Fiesta Lettuce Wraps
Fiesta lettuce wraps made with black beans and topped with a creamy cool cilantro-lime sour cream sauce. You don’t have to cook anything – the filling is made with fresh ingredients and spices making the wraps an easy warm-weather appetizer.
This past weekend everything was bright, cheerful, and just gosh-darn-so-happy around these parts. Easter officially ushered in Spring and Chapel Hill responded in kind – suddenly tulips were everywhere, happy daffodils met us at every corner, and the trees that were completely bare just a week ago busted out with new growth and color.
It’s a kaleidoscope of Spring and I feel so lucky that we get to live in such a colorful place. Naturally, all this color inspiration is working it’s magic in the kitchen the result of which is a bounty of colorful, vibrant, oh-so-fresh tasting fiesta lettuce cups. These are perfect little packages of black beans, bell peppers, red onion, spices, a hint of garlic, and fresh lime juice, but before I get to that can I just share a few pics?
Color, color everywhere…
Fiesta Lettuce Wraps
So, about those fiesta lettuce wraps…
- The filling needs some time in the fridge so that the black beans and veggies to have plenty of time to soak up the chili/cumin/lime juice mixture otherwise the flavor may be less fiesta and more meh, which is never a good thing, so advanced planning would be wise.
- Bibb lettuce makes for a nice vehicle for the filling, although it can be a little fragile so be careful not to overfill each wrap, or double-up on the lettuce. A little less than half a cup per wrap seems right, although it’s not the end of the world if it falls apart as long as there’s a plate in hand to catch it.
- The little bundles o’ color are drizzled with a cilantro-lime sour cream sauce that’s a cool and creamy contrast to the filling and is now something I want to drizzle on everything (chicken, fish, nachos, burgers – so many ideas).
The recipe makes about three cups of filling, which can be used for all sorts of things – think taco or burrito filling, salad mix-in, or heat some of it up in a pan and serve it for breakfast with a nice sunny-side-up egg. A double batch of this stuff is a good idea… some for the wraps and some for later.
More Wraps
PrintFiesta Lettuce Wraps
Bright and fresh black bean and bell pepper lettuce wraps topped with a creamy cilantro lime sour cream sauce. Plan ahead and make the filling at least a couple hours in advance to give all the flavors a chance to combine.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
- Category: Appetizer
- Method: Mix
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1/2 medium red bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 medium yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 red onion, diced
- 1 (15.5-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1/2 tablespoon cumin
- Juice from 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
For the Sour Cream Sauce
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1/2 tablespoon cilantro
- Zest from 1/2 a lime
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 bibb lettuce leaves for serving
Instructions
- Toss the first 11 ingredients all together in a medium-sized bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (overnight is ideal) to allow the flavors to meld together.
- Before serving, make the sour cream sauce by mixing together the sour cream, lime juice, cilantro, zest, and salt.
- To serve, divide the filling equally across the bibb lettuce leaves. Drizzle the sour cream sauce over the top.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 lettuce wrap
- Calories: 126
- Sugar: 2.7g
- Sodium: 707.2mg
- Fat: 4.3g
- Saturated Fat: 2.1g
- Unsaturated Fat: 1.4g
- Trans Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 17.6g
- Fiber: 6.4g
- Protein: 5.7g
- Cholesterol: 11.3mg
Wow! Fiesta Lettuce Leaves look so good, but the pictures of Chapel Hill in bloom give me hope that spring may get to Cheyenne, Wy. Can’t wait to try these little cuties!
Thanks, Mom! Spring’s coming 🙂
This looks amazing and I love how you added so much flavor to the sour cream sauce! Yum 🙂
These look fantastic! Love your Spring pictures too!
This looks fantastic! It would make such a healthy, nutritious light lunch.
Mmmm, lettuce wraps for lunch!
Gorgeous springtime in North Carolina. 🙂
It’s Autumn here but I remember living many years south of the Mason-Dixon. I don’t think I ever ate a fiesta lettuce wrap but if I did, it never looked this good!
These lettuce wraps look divine! I love the spices and flavours in the wraps and that cooling sour cream sauce is so tasty!
Hi April, sounds so good, I love black beans and peppers, mixed together, perfect. Will be making these pretty darn soon. Love the flowers, tulips are my favourite! Have a great day.
Tulips! I can’t stop taking photos every time we go out 🙂
How lovely these wraps look April! First time on your blog and loving it here. Such ravishing array of healthy dishes you have !!
Happy to follow you girl! Keep in “touch” 😉
Hi Nupur! Thanks so much for following 🙂
Chapel Hill is such a gorgeous place.. I’m jealous. And these Fiesta lettuce wraps are gorgeous as well, so I’m doubly jealous (insert sticking tongue out here). I’m definitely making these for lunch tomorrow. #SuperExcited
Yay! Let me know what you think 🙂