This healthy Mediterranean vegetable vegan lettuce wraps recipe is a perfect light meal or side dish that can be customised to individual tastes. Using just a few ingredients and a super simple recipe, you can have a super tasty, healthy meal!
These vegan lettuce wraps (or ‘lettuce boats’) are the perfect combination of healthy and comforting. Within a Mediterranean vegetable combination of aubergine (eggplant), cauliflower, potatoes and a variety of salad veggies – the filling is creamy, crispy and delicious. Plus, they’re dairy-free and gluten-free and are vegan.
You could also swap out the filling/ include additional vegetables. My personal favourites include courgette, red pepper (or a variety of bell peppers), and sometimes I’ll roast my tomatoes too. This makes for a beautiful combination of Mediterranean vegetables to pair with this Vegan Feta cheese.
However, for this recipe, I thought I would keep things nice and simple. Lettuce wraps are one of those meals that are so easy and cheap to pull together and can be as fancy or simple as you want them to be.
Plus, lettuce goes with so many foods. Some of my favourite lettuce wraps have been me spooning takeaway leftovers into lettuce and munching on it – noodles, dips, Lebanese mezze dishes – it’s like there’s nothing that can’t be elevated when wrapped in fresh, crispy lettuce.
Whether you want to create this as a side dish along with grains and protein or if you want to create a more substantial filling, to have these as your main meal – lettuce wraps are a dish I probably have at least 3-4 times per month.
For this specific Mediterranean Vegetable filling, I decided to take advantage of the vegetables I have on-hand. You may have noticed my recent post on making homemade perfectly crispy oven-baked fries – well I had a few extra potatoes one day and decided to add some fries to my lettuce wrap – yummy!
The combination of the crispy, filling potato fries in comparison with fresh leafy lettuce and salad is surprisingly delicious and an excellent pairing, especially alongside creamy baked aubergine and slightly crispy oven-baked cauliflower.
Without further ado, let’s get on with the method and recipe for how to create delicious vegan/ vegetarian lettuce wraps.
How to Make Lettuce Wraps
Lettuce wraps are only made up of a few steps, to get wonderful results every time.
Choose your lettuce type: Lettuce wraps can be made with a variety of different lettuce types depending on exactly what you want to do. Iceberg lettuce has the smaller, rounder leaves and works well for smaller, entirely ‘wrapped’ options (butterhead lettuce varieties also work well for this, usually). Meanwhile, Romaine lettuce (which I used) is longer and more boat-like in shape; perfect for piling up with fillings and not necessarily fully ‘wrapping’.
Once you’ve chosen your lettuce, then make sure that they’re rinsed and dried and individual leaves are pulled apart for your wraps/boats.
Prepare your hot fillings: As I said above, lettuce wraps are great for hosting a massive array of fillings. These vegan wraps include a variety of Mediterranean roasted vegetables. However, you can also add your choice of protein, if wanted or even grains like quinoa/couscous.
Prepare the cold fillings: While your baked veggies are in the oven, you can prepare the salad and dressing. I love to include my favourite salad ingredients to my salad wraps; these include cucumber, tomato, red onion, etc.
You can also have your choice of dressings – from creamy to vinaigrette style. For this specific recipe, I used one of my favourite simple dressings which is a combination of lemon juice, olive oil and black pepper.
How to Make the Mediterranean Vegetable Lettuce Wraps
The Ingredients
- eggplant/aubergine
- cauliflower
- potatoes
- olive oil, salt and oregano
For the salad:
- cucumber
- cherry tomatoes
- fresh mint leaves
- red onion (alternatively, you could use homegrown green onions )
- red chilli pepper
- Medium-sized romaine lettuce head
For the dressing:
- lemon
- olive oil
- salt and black pepper
Steps:
Begin by preparing the vegetables that need to be baked. I tend to pull apart the cauliflower into individual small florets and I thinly slice the aubergine. Then you can either dice your potato or prepare the potato as homemade crisp oven-baked fries.
Drizzle the vegetables with some oil and season with salt and oregano then place in single layers on a non-stick baking sheet (or sheets lined with parchment paper).
Bake the vegetables for about 25-30 mins at 170ºC (fan assisted). They will often brown a lot more around the edges once cooked. I like them this way for their fantastic flavour. However, if you prefer yours slightly less browned, then It’s best to check after 20 minutes to see how cooked the veggies are.
In the meantime, prepare the salad. Finely chop the tomatoes, onion, and cucumber as well as the mint leaves and chilli pepper. The romaine lettuce does not need to be cut but may require rinsing with cold water and dried thoroughly. Then separate into individual leaves.
Prepare the dressing by mixing the lemon juice and olive oil with the salt and pepper. This is one of my favourite simple salad dressings. Feel free to swap it out with your favourites, too.
Mix the chopped veggies in a large bowl. Add the dressing and stir well to combine.
Lay out the romaine lettuce leaves, then top them with a bit of the baked aubergine/eggplant, potatoes and cauliflower along with some of the salad and Enjoy!
Note* Due to the various elements of this dish being prepared and stored in different ways, this recipe can be prepped ahead of time. Just make sure that your salad is kept in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I prefer to cook the baked vegetables fresh so they’re warm from the oven but you could precook and re-heat certain veggies.
Other Healthy Vegan Recipes You May Like
If you’re in the mood for other delicious vegan salad inspiration then you may like this simple charred eggplant salad. You might also like this Greek Salad with Vegan Feta. For another interesting way to serve up a salad then how about these vegan popcorn falafel cups.
If you try these vegan Mediterranean vegetable salad wraps, let me know what you thought in the comments below. Also, feel free to tag me in any recreations @Alphafoodie.
Mediterranean Grilled Veggie Boats
Ingredients
For grilling:
- 1 eggplant aubergine
- 2 small potatoes
- 1/2 cauliflower head
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon oregano
For the salad:
- 1 cucumber
- 1 cup cherry tomatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
- 1 red onion
- 1 red chilli pepper
- 1 medium-sized romaine lettuce head or more
For dressing
- 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the vegetables that need to be baked. I tend to pull apart the cauliflower into individual small florets, thinly slice the aubergine. Then you can either dice your potato or prepare the potato as homemade crisp oven-baked fries.
- Drizzle the vegetables with some oil and season with salt and oregano then place in single layers on a non-stick baking sheet (or sheets lined with parchment paper).
- Bake the vegetables for about 25-30 mins at 170ºC (fan assisted). They will often brown a lot more around the edges once cooked. I like them this way for their fantastic flavour. However, if you prefer yours slightly less browned, then It's best to check after 20 minutes to see how cooked the veggies are.
- In the meantime, prepare the salad. Finely chop the tomatoes, onion, and cucumber as well as the mint leaves and chilli pepper. The romaine lettuce does not need to be cut but may require rinsing with cold water and dried thoroughly. Then separate into individual leaves.
- Prepare the dressing by mixing the lemon juice and olive oil with the salt and pepper. This is one of my favourite simple salad dressings. Feel free to swap it out with your favourites too.
- Mix the chopped veggies in a large bowl. Add the dressing and stir well to combine.
- Lay out the romaine lettuce leaves, then top them with a bit of the baked aubergine/eggplant, potatoes and cauliflower along with some of the salad and Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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