Steak Lettuce Wraps
With just 6 ingredients and 20 minutes, these Steak Lettuce Wraps with blue cheese come together for a simple low carb dinner. It’s a steak salad you can pick up and eat!
If there’s one thing I despise when the weather warms up, it’s using the oven and turning the house into a sauna. My country style pork ribs recipe is really best for cooler fall days.
Heck, even using the stove heats up the house sometimes! Dr. Pepper baked beans are great on cooler days, but not on the hot ones!
At least the slow cooker doesn’t heat up the house, so I can still make crockpot baby back ribs.
Other than that, it’s really best to do most of the cooking outdoors (or just eat cold salads like seafood pasta salad for dinner), and probably even eat at the table outside, as well. Who’s with me?
We do hearty salads like turkey burger salads for dinner quite often around here. Adding a protein like mini burger patties or steak always makes a salad more satisfying.
While I could easily chop the lettuce up and serve this recipe as a fork-able salad, I decided to save myself a step and just serve it as steak lettuce wraps.
One less thing to do, which is always nice on a hot summer evening.
The ingredients for steak lettuce wraps are easy to find at your local store:
- steak – I used 2 New York strip steaks for this recipe, but I discuss more options below.
- lettuce – you’ll want nice big lettuce leaves for beef wrapped in lettuce. More on this below, too!
- onion – I love a little bit of thinly sliced red onion in these wraps. White onion or even pickled onions are also great options.
- blue cheese – crumbled blue cheese is an amazing pairing with steak (and so good sprinkled on top of healthy buffalo chicken dip). Feta cheese works too!
- tomatoes – I included a few quartered grape tomatoes to add acid and juiciness to these steak lettuce wraps. You could even make blistered tomatoes for an extra special touch.
- jalapeño pepper – These are optional for these beef lettuce wraps, but the spiciness balances the richness of the meat nicely. Homemade pickled jalapenos (see my post about how to pickle jalapenos) would be great here, too.
How to choose the meat for these beef lettuce wraps:
As mentioned above, I used New York strip steaks this time around, but you can actually use any cut of steak that you like best.
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When not using strip steaks, I’ll usually choose flank steak or skirt steak for steak lettuce wraps, because they have so much meaty flavor. You can also use grilling flat iron steak.
Because I bought the best quality steaks I could find (USDA Prime) for these beef lettuce wraps, I didn’t want to compromise the flavor of the meat by using a marinade or extra spices. Just some salt and pepper will do when you have great steaks!
If you don’t agree, feel free to rub on some of my dry rub for ribs (that works with just about any meat, really) or use my steak marinade sauce.
What if I want to add a sauce to this recipe for beef lettuce wraps?
Between the juiciness of the steak and tomatoes and the creaminess of the cheese, I didn’t feel that these steak lettuce wraps needed a sauce or a dressing.
However, if you like your beef wrapped in lettuce to be a little saucier, you could drizzle them with balsamic glaze (make extra for asparagus roasted or a green beans side dish!) or even ranch dressing.
What greens to use for beef wrapped in lettuce?
While many steak lettuce wrap recipes call for iceberg lettuce, I prefer butter, Boston or bibb lettuce. These three varieties are very similar and interchangeable (they’re all part of the butterhead lettuce family).
They’re softer and easier to roll and wrap than iceberg, and I feel that they have more flavor as well. The heads of lettuce of these varieties are also loosely packed, so the leaves are easy to pull off and wash for this recipe for beef lettuce wraps.
What to serve with steak lettuce wraps:
Coleslaw recipe apple cider vinegar is a great side dish option for this beef wrapped in lettuce that you can make without turning on the stove or oven.
You’ll need to use the stove to boil noodles for acini de pepe salad and goat cheese pasta salad, but it’s worth it for these side dishes that can be served cold alongside your beef lettuce wraps.
And if you’d like to grill your side dish right alongside your steak, try my pesto corn or zucchini grilled.
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Steak Lettuce Wraps
Ingredients
- 2 New York strip steaks about 12 ounces each
- Vegetable oil
- Kosher salt and ground black pepper
- 2 heads butter lettuce leaves separated
- ½ small red onion thinly sliced
- 4 ounces blue cheese crumbled
- 1 cup grape tomatoes quartered
- 1 jalapeño pepper thinly sliced (optional) or pickled jalapenos
Instructions
- Prepare outdoor grill for direct grilling over medium-high heat. Brush both sides of steaks with oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Transfer steaks to grill and cook 4 minutes or until golden brown. Flip steaks and cook 5 to 7 minutes longer or until internal temperature of steaks reaches 130 degrees F for medium-rare doneness.
- Transfer steaks to cutting board and loosely tent with foil. Let rest 5 minutes, then thinly slice.
- Divide steak between lettuce leaves. Top with onion, cheese, tomatoes and jalapeño, if using. Serve immediately.
These steak lettuce wraps were a game changer for me … I always just put steak strips on salad to help jazz it up. But this takes away the need for silverware. You create salad boats for steak devouring. Well done!
This is a great idea, Lori. I would probably do it as a salad (because I don’t think I could get my husband to eat lettuce wraps), and forget the red onion. Hope you are doing well.
Thanks so much, Susan. We’re all doing great here. Hope you’re well, too.