by Marianne from Kids, Recipes and Organised Chaos
I love beef mince. It is such a versatile ‘cut’ of meat. It is cheap, and defrosts quickly when you have left meal preparations to the last minute. I have lots of mince recipes that I will be sharing with you over the coming posts, and the one I am starting with is San Choy Bow.
When I first made this, I wasn’t sure my kids would eat it. It is loaded with vegetables, and sweet Asian sauces, which my kids don’t normally go for. But surprisingly, every time I have made this, they all declare it as their favourite meal ever!
Makes 15 generous servings
Useful equipment:
Food Processor (while not essential, it makes this a very quick meal to prepare)
Ingredients:
Sauce
2 tbs Kecap Manis*
2 tsp sesame oil
2 tsp fish sauce
1.5 tbs sweet chili sauce
1.5 tbs sherry
*kecap manis is a sweet soy sauce. If you don’t have any on hand, try mixing 2 tbs normal soy sauce with 1 tbs brown sugar
Meat and Vegetable Component
1 kg lean minced meat (I have used beef, but I think pork would be wonderful in this dish also)
¼ small cabbage (I have used green and red cabbage, and both are good, but red cabbage ‘camouflages’ better in this dish) shredded thinly
2 carrots finely grated
7 snow peas sliced up
1 small stalk celery
1 spring onion chopped
½ medium onion chopped
1 clove garlic crushed
2 tbs oil light olive oil, sunflower oil, or a nut oil would be fine for this
*Plus serving ingredients below
To serve:
Lettuce cups using lettuce of choice (I use iceberg)
Steamed rice of choice
Vegetables of choice
Method:
1. Prepare your vegetables in the food processor and set aside.
2. Mix your sauces together and set aside.
3. Using whichever oil you choose, start sautéing the onion and garlic, until aromatic and softened.
4. Add the mince to brown, breaking up chunks. Once nearly cooked through, add all other vegetables and the sauces and stir to combine properly. Cook off any liquid that comes from the vegetables, the mixture should be fairly dry.
5. Using iceberg lettuce (or whatever lettuce you choose) carefully pull off each leaf, rinse and pat dry. These will form your ‘cups’
6. I serve this with either basmati, jasmine or brown rice. You could choose to mix the meat mixture and rice together (as I have done in the photo below) or leave it separate for a lower carb option.
7. For even more veggies, and for extra ‘crunch’ I also serve mine with grated carrot, some extra snow peas sliced up, some cucumber slices, also, extra sweet chilli sauce (for those who want it) and I made a mix of some sesame seeds, chia seeds and linseeds. This is optional, but the kids liked sprinkling this over the top of theirs.
Here is a lettuce cup, loaded up with the meat mixture, extra veggies and seeds on top, ready to roll up and eat
Marianne
Hi, I’m Marianne from Kids, Recipes and Organised Chaos. I’m a mother to 4 children, I run a small baking business, specializing in allergy friendly foods part time. Most weeks I have a school lunch post where I give ideas for school (or pre-school) lunchboxes. Head over and say hi if you are in the neighbourhood. To see all of Marianne’s recipes, click here.
