Our Asian-inspired Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps are anything but boring diet food. Thinly sliced smoky ham, shredded carrots, cucumbers & an array of favorite veggies makes this no-cook wrap lunch-worthy. Hold this cold wrap in your hands and eat it like a bonafide sandwich wrap without all the bread and extra calories and carbs—no utensils required! Enjoy the fresh, crispy, crunch of the garden combined with the smoky hit of shaved ham bathed in savory ginger peanut sauce. You can almost taste Thailand!

Is There a Bariatric Friendly Lunch Wrap?

easy thai lettuce wraps on white table — Two beautiful portions of Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps with Creamy Ginger Peanut Sauce can be made a day ahead for quick convenience.

This post should have been titled more towards—how do you make a lunch wrap bariatric diet friendly? Because after weight loss surgery, many bariatric teams recommend limiting or cutting out all breads, wraps, and tortillas, it sometimes feel like food options are limited. They want you to cut these out because your new pouch or sleeve has a limited size and they want you to fill it up with protein and low glycemic veggies and healthy fats—rather than high calorie, high carbohydrate, highly processed breads and fillers.

Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps — A Brilliant Diet Addition

Your bariatric forever diet (Bariatric Stage 4 Diet) will never be the same! Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps bring convenience back to lunch. Following weight loss surgery, many fear they will never be able to have sandwiches, wraps, burritos, or tacos again. And, they miss the behavior of HOW to eat the food almost as much as the food itself. Ugghhh! Who wants to eat with a fork and knife or spoon, 24/7/365? Boo! How boring, right?! Plus, you can make them ahead!

How Do You Make a Lettuce Wrap?

tiled lettuce on parchment — Iceberg lettuce leaves offer a crunchy and healthy alternative to calorie and carb dense tortillas and wraps.

But, cue the humble lettuce wrap, please! By using a piece of parchment or waxed paper, you can top it with your favorite leafy lettuce—or any large leafy green, like collard greens, Lancinato kale, or Swiss chard. Simply “tile” the leaves to form a burrito size area, overlapping a little with each new tile. Then let your imagination take over and top the leaves with fillings. We were inspired by all the crispy veggies and sweet herbs you get in Thai salads. But literally, combine any veggie with any protein—the variations are endless!

eacy thai lettuce wrap parchment paper wrapped — Wrap the lettuce wrap in a sheet of parchment and fold it like a burrito to hold the wrap tightly together. Secure with a toothpick!

Once you’ve assembled the filling, squeeze a wedge of lime over everything for a burst of brightness. Then, fold the lettuce leaves up over the filling, on either end, like a burrito. Next, roll it up into a log. Wrap the log in the parchment or wax paper and secure with a toothpick on either side of the middle. (Psst, wrap the paper like a burrito, too!)

thai lettuce wraps parchment — Cut the bariatric friendly, healthy, Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps into two sections. The toothpicks hold the lettuce and parchment paper securely in place allowing you to pick this wrap up with your hands!

The only thing left to do is to cut the lettuce wrap in half using a sharp knife. Once cut in two, you get two half lettuce wraps secured with a toothpick in each side! Our wrap was so large it made two meals for Fluffy’s lunch. (True story, she said the second wrap tasted just as fresh as the first and it was a day old! What convenience! Cook once, eat twice!)

It’s All About the Quick Ginger Peanut Sauce!

thai lettuce wrap julienned veggies — Don’t forget the lime! Squeeze a wedge of lime over the vegetables before assembling your Easy Thai Lettuce Wrap. Use your favorites!

Remember the Cheater Sesame Ginger Dressing Fluffy made the other day? Use that dressing to make a quick peanut sauce using a tablespoon of peanut butter (or 2 tablespoons of low fat peanut butter powder), a splash of fish sauce, and a spoon of garlicky sambal oelek. Stir it together and divide into two portions. Oh, and if the peanut butter wants to clump, pop it in the microwave for 10-15 seconds and stir. It should become creamy and smooth. Now you’re ready to eat!

Protein Variations for Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps?

Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps With Ginger Peanut Sauce work with many different proteins! Any lunch meat would work. But, if you prefer, use leftover roasts, chicken, turkey, pork, fish, shrimp, hummus, refried beans, even hard boiled eggs, tuna salad, or cottage cheese with spices will work! It’s a versatile protein delivery system!

Is There a Short Cut For The Peanut Sauce?

closeup easy thai lettuce wraps ginger peanut sauce — Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps make lunchtime fun again. Pick it up like any other wrap!

