Roasted Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps with Korean BBQ-Inspired Sauce! Roasted cauliflower tossed in a sweet and sticky sauce, all topped with chives, peanuts, and spicy mayo.
Roasted Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps with Korean BBQ-Inspired Sauce
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This is a staple rotation for us. My daughter will eat these 24/7. She is 9 and loves them! Thank you for all your yummy recipes!
Tracey
Whoa-ho-ho-ho. Just hold it right there.
I have a new conviction to share with you today, which is that tender butter lettuce was specifically put on this earth for the sole purpose of being stuffed with roasted cauliflower, generously tossed in a sweet and sticky Korean BBQ- inspired sauce, topped with chives and peanuts and spicy mayo, and finding its way straight to your mouth.
If these cauliflower lettuce wraps do not make their way into your hungry little hands this week, can you even say that you’re living? Just please reflect on that right now.
Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps – Here We Go!
Okay. Things are very easy here! My favorite kind of recipe.
First: we roast some cauliflower.
Then, we toss the cauliflower in a sauce that we made.
And finally, we tuck it into lettuce, go wild with toppings, and FEAST!
OMG THESE ARE SO GOOD.
We had these at our dinner club last month (Korean-fusion theme) and oh baby, they were so good between bites of Korean mandu dumplings and sips of summery watermelon mojitos.
I don’t mind them as a cauli stand-alone because I load them up with peanuts and spicy mayo and it all just reeeally works for me.
But I’ve also made them with ground turkey, chicken, and tofu mixed into the cauliflower situation for a more substantial meal. And that works, too.
Bottom line: HURRY UP AND MAKE THESE. Like, wow. Yum. New favorite.
Check Out Our Video For How To Make Roasted Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps:
Watch How to Make This Recipe On Stories!
Source notes: This recipe came about from making a quick appetizer for a Korean-inspired / themed dinner club with my friends. Roasted cauliflower in a lettuce wrap with spicy mayo is certainly not an authentic Korean BBQ recipe, but I used this yummy Korean BBQ sauce on the cauliflower on a whim and fell in love. The company is owned by two Korean American women, Ann and Janet Chung, and this sauce is their “family recipe” and I would highly recommend it. So yummy. Plus, their website has lots of fun recipes for ways to use the sauce in all kinds of creative fusion-style recipes. For the final version of this recipe, I made a from-scratch version inspired by the flavors and texture of their Korean BBQ sauce, but honestly, not a bad idea to just stock up on the pre-made stuff because it’s very delicious. For a more in-depth outline on the history, methods, and all-around experience of authentic Korean BBQ, check out this post from Serious Eats. 😍
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Roasted Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps with Korean BBQ-Inspired Sauce
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 servings 1x
Description
Roasted Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps with Korean BBQ-Inspired Sauce! Crispy roasted cauliflower tossed in a sweet and sticky Korean BBQ sauce, all topped with chives, peanuts, and spicy mayo. YUM.
Ingredients
Units
Scale
Cauliflower Lettuce Wraps:
- 6–8 cups small cauliflower florets (1 large or 2 small heads)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- butter lettuce cups (6-8 large leaves)
- 1/4 cup crushed peanuts
- 2 tablespoons minced chives
- spicy mayo (1/4 cup mayo with a 1 teaspoon of sriracha)
Sauce:
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 clove garlic
- 1-inch knob fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sambal oelek (or a spicy chile paste, or sriracha – use less for a milder sauce)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Roast the cauliflower: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Toss the cauliflower with a drizzle of oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for 30 minutes.
- Make the sauce: Blend everything in a food processor or blender until smooth. Simmer in a saucepan over low heat until it thickens slightly.
- Cauli meets sauce: Pour sauce directly onto the roasting pan – just enough to get the cauliflower nice and saucy. Toss gently to combine.
- Make it pretty: Arrange the sauced up cauliflower in lettuce cups. Top with extra sauce, crushed peanuts, chives, and a drizzle of spicy mayo. Mwah!
Notes
Spicy mayo: mix about 1/4 cup mayo with a squirt of sriracha! Thin it out as necessary, and adjust to taste. That’s it.
For the sauce: you can also just mince and whisk everything by hand, but I find it easier to use the food processor!
This is great with additional protein if you want to make it more substantial. I like it with ground chicken, turkey, or tofu.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Korean-Inspired
Keywords: korean bbq cauliflower lettuce wraps, cauliflower lettuce wraps, lettuce wraps
One More Thing!
This recipe is part of our easy summer dinners page. Check it out!
