Mexican Lettuce Cups with Avo Yoghurt Dressing and Steamed Corn

Written by Guest post on Wednesday, 03 March 2021.
Tagged: healthy cooking, healthy eating, legumes, nutrition, soup

Mexican Lettuce Cups with Avo Yoghurt Dressing and Steamed Corn

 

This is a low-carb version of Mexican tacos – instead of using starch-heavy tacos you sub in lettuce leaves to take the place of the tacos. Neat huh?

Ingredients

  • 2 cobs corn (husks on)
  • 1 iceberg lettuce
  • For the Chicken Mixture:
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 500 g chicken breast, diced
  • 400 g tinned kidney beans, strained and rinsed
  • 1 cup passata or 400 g tinned tomatoes
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  • pepper to taste
  • ½ cup water
  • For the Avocado Dressing:
  • 1 avocado, roughly diced
  • ¼ cup natural yoghurt
  • 1 lime, juiced
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 1 long green chilli (optional)

Nutrition per serve

1715 kJ (408 Calories), 37 g protein, 14 g fat (including 3 g saturated fat), 26 g carbohydrate (including 14 g sugars), 12 g fibre and 365 mg sodium.  Read our nutrition rating system.

Directions

  1. Preheat BBQ or grill. Place corn on BBQ or grill plate and cook for 5-7 minutes on each side. Once cooked, remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.
  2. Heat oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 2-3 minutes until softened.
  3. Add chicken to the pan, stirring whilst cooking to cook all sides thoroughly.
  4. Add beans, passata, spices and water to the pan. Stir to combine then reduce heat to low and allow to simmer covered for 5-7 minutes or until the moisture reduces.
  5. Prepare lettuce by cutting the core away. Shred 3-4 outer leaves to use as a filling and keep small inner leaves for cups. Use a pair of scissors to trim the edges.
  6. Remove husks from corn. Use a sharp knife to cut kernels away from the cob.
  7. Combine avocado, yoghurt and lime juice in a small bowl. Use a fork or spoon to roughly mash.

Assemble lettuce cups by placing shredded lettuce in the bottom of the cup, topped with chicken mixture, diced tomatoes, avocado yoghurt and corn. Add sliced chilli to taste.

Variations

  • Chicken thigh or tenderloin would be fine to use in this recipe.
  • Think about switching the canned beans – you could use black beans or cannellini beans.
  • If you don’t have time to cook the corn, you could use 1 cup of frozen or tinned drained corn instead.
  • The chicken mixture can be prepared ahead and reheated to serve when required. 

Credit

Recipe created and photographed by Helena Dowdall. You’ll find more of Helena’s work at her website.