Thai Lettuce Cups

This is one of our favorites and I don't think I've ever posted it. It's a two-parter but neither part is very hard at all.

Cucumber Relish:
1 cucumber, diced small (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, finely chopped but really I don't usually chop them
3 Tbs rice vinegar

Mix all three in a smallish bowl and put it in the fridge to chill while you make the filling


Lettuce Cups:
One head of boston or butter lettuce--just separate and wash the leaves. You probably didn't need instructions for that.


Filling:
1 Tbs olive oil
1/2 cup onion, finely chopped
1 cup frozen corn
12 ounces soy crumbles or your favorite ground meat
1/2 tsp Thai red chili paste (I use Thai kitchen, it's pretty common)

1. Heat oil in large non-stick skillet on medium-high. Add onion and cook 5 minutes or so until it browns. If you're doing meat, throw that in there and brown it at the same time. Or . . .
2. Add crumbles and corn and cook until nice and hot. Several minutes if they're frozen, 1 or 2 minutes if they're thawed.
3. Add chili paste and cook 3 minutes or so. The chili paste likes to clump up so make sure to stir it well. Season with salt and pepper, add the green onions, and remove from heat.

To serve, put generous spoonfuls of filling and relish on a lettuce leaf, fold it like a soft taco and eat. Or just tear up your lettuce and make some sort of Thai taco salad. ;)

By the way, I made our blog pages search-able so hopefully our personal 'search blog' gadget will start to work better.