What if you don’t want to make the Cheater Sesame Ginger Dressing? No worries! Just use your preferred low-to-zero calorie sesame ginger or Asian dressing for the peanut sauce. They all taste great! Look for reduced or zero calorie dressings with the least amount of sugar, and the healthiest versions of oil. Try to avoid dressings containing soybean oil since most of that is highly processed and contains deadly trans fats. Most prepared dressings contain soybean oil.

Hurray for Walden Farms Vinaigrette Dressings

bottle cheater sesame ginger dressing and part of recipe ingredients — Save those old Walden Farms bottles to reuse for your favorite homemade dressings and marinades. It’s a super time saver!

We depend on quite a few of the Walden Farms Vinaigrette Dressings, especially the sesame flavored versions! Walden Farms Sesame Ginger Dressing or their Asian Dressing works perfectly in the quick Ginger Peanut Sauce. We love the Walden Farm Asian dressings for their convenience and that they are zero calorie, made from pretty innocuous ingredients, no crummy oils, and contribute a layer of sesame ginger flavor to recipes.

Bonus! Using zero calorie dressing helps us hit our daily calorie and macro goals! They give us the freedom to choose our sources of healthy fats like nuts, seeds, nut butters, and avocado and how many calories we consume from fat!
BARI HEALTHY LIFE

Low-No Cook Variation of Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps?

We hear you. You just don’t want to spend the fifteen minutes chopping all these veggies! Use as many or as few as you prefer. And, if you don’t want to chop, you can buy a lot of veggies either already julienne, or zoodles and those would work in the filling. Don’t forget the fresh herbs! The combination of mint, basil, and cilantro really adds to the Thai flavor profile. Then, all you have to do is assemble the wrap and stir the peanut sauce together for an almost completely no-cook variation! Now, that’s our kind of cooking!

What Happens If You Can’t Eat Peanuts?

You can still enjoy Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps With Ginger Peanut Sauce if you’re allergic to peanuts! Although the recipe for the sauce uses creamy peanut butter (or crunchy if you prefer), you can make an easy substitution. If you’re allergic to peanuts, but you can have other nuts/legumes or seeds, a few options would be: tahini (sesame paste), cashew butter, almond butter, and sunflower seed butter. Any of these could be substituted for the peanut butter or low fat peanut flour with a direct 1:1 substitution.

Did You Know You Can Order These To Go?

Fast food can be healthy and convenient! Many little Thai and Vietnamese Sandwich and Banh Mi shops will make lettuce wraps for you as a substitute for high carb wraps, tortillas, and bread. Just ask them to make a lettuce wrap for you in place of bread.

Jimmy John’s Unwich Slim #1 makes a lettuce wrapped ham and cheese version you can use in this recipe for under 200 calories. Simply omit the cheese and hold the condiments! Ask them to add your favorite veggies or extra ham into the wrap. Jimmy John’s uses leaf lettuce to replace the bread in their sandwiches. It’s a perfect amount of protein with veggies. This is hands down, our personal favorite fast food lettuce wrap alternative. We feel like we’re indulging, but we’re actually staying 100% on Fluffy’s BFD (Bariatric Forever Diet).

Make the Easy Thai Lettuce Wraps into a Bowl!

Firehouse Subs, Subway, and Jersey Mike’s don’t build lettuce wraps, but you can make any of their sandwiches into a salad bowl and then add the Ginger Peanut Sauce as your salad dressing. Omit the cheese on your sub salads since it doesn’t really work with the creamy peanut sauce, plus it will save calories and fat for other protein sources.

And of course, always remember how easy it is to make a complex salad from the salad bar at the grocery store. Don’t forget to keep mushy veggies away from the leaf lettuce to prevent sogginess. Pick grape tomatoes over sliced to keep the goo factor to a minimum. And, for God’s sake, sequester the avocado! To keep avocado from browning, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap when you get home.

asian power slaw kit chopped veggies — Slaw kits offer chopped convenience for wraps and salads. Be sure to toss out the dressing that comes in the kit. They’re usually packed with sugar, calories, carbs, and unhealthy fats!

You can easily grab one of the Asian Salad Kits in a bag from the produce section and add sliced purple or green onion to it. Toss out the unhealthy dressing and replace it with the Quick Ginger Peanut Sauce below! Add the sliced almonds for extra crunch power.

Is An Easy Thai Lettuce Wrap With Ginger Sauce Suitable for Early Stages of the Bariatric Diet?

Sadly, short of pureeing or juicing the ingredients, this meal is not suitable for any other stage of a post-surgical bariatric diet progression lower than the Bariatric Forever Diet (BFD or Bariatric Stage 4 Diet). This is the most advanced stage and consists of foods you will eat for the rest of your life. Please make sure your team has cleared you for salads, raw vegetables, and veggies with peel before trying it. Never advance your diet without your bariatric team’s blessing.