Romaine lettuce is wonderful for little lettuce wraps. It tends to cup in the middle, a bit like a taco shell. Just add your chosen filling and pull the sides up. The lettuce is crisp, sweet, and delicious when you put a tasty filling in the middle. Be careful not to overfill it. You want to experience the fresh taste of the lettuce.

Why would you want to make a lettuce wrap? It's fresh tasting, and lettuce is naturally gluten-free. If you are counting calories or carbs, Romaine lettuce makes a lot of sense. Breads and crackers can easily add 200 calories and 40 grams of carbohydrate to your sandwich meal. If you want to pull the bread out of the sandwich, consider using Romaine lettuce to hold your tasty fillings.

Romaine lettuce, in addition to its wonderful taste and taco-shell-like shape, is strong enough to stand up to being filled. It is a very good source of fiber. This lettuce is also bursting with vitamins and minerals. For 94 grams of Romaine lettuce, about 2 cups, you will only use 16 calories. But what powerful calories!

Romaine lettuce is considered an excellent source of Vitamin K, Vitamin A, folate, and molybdenum. It is seen as a very good source of manganese, potassium, biotin, Vitamin B1, copper, iron, and Vitamin C.

Romaine Lettuce Wrap Sandwich Ideas

To prepare the Romaine for wraps, pull off the outer leaves and discard them. Carefully wash the lettuce under running water. Pull the leaves off individually and dry them. I use paper towels to pat them dry. To save paper towels, I also invert them, so that the rib side is up, and let them drain. A half sheet pan works well for this. Make sure that they are completely dry before filling them. If you fill a wet Romaine lettuce leaf, it makes the filling soggy and the condiment runny.

*Take the bread out of a BLT and go for the fresh taste. Grab a Romaine leaf and hold it like a taco shell. Then, run a small amount of mayonnaise along the rib. Add grape or cherry tomatoes that have been cut in half. Place them, cut side down, on top of the mayo. For a more elegant presentation, use both yellow and red tomatoes in a pattern. If you don't have cherry or grape tomatoes, chop the tomatoes that you do have. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes stand in the refrigerator for ½ hour, or a bit longer, then drain the liquid off of them. Mix in mayonnaise, to taste, then spread them along the rib of the Romaine lettuce leaf. Either way that you chop tomatoes, top them with a strip of crispy bacon and crunch away!

*In the related links, below, I have included links to some of the salads that you can use to fill a Romaine lettuce leaf wrap. Many of the salads listed here also have recipes on the BellaOnline Sandwiches Site. After filling the leaf, you can top the salad in the lettuce leaf with chopped tomatoes or shredded lettuce. Alfalfa sprouts work, too. Use egg salad, chicken salad, turkey salad, tuna salad, salmon salad, shrimp salad, or ham salad. Black bean salad or tofu salad make wonderful vegan treats in a Romaine lettuce leaf. So do falafel crumbles with slivered onions, tomatoes, and cucumber dressing.

Here are more ideas for some Romaine lettuce wraps with an adventurous vibe!

*Goat cheese mixed with chopped olives and walnuts, then stuffed into a Romaine lettuce leaf.
* Artichoke and jalapeno dip with olives and scallions spooned into a Romaine lettuce leaf with alfalfa sprouts.
*Salad with chicken, celery, grapes, pumpkin seeds, mayo, fresh tarragon, chives, and balsamic vinegar on a Romaine lettuce leaf.
*Taco meat, shredded cheese, Pico de Gallo, and shredded lettuce layered into a Romaine lettuce leaf.
*Seaweed salad, chopped fine and mixed with tiny cooked shrimp and teriyaki sauce, then piled into a Romaine lettuce leaf.
*Sweet pineapple habanero sauce, muffaletta olive salad, mayo, poached chicken blended into a salad and packed into a Romaine lettuce leaf.
*Green egg salad made with hard-boiled egg, avocado, onions, celery, and pickles packed into a crispy Romaine leaf.

A final word about preparing the lettuce leaves for presentation. After you dry the leaves, cut the stem end into a point. You may easily do this by turning the leaf on its side, then use a sharp knife to cut the stem end at an angle to form a point. This makes the stem end match the shape of the leaf end. A pointed stem end looks so much better than a blunt stem end. If your time is short, or you just aren't that concerned about presentation, you can skip this. However, I like my Romaine lettuce wrap sandwiches to look cute.

Resources: https://www.whfoods.com/index.php World's Healthiest Foods Website

If you are interested in the science of healthy eating, I have included a link to a tremendous resource. The World's Healthiest Foods by George Mateljan is filled with useful nutritional information. Reviewers on Amazon overwhelmingly gave this book 4 or 5 stars (93%) and very few low ratings.

The World's Healthiest Foods


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