This Tofu and Chickpea Lettuce Wrap … Delicious! It’s a meal on its own because of the hearty filling ingredients. Toasted crispy tofu and chickpea for protein, bell peeper and carrots for veggie, vermicelli noodles to make it filling and a nice peanut sauce to seal the deal. 

The ingredients looks quite a lot, I know but trust me, it’s worth making this. Plus, most of the ingredients are spices, the key thing when making any vegan dish especially when using tofu as main ingredient. We all know, or in case you are not familiar, let me tell you tofu is really bland. Bland to the nth degree. When using tofu as main ingredient, you have to be generous with the seasoning and a sauce really helps enhance the taste of the tofu. So let’s talk about how to make this recipe, there’s 3 major parts invoked.

How to Make Tofu and Chickpea Noodles Lettuce Wrap

Make the Filling

The filling of this lettuce wrap is tofu + chickpea + vermicelli noodles + veggie. You’ll basically just stir fry all the ingredients for the filling. Stir fry tofu first for about 8 minutes, do not touch it for about 5 minutes and then mix an cook for another 5 minutes for a nice crisp tofu. If you have a non-stick pan, this is a good time to use it. Another tip, make sure the pan is really hot before you add the crumbled tofu. This lessen the sticking and it produces a crispier tofu. Once the tofu is slightly brown and toasted, you can add all the veggie and spices. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed then you can add the soaked vermicelli noodles. You can soak the vermicelli noodles in hot water before you start to stir frying the ingredients. This is more than enough to soften it, you do not want to boil it. This lessen the cooking time when you add it with the tofu mixture, and gives a nice bite and texture to the noodles. No soggy noodles here.

Make the Crispy Tofu Toppings

This is actually optional, although I highly recommend that you give it a go. It is always nice to give people option to add more toppings when eating it. Again, this is just stir frying the crumbled tofu. Remember the tip I have above? That applies to making this tofu a well. Season the tofu well, use hot pan, and limit the mixing at least first 8 minutes. This gives a nice crisp tofu bits. You can cook longer if you want it to be really crispy.

Make the Sauce 

I love adding sauce to this lettuce wrap. The sauce adds another layer of flavor to the dish. This is simply peanut butter mix with variety of spices. The basic ingredients are peanut butter, water, garlic and salt. All the rest are optional, add them if you have it, don’t fret if you don’t have it.

That’s about it! Once you are done with it, serve with lettuce and some of the garnishing. I used chopped peanuts and extra chopped scallions and the crisp tofu.

Ingredients:

• 1 small Carrots 
• 1 small Red Bell Pepper
• 2 stalks Green Onions
• 2 cloves Garlic
• 175g Firm Tofu – crumble
• 1/4 cup Chickpea 
• 50g Vermicelli Noodles 
• 2 tablespoon Soy Sauce
• 1 tablespoon Water 
• 1 tablespoon Brown Sugar 
• 1 teaspoon Cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Red Chili Flakes 
• 1/2 teaspoon Dried Basil 
• 1/4 slice of Lime 
• Vermicelli Noodles

Crispy Tofu Toppings:

• 175g Tofu – crumble
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt 
• 1/4 teaspoon Paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon Black Pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon Garlic Powder 

Sauce:

• 1/4 cup Peanut Butter
• 1/4 cup Water 
• 1/2 teaspoon Sesame Oil
• 1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon Hot Sauce 
• 2 teaspoon Agave or Honey
• 1 teaspoon grated Ginger 
• 1 clove Garlic 
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt 

Instructions:

1. Prepare the Noodles: Soak the Vermicelli noodles in hot water. Set aside while you cook the tofu.
2. Make the Filling: In a heated large non-stick pan, add oil and scatter the crumbled tofu and spices on the pan. The larger the pan the better for a nice crisp tofu. Stir fry the tofu in medium heat. leave for 8 minutes without stirring. Add chickpea, green onion, red bell pepper, carrots, and all the herbs and spices. Stir to combine. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, cornstarch, brown sugar, red Chili flakes. Stir to dissolve the cornstarch. Pour in the tofu mixture. Cook for 1 minute while stirring to avoid forming lumps from cornstarch. Add the soaked vermicelli noodles and cook for another minute. Squeeze lime before removing from the pan. 
3. Make the Peanut Sauce: all the the sauce ingredients in a jar and shake until well blended. If you noticed it is clumping a bit, microwave the sauce for 20 seconds just to melt the peanut butter. The sauce can be made ahead of time, keep it refrigerated. I make it at night for use the next day. Saves some time.
4. Serve: to serve, have the lettuce ready, plus all the garnishing and peanut sauce. Chopped peanuts, green onion, lime wedges and crispy tofu. 

Serves 2 – 3

Recipe Notes:

• Vermicelli Noodles can be replaced by any Asian Noodles or you can skip the noodles and add more veggie instead
• You can add other veggie like snap pea, green pea, roasted cauliflower, chopped Asparagus, some bean sprouts will be nice too
• Not a fan of peanut sauce? You can also use Teriyaki Sesame Sauce. It is simply a mixture of soy sauce, water, brown sugar, minced garlic, sesame oil, sesame seed, red chili flakes and cornstarch. Mix everything and microwave in 30 minutes interval. You can eyeball the ingredients or check my Teriyaki Sauce HERE

Nutritional Information

Nutritional Information was calculated using Veryfitwell Recipe Calorie and Nutrition Calculator. For details about Nutritional Information in this website, please read the Disclaimer page.

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