Originally published in 2012, updated with new photos.
Larb is a healthy ground meat salad popular in the northern parts of Thailand as well as in Laos.
I believe larb originated from Laos, but this Pork Larb Lettuce Wrap recipe is adapted from a recent issue of Food & Wine magazine. Larb is usually served with raw vegetables and makes a perfect filling for lettuce wraps.
I came from Malaysia, the cross-road of Southeast Asia so the regional cuisines are my favorite food in the whole world.
This pork larb lettuce wrap fits my bill; its savory filling, the fresh and crispy lettuce, plus the perfectly balanced dipping sauce that is savory, sweet, spicy, and sour at the same time.
To assemble, take a little bit of the ground pork filling and fill the middle of the lettuce leave. Add the dipping sauce on top of the meat, wrap and enjoy.
If you like some extra heat, you may add Thai chilies in your lettuce wraps but I think most people will find it too spicy. Enjoy!
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Pork Larb Lettuce Wrap Recipe
Pork Larb Lettuce Wrap - healthy and delicious Thai ground pork lettuce wraps with a savory, sweet and mildly spicy dipping sauce. So good!
Ingredients
- Ingredients:
Dipping Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 Thai chilies with seeds thinly sliced, optional
- 1 tablespoon water
Filling:
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 4 cloves garlic thinly sliced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 pound ground pork
- 1 teaspoon fish sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Garnish:
- 1/4 cup of torn basil mint and cilantro leaves
- 1 Thai chili with seeds thinly sliced, optional
- 1 butterhead or iceberg lettuce
Instructions
-
Combine all the ingredients for the Dipping Sauce and whisk to blend. Set aside or refrigerate until use.
-
For the Filling, heat up the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add in the garlic and cook until golden brown. Add the sugar and cook for 20 seconds.
-
Mix in the pork and cook over moderate high heat. Break the meat finely and cook thoroughly until no pink, about 4 minutes. Add in the fish sauce and soy sauce, stir to mix. Add in salt and pepper to taste. Turn off heat, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
-
To assemble, take a tablespoon or two (depending on the size of the leave) of the ground pork filling and fill the middle of the lettuce leave. Add the dipping sauce on top of the meat, wrap and enjoy. If you like some extra heat, you may add the Thai chilies in your lettuce wraps, which is optional.
Recipe Notes
You can choose to substitute with ground beef or chicken.
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Reem Rizvi via Facebook
I love Larb!! have tried one made with chicken
Nana Nias via Facebook
i love larb! tried it on my trip to luang prabang and got hooked!
Nana Nias via Facebook
i love larb! tried it on my trip to luang prabang and got hooked!
Martha Nuckles via Facebook
love it…would use my palm sugar to make it though :)
Gerard Truillet via Facebook
c’est surement tres bon!!!!!!!!!!
Anna
Hi – I’ve only had beef or chicken larb since I don’t eat pork. I assume the recipe is the same, just swap out the meat. Can you recommend a brand of fish sauce? There are so many type of fish sauce out there its hard to figure out which is the right type for this kind of salad. Thanks.
Stephan Wickham via Facebook
I made this last night and it is a tasty dish. Very easy to make!
Rasa Malaysia
Wow, that’s awesome. So fast and you already made the dish. :)
karipedas
The one most important ingredient missing from your larb recipes is roasted rice powder. Nonetheless, I am sure it still tasted great as all your recipes are. You can either make your own rice powder by dry roasting glutinous rice (or called sweet rice in US) and then grinding it to a fine powder, or just buy it ready roasted and ground from any Vietnamese or Thai grocery store. Also try roasted duck larb or fish larb — the latter is excellent. I have been kitchen-testing tofu and tempe larb for my vegetarian friends –w ill let you know once I perfected these! I ALWAYS enjoyed your terrific blog. So proud of you as another fellow Malaysian! Ciao…
Rasa Malaysia
The roasted rice powder is in the recipe, listed as long grain rice, but method says to make it into roasted rice powder. ;)
Bite and Sip via Facebook
Not even 30 minutes, it takes less time. Absolutely delicious! I make this quite often and everyone loves it
Chith
This is larb in a Malaysian way? As said, larb is a Lao famous food. When we talk about Lao food or Lao people, we need tot alk about “padek” (fermented fish), which is an ingreedient that cannot be missed in Lao larb. I dont remember putting sugar (and this much!)in larp.
Rasa Malaysia
Chith, this larb recipe is adapted from a food magazine. I have never had lao larb, so if you can share the really authentic recipe, I’d appreciate it.
Rob
The food magazine is wrong. This is more like san choy bau than Larb. Larb has a definite sour taste to it, and is quite spicy. If you threw the dipping sauce into the larb, you’d be much closer to the real thing. But still nowhere close to the authentic Laos or Isan versions. Do some research instead of relying on a food magazine.
Devin
Actually Chith is right, we usually never put sugar in, but we do put Kaffe lime leaves :)
Yggy
This dish rocks! I considered skipping the dipping sauce but that’s crazy talk. It ALL works well TOGETHER. I don’t like mint in my food but it’s awesome here. My hubby ate it like a caveman. I doubled everything to make it dinner. Must add to list of awesome dishes!
Yggy
By the way, I live in a rural area so finding some items like Thai peppers is difficult. I used Japanese peppers often used in Mexican cuisine. This seems to be fine.
Allana
After trying the AMAZING Thai Chicken Lettuce Wraps this is definately on the “MUST TRY” list!!
Rasa Malaysia
Awesome I hope you like this pork larb lettuce wraps.
Gary
Don’t cook the meats in oil. That’s not true laab. Cook them in plain water. You’ll get a totally different texture suited for salad. And use palm sugar. Toasted rice powder, too!