Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wraps with Ginger Lime Dressing
Living in a multi-cultural city amongst generations of immigrants from all over the world means there is no shortage of global cuisine within easy reach. Walk a mile out my front door and you can be sitting down to a meal from Nepal, El Salvador, Cambodia, Nicaragua, Japan, or Sardinia. And while I enjoy dipping my fork into all of these cuisines, nothing has gotten under my skin like the food of Vietnam. Whenever the call for “take-out” rings through the hallways of our house, Vietnamese is almost always my order of choice. The lightness and fresh, bright nuances are hard to resist. These Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wraps, though hardly authentic, are inspired by those flavors.
These lettuce wraps bring together what I love about Vietnamese cooking, done for the home kitchen. You start by making a ginger and lime marinade that does double duty. You use half to marinate the pork. The rest is set aside to drizzle over the finished wraps. The tenderloin, a particularly lean cut, cooks up quickly and very tender. Chicken or flank steak would work equally well here.
How to Serve these Lettuce Wraps
Once cooked and sliced, set out the pork along with all of your other “fixings” (cucumber spears, shredded carrots, mung bean sprouts, peanuts, and fresh cilantro). Everything gets piled onto generous lettuce leaves and eaten taco-style. Since pork tenderloin is very lean and all the remaining fixings are on the light side, you may want to add a dish of sticky rice or your favorite Asian-style noodles to the menu. The rice and noodles can be enjoyed on the side or tucked into the wraps as well. 
You also may want to make more of everything than you need and turn it into a delicious chopped salad for your (or the kids) lunch the next day. It’s just the sort of DIY dinner that kids love with all the Vietnamese flavors adults (at least this one) are crazy about.
If you like Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wraps, check out:
Hanoi Chicken Banh Mi
Crunchy Asian-Style Salad with Chicken or Tofu Skewers
Asian Noodles with Not-So-Spicy Peanut Sauce
Miso and Ginger-Glazed Salmon
Chicken, Tofu, and Shitake Lettuce Cups from Viet World Kitchen
Pork Tenderloin Lettuce Wrap with Ginger Lime Dressing
These lettuce wraps bring together what I love about Vietnamese flavors, done for the home kitchen. You start by making a gingery marinade for the pork that doubles as a dressing for the salad. The tenderloin, a particularly lean cut, cooks up quickly and very tender. Chicken or flank steak would work equally well here.
Ingredients
Marinade/Dressing
- 1/2 cup lime juice (4 to 5 limes)
- 1/2 cup seasoned rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon neutral flavored oil, such as canola or avocado
- 1/2 to 1 teaspoon Sriracha sauce or other favorite hot sauce (adjust based on how spicy you want it)
- 1 large clove garlic, grated on a microplane or minced
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger
Pork and Wrap Fixings
- 1 pound pork tenderloin
- 1 tablespoon canola or other neutral oil
- 1 1/2 cups mung bean sprouts
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1/2 English cucumber, cut into 1/4-inch-thick spears
- 1/4 cup roasted, salted peanuts
- 1/3 bunch fresh cilantro (chopped or in sprigs)
- Leaves from 1 large head butter lettuce or 1 head Romaine lettuce
Instructions
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In a small bowl, whisk together the Marinade/Dressing ingredients (lime juice, rice vinegar, fish sauce, honey, oil, srirach, garlic, and ginger. Put the pork tenderloin in a medium bowl and pour half the marinade over it. Marinate for 1 hour, turning hte pork in the marinade from time to time. Note: You can marinate the pork in the fridge for up to 8 hours. Reserve the remaining Marinade /Dressing for serving.
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Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large, heavy skillet (I use cast iron) over medium-high. Remove the pork from the marinade, allowing the juices to drip off. Lay the pork in the skillet and cook until it's deeply browned on all sides and the center of the meat is pale pink and registers 145 degrees on an instant read thermometer, about 20 to 25 minutes.
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Remove the pork from from the pan and rest for 10 minutes. The internal temperature of the pork will rise as it sits.
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While the meat cooks, arrange the bean sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, peanuts, cilantro, and lettuce on a serving platter.
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Cut the meat in half lengthwise and then crosswise into thin slices. Set out the pork with the rest of the wrap fixings, with the remaining dressing on the side.
