Turkey Red Lettuce Wraps with Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries

These lettuce wraps make a quick and easy seasonal dinner. They are filled with my favorite fall ingredients and served in beautiful red leaf lettuce that is full of nutrients. This post was sponsored by Coastline Family Farms. 

Don’t mind my deer-in-the-headlights look. That is just my reaction to how quickly the end of October and most of November have flown by. I’ve been finding myself staring blankly from time to time trying to get my brain to catch up to the date.

 It’s not necessarily a bad thing. There’s been a reason for it – events. Lots of awesome, new experiences, meet new people, have fun while learning, eating and drinking, events.

 With all the events, I’m still trying desperately to be in the moment and celebrate my favorite season with fall foods. The problem is that they need to be super simple, too.

 Fortunately some of the awesome things I encountered at the PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim last month have been making this easy.

 Coastline Family Farms was one of our Team Fresh Summit sponsors and I was happy about this because it introduced me to their Nutraleaf Red Leaf and Red Romaine lettuce. You know me. Always the nutrition nerd, so I am incredibly intrigued by this stuff.

 It was developed by plant scientists at Rutgers to create a more nutritious lettuce. They used natural breeding processes so no need to worry about GMOs (if worrying about GMOs is your thing). As a result, these lettuces are an excellent source of vitamin A and vitamin C and  a good source of manganese.

It is also high in antioxidants (polyphenols). And this is the really cool part. Lab tests show that when you compare this lettuce gram per gram by dry weight, it is twice as high in polyphenols as blueberries. I mean, no offense to the blueberry. They are one of my favorite fruits. But I find it fascinating that a lettuce can be loaded with all this good stuff, too.

So, enough nutrition talk. Let’s discuss how pretty it is. It’s rather stunning — deep, dark purple that fades into a light green.

With that, I had my recipe requirements. It had to be quick and simple, have seasonal flavor and show the lettuce off a bit. These lettuce wraps were the perfect fit.

The filling gives you a sense of the holidays and the lettuce has a tender, yet firm structure so it is a really great variety for a wrap. Keep this recipe in mind for Thanksgiving leftovers, too. You can easily swap a little chopped roasted turkey for the ground turkey if that is what you have on hand.

I like to cook up my turkey in a separate skillet for this recipe and then combine it with the vegetables at the end. It helps me make sure the sweet potatoes get nice and tender without risking that the meat gets dried out and overcooked.

Turkey Red Lettuce Wraps with Sweet Potatoes and Cranberries

 Makes: 2 to 3 servings

 Ingredients

½ pound ground turkey breast
¼ teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ cup chopped onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 sweet potatoes (about 6 ounces each), peeled and cubed
¼ cup chopped fresh cranberries
¼ teaspoon fine ground sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 head Nutraleaf Red Leaf or Red Romaine lettuce
1 to 2 ounces shaved or freshly grated parmesan cheese

Prep

Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the turkey and cook for 3 minutes. Add the rosemary and cook for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until the turkey is no longer pink and fully cooked through.

In a separate skillet, heat the oil over medium high. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for 1 minute. Stir in the sweet potato. Cook for 10 minutes. Add the cranberries and cook for 5 more minutes, or until the sweet potato cubes are browned on the edges and tender. Stir in the salt and pepper.

Reduce the heat to medium and stir in the cooked turkey. Let cook for 1 more minute, until all ingredients are heated through.

To assemble, place 2 to 3 tablespoons of turkey and sweet potato filling on a lettuce leaf. Sprinkle with a little parmesan. Fold the lettuce around the filling and enjoy.

Disclosure: This post was sponsored by Coastline Family Farms and Nutraleaf.

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