A low-carb family meal.
We do eat a fair amount of carbs in this household but the main reason I often cook with them is because the kids love them. If I cook a rice or pasta meal, or just add mashed potatoes to a meal, I can be almost guaranteed the kids will eat their dinner without issue. As a parent, we need guarantees like that in our lives to ease the pressure during dinner times. Like other mums, I’ve often faced a crying child at the dinner table. What’s worse is a crying child arming themselves with the meal to throw it onto the floor. It’s stressful yes… but more importantly it makes dinner time less enjoyable and more chaotic. Not to mention the extra clean up once said food hits the floor with a big splat!
However, there are times when I just can’t face another carb-heavy meal. It’s during these times that I have struggled to find a meal the kids will eat. The thought of yet mere food wasted because my children have thrown it onto the floor makes me shudder. But I have found one I can guarantee the kids will eat… happily!
San Choy Bau is amazing for a number of reasons. It’s pretty quick to make and is great on the occasions you’re time poor. It’s low-carb as uses lettuce leaves as a wrap for the meat mixture. And lastly because you can have a meal by including fresh chopped chilli without it impacting the kids. I’ve added grated zucchini into the recipe to pack more goodness into it. This is especially needed for the kids who aren’t too fond of eating lettuce.
I wasn’t entirely sure which cuisine this meal belongs to. It is a popular entree/starter in many Thai, Chinese or Vietnamese restaurants. What I do know about San Choy Bau is that no matter which cuisine, there’s nothing like fried mince in lettuce cups. While you can buy meal kits from a supermarket to make these here in Australia, I make these from scratch and just as quickly.
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San Choy Bau
Ingredients
- 500 g pork mince
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 medium zucchini, grated
- 200 g tinned water chestnuts, finely diced
- 1/2 - 3/4 cup hoi sin sauce
- 3 spring onions, finely sliced
- 1/2 cup crushed peanuts
- 2 rice noodle cakes
- 2 chillis, optional
- 2 baby cos lettuces
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, add the two rice noodle cakes and top it off with boiling water, ensuring the noodle cakes are fully covered. Leave for 3 minutes, drain and then finely chop the noodles up.
- Take each head of lettuce and cut off the base to separate the leaves into lettuce cups. Wash each cup and stack them on a plate ready to serve.
- In a large frying pan, add oil, garlic and pork mince. Pan fry until pork is cooked and the mince is broken up.
- Add the grated zucchini and fry for 3 minutes, stirring to ensure it all cooks through.
- Add the water chestnuts, rice noodles and hoisin sauce and mix together.
- When you're ready to serve, mix through the chopped peanuts and spring onions. Everybody at the table helps themselves to put together their own lettuce cups. Serve with extra finely sliced spring onion and the finely sliced chilli available.