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To assemble, layer the pork, sprouts, carrots, cucumbers, peanuts, and cilantro on the lettuce leaves. Spoon a little dressing over the top.
Comments
10.16.2013 at2:01 PM #
cristin biundo
HI Katie, I follow your website religiously and I’m always trying your new recipes for my husband and kids. I’m hoping you can help me. I have a very close girl friend who is recovering from Ovarian Cancer stage 3. She just had full hysterectomy and starts chemotherapy in 2 weeks. Doctor is very confident, he got ALL the cancer and she will be cancer free once she gets the chemo. She is the healthiest person I know. She doesn’t eat wheat, dairy and red meat and hasn’t for at least 10 years. She stopped all refined sugars 5 years ago and only eats natural sugar(fruit only). Luckily, her eating and exercising is the reason why she is here today. Doctor needs her to gain weight which is a difficult because her stomach has shrunk from being in hospital for 2 weeks during recovery. Now when she eats, she struggles with not being able to eat very much because she gets full too quick and physically gets ill. Do you have any healthy fat recipes that I could take to her for lunch, dinner or even dessert? I know this is a difficult task, but ANY ideas would be much appreciated. Thanks for your time and having such a great website, Cristin
10.16.2013 at2:01 PM #
Katie Morford
Hi Cristin
What a story. I think hand made food is one of the best gifts you can give and your friend is lucky to have you being so thoughtful about her health.
First off, you might ask her what kinds of foods are appealing to her these days. What is appetizing? Cancer treatment can affect taste buds, and certainly appetite. What may work best for her is 6 small, calorically dense meals spaced throughout the day rather than trying to eat three traditional meals.
Off the top of my head, I think the Coconut Curry Soup might be a good recipe to bring because it’s portable. Be sure to use full fat coconut milk (not “light”). The soup is very nourishing and comforting. Here is the link: http://www.momskitchenhandbook.com/dinner/a-soup-for-lentil-red-lentil-coconut-curry-soup/
Quinoa Tabouleh might be a good lunch or dinner option that will keep for several days. You could boost the amount of olive oil in the recipe and add in toasted walnuts or other nuts for more protein and healthy fat.
http://www.momskitchenhandbook.com/uncategorized/you-never-do-know-colorful-quinoa-tabouleh/
You could make her a trail mix to snack on in order to boost between-meal calories with her favorite nuts, seeds, dried fruits, and dark chocolate.
You could make any of my “tex mex” or Mexican recipes and accompany it with guacamole, which is a high-calorie and healthy fat.
If you are interested, this is a very well-regarded cookbook that might be useful for your friend in her recovery:
http://rebeccakatz.com/books/the-cancer-fighting-kitchen/
Best to luck to you in this endeavor and improved health for your friend.
Katie
10.17.2013 at3:30 PM #
Aida Mollenkamp
Katie – I agree with you about Vietnamese food — the flavors are so fresh and fabulous.
04.26.2014 at9:55 AM #
Latanya
Howdy just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The words in your content seem
to be running off the screen in Chrome. I’m not sure if this is a formatting issue
or something to do with web browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let
you know. The design look great though! Hope you get the problem
resolved soon. Kudos
05.01.2017 at8:01 PM #
Kristen O'Loughlin Daniel
This was so easy and extremely well-received by the family.
05.01.2017 at8:01 PM #
Katie Morford
Oh good. I haven’t made that one in a while, but now I think I need to!
03.02.2018 at3:21 PM #
Mary Giles
Katie, we had friends over last night and made the lettuce wraps. It was a huge hit with both the kids and parents! I added shredded coconut to the wrap fixins and served up a couple side dishes: brown rice with lentils and edamame; roasted cauliflower; and garlic string beans. So nutritious, plant-rich, and yummy! Thanks for this weeknight rescue!
03.02.2018 at3:21 PM #
Katie Morford
Hi Mary,
I love getting comments like yours. So glad to be a little part of a successful gathering. All those sides sound perfect.
x
Katie
03.12.2023 at2:51 PM #
Nicholas Robert Parkes
I added rice noodles into the wraps too. Actually wrapping the filling with such a frail wrap material for the most part fell apart, but it was tasty! Next time I would add more honey. Fabulous meal for the whole family.
Needed no side dishes.