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These Taco Lettuce Wraps are made with taco seasoned Smoked Ground Beef and topped with a creamy avocado cream sauce. This easy recipe is a great way to lighten things up and change up your taco night. It’s also gluten free, grain free, and can easily be made dairy free.
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It’s taco lettuce wrap time! Sometimes you’ve just gotta change up your taco game.
Lettuce wraps are a wonderful recipe if you’re looking for something quick and easy, and also something fresh and healthy for your family that nobody is going to scoff at. It’s certainly a great one if you’re practicing a low carb or gluten free diet, or just need a break from starchier breads or fillers.
Ingredients for Taco Lettuce Wraps
- Ground Beef
- Taco Seasoning: You can make your own, or make your life easier by buying an organic taco seasoning mix. Believe me, it’s jam packed with flavor and makes that meat taste delicious.
- Butter Lettuce: You want something sturdy, and with large leaves, that can hold all your filings. Romaine is a decent alternative.
- Avocado Cream Sauce: This sounds fancy, but it’s really just some avocado, plain Greek yogurt (or sour cream), cilantro, lime, and salt.
- Toppings: Shredded cheese, grape or cherry tomatoes, cilantro, red bell peppers, black beans, more avocado (because there’s no such thing as too much avocado), and whatever else your taco-loving heart desires, like my mom’s famous Easy Blender Salsa Recipe.
When I’m cooking with ground beef I’m always seeking for the best quality I can find, ideally 80/20 ground or 85/15 for the lean to fat ratio. This provides great flavor.
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How to Make Taco Lettuce Wraps
The theme for these lettuce wraps is taco night. So we’re taking the typical flavors of ground beef tacos and smoking our meat (it’s much easier then it sounds), then while the meat is smoking you can prep the rest of your fillings. By the time the meat is cooked, you’re ready for taco night.
- Season the Meat: season the ground beef with taco seasoning (in this case we’re keeping it easy with a package of O Organics Taco Seasoning). Simply mix the seasoning into the ground beef, then lay out the meat on a sheet pan.
- Smoke the Ground Beef: place the sheet pan on and smoke it at 250 degrees for 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the beef reaches 160 – 165 degrees (F).
- Prep Fillings: while the meat is cooking slice up your toppings and make your avocado cream sauce (it’s as easy as mixing a few delicious ingredients together).
- Assemble Lettuce Wraps: in my family we lay everything out in different bowls and let everyone make their own. A nice squeeze of fresh lime over the top is a nice touch!
I could eat these for days!
Related Recipes
- Grilled Steak Lettuce Wraps
- Pulled Pork Lettuce Wraps
- Grilled Romaine Lettuce Caesar Salad
- Black Bean Salad
- Easy Blender Salsa (a great topping for these lettuce wraps)
Taco Lettuce Wraps Recipe with Ground Beef
Ingredients
- 1 pound ground beef, (We used O Organics 85/15 Grass Fed Beef)
- 1 package taco seasoning
For Taco Lettuce Wraps
- 1 package butter lettuce, rinsed and dried
- 1 whole lime, sliced
- 1 whole avocado, sliced
- ½ cup grape tomatoes, (cherry tomatoes work well also)
- ½ cup Mexican blend cheese
- ½ cup canned black beans, rinsed and drained (optional)
- ½ cup thinly sliced red bell pepper
- 1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro
Avocado Crema
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- ½ whole ripe avocado
- ½ lime, juiced
- 1 tablespoon cilantro
- 1 clove garlic
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Instructions
- To Smoke the Beef: Preheat the smoker to 250 degrees Fahrenheit (F) using oak or hickory wood. In a bowl, mix ground beef with the taco seasoning with hands in the bowl. Place on a sheet tray and place in the pre-heated smoker for up to 30 minutes, or until the internal temperature of the beef reads between 160 and 165 degrees F.
- For the Avocado Crema Sauce: While the beef is smoking, prepare the avocado sauce. Place all Avocado crema ingredients in a food processor, and pulse until smooth. Place in a serving dish. This is also a good time to slice and prepare the remainder of ingredients.
- Assemble the Taco Lettuce Wraps: When beef is ready, use hands to continue to shred the beef into smaller pieces. Construct tacos by adding beef into the lettuce wrap, and then layer small amounts of your desired toppings. Top at the end with a dollop of avocado crema.
Notes
- If the crema is too thick, then add small amounts of lime juice or hot water water to thin it out. Another alternative is apple cider vinegar. If it’s too thin, add more of the yogurt.
- Be sure the avocados are ripe and soft. If they are not, place in a brown paper bag overnight prior to making. Otherwise the crema will be chunky.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
