I don't usually create recipes. Ain't nobody got time for that! But I do gather and experiment with recipes I find online or get from friends. This particular one came from a HelloFresh box that my sweetheart gave me. For some reason I've had a real opinion about HelloFresh... it just seems like a waste of material and resources to ship these boxes of food all over the dang place when subscribers could instead be sent grocery shopping lists with images and the same carefully laid out recipes. 🔔🔔🔔There's a business idea for one of us! hehe

All that being said, I was honestly a bit contemptuous going into this recipe but was quickly put in my place. This recipe was not only dang delicious but took less than 30 minutes start to finish. AND it didn't heat the kitchen much which was a huge plus given the recent summer heat. May not be into the whole ingredient delivery service idea, but I'll definitely be peeping those HelloFresh recipe cards stacked at my honey's place. 😏

Curried Beef & Chickpea Lettuce Boats

This recipe is from HelloFresh. Below the recipe I'll note what I did differently and will do differently in the future :) Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 10oz ground beef (or other ground meat)

• 1 can chickpeas, including 1/2 the aquafaba

• 4oz shredded red cabbage

• 1 head of romaine lettuce, washed and trimmed with leaves separated

• 1 lemon, quartered

• 1 tsp sugar

• 1 tsp garlic powder

• 1 tbsp curry powder, separated into halves

• 1 packet (or 2 tsp) beef stock concentrate (or other flavor)

• 3 tbsp sour cream

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, combine cabbage with juice from 3 of the lemon wedges, sugar, 2 tbsp water, and a scrunch of salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Microwave for 1 minute then stir and set aside.

2. Heat a drizzle of oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add ground meat, garlic powder, HALF the curry powder, salt and pepper. Cook until lightly browned and partially cooked, ~3 minutes.

3. Stir in chickpeas, aquafaba, and stock concentrate. Cook until liquid is absorbed and meat is cooked, ~3-4 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

4. In a small bowl, combine sour cream, the rest of the curry powder, and juice from the last lemon wedge. Season with salt and pepper. Add water 1 tsp at a time until reaching a nice consistency for drizzling.

5. Divide lettuce leaves and fill with beef and chickpea mixture. Top with cabbage and drizzle sour cream mix. Serve immediately!

What I did (or will do) differently

I used everything that came with the kit, however here's what I did or will change:

• I'll use 16oz of ground meat. I think it's funny they send out 10oz. I'd love to try it with ground turkey next time!

• I don't own a microwave, so I wilted my cabbage slightly in a lid-secure pyrex container with juice of a whole lemon and a couple tsp of hot water. I skipped the sugar and shook it around a bit. It turned out great. I think a sauerkraut made with purple cabbage could be really delicious as well. Yay probiotics!

• I love tart, plain yogurt in place of sour cream for most recipes. For this I used whey from my yogurt instead of water in the sour cream mixture. Next time I'll use yogurt instead of sour cream. Another yay for probiotics!

• Next time I'll probably double the drizzle mixture... it was so delicious!