Filed Under: All Recipes Cauliflower Dairy-Free Dinner Gluten-Free Healthy Main Dishes Quick and Easy Recipes Summer Vegan Vegetarian
June 18, 2019
Nice to meet you!
I’m Lindsay and I ♡ FOOD. I used to be a teacher, and now making food and writing about it online is my full-time job. I love talking with people about food, and I'm so glad you're here.
Did you make a recipe? Tag @pinchofyum on Instagram so we can find you!
Oh!Thanks for this wonderful recipe. It’s really a good recipe for Cauliflower lovers. Thanks.
Can you provide the nutrition information for this? I don’t see it on the page.
Just added the nutrition label!
They make an appetizer at California Pizza Kitchen that sounds just like this; it is absolutely delicious! Can’t wait to try it!
Hope you enjoy it, Marsha!
DANG these look amazing!! Cauliflower is always a win 🙂
Never thought of this one before. 🙂
Cauliflower is my absolute favourite.. This is an amazing recipe.. Love it!!
This sounds like just what I need for a spicy summer meal! I can totally see it with chickpeas added to the roasting pan for protein.
Yum! Great idea!
How would suggest adding ground chicken or tofu to the recipe? Just cook it plain and mix with the sauce? This looks so good!
Yep, exactly!
Lovely taste. Makes an unnecessarily large amount of sauce to vegetables ratio.
I made this tonight and it was delicious and so easy to make, my boyfriend loved it! Sadly I couldn’t find the butter lettuce cups and substituted with romaine lettuce.
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
Any recommendations for a good peanut substitute? My hubs is allergic, but these look amazing otherwise!
We substitute pine nuts for peanuts due to allergies at our home.
I like roasted cashews as a peanut substitute.
These wraps look so yummy!
https://alexagmarsh.blogspot.com
Lindsay, this recipe looks fantastic!
I am thinking about adding a protein (ground turkey) to this and I would love to meal prep the dish. Would you recommend keeping the sauce separate, then tossing the roasted cauliflower and turkey with the sauce daily?
Thanks!
You definitely could!
Thank you for this wonderful recipe, Lindsay! I made this a few days ago for guests, and it was a hit! An addicting appetizer that everyone kept going back to for more. Would highly recommend! What about me, I’m not a fan of cauliflower, but I did like this BBQ sauce so much! Making it again the nearest week for guests. 🙂
Glad to hear it, Annette!
Made this tonight (added ground turkey) and it was FANTASTIC! We have always made copy-cat PF Chang Lettuce Wraps, but we are now making these our go-to. Loved the cauliflower coated in the sauce, and the spicy mayo really made it creamy and added the perfect amount of spice. Love your website and it’s another homerun recipe!
Awesome, Kristen! Glad to hear it.
Um, I ate a whole head of cauliflower myself. Whoops. Delicious.
Ha! Glad you enjoyed it. 🙂
Do you think a tablespoon of gochujang would be too much to replace the sambal oelek? Or is it a spicy chili to taste sort of situation?
I believe gochujang is not quite as spicy as sambal, so it should work just fine! You can always start with just a bit and taste it before adding more.
Cauliflower can make me pretty gassy – not the cutest look, haha. Do you think broccoli would still work, which strangely, does not make me as gassy?
Broccoli should work! Otherwise you could opt for a protein – ground turkey or some tofu.
Soy sauce flavor way too strong, and nowhere near enough sauce, so I added 5 cloves of garlic, 3 inches of ginger, 1/2 cup brown sugar, two green onions, more samba oelek, and then the final–and best ingredient of all–maple syrup. Now THAT’s a Korean sauce! Thanks for the foundation!
This recipe sounds and looks delicious. I especially like the addition of the crushed peanuts – I bet the wraps taste amazing.
HI! Love your recipes! I made this one tonight and the taste was good, but we couldn’t finish it because the sodium was so extremely strong. Is it just me and my hubby? Any advice? I used low sodium soy sauce and followed the recipe to a “t”.
I was just talking about wrapping tuna and food in Cabbage leaves because it helps the body lose weight and rely less on eating bread.
OMG, so good. I made these into rice bowls by adding some roasted veggies since I have yet to master the lettuce wrap. Delicious!
Awesome!
Do you think you could use frozen cauliflower?
We wouldn’t recommend it since it won’t get as crispy!
Thank you Jenna
Made a few subs for what I had on hand (sunflower seeds for peanuts and different lettuce), but these were delish! And used the leftover sauce with some veggie ground round and broccoli over udon noodles – gotta love 2 meals with the work of one 🙂
Awesome! Glad to hear it!