Turkish Red Lentil Lettuce Wraps
- 27 mintotal time
- $1.82£1.19a serving
- 422381calories
- 1921 gprotein
Serves 4; price is an estimate. Dinner Plan is a paid weekly plan for your household and budget. You see your week before you pay.
Warm red lentils cooked with tomato, cumin and onion, spooned into crisp lettuce leaves with herbs and lemon.
Ingredients
Serves 4.
- 1¼ cups dried red lentils, rinsed
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 bunch green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
- 1 lemon
- 1 iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 cucumber, cut into sticks
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
Always read the labels if you cook for someone with an allergy.
Method
- Put the lentils in a saucepan with 2½ cups (600 ml) of just-boiled water and a pinch of salt. Simmer on medium-low heat for 12–14 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and the water is absorbed, then mash roughly with the spoon so the mixture holds together. Add a splash more water if it dries out before the lentils are soft.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat and cook the yellow onion for 6–7 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic, tomato paste, ground cumin and paprika and stir for 1 minute until the paste darkens.
- Stir the onion mixture into the lentils with the green onions, most of the parsley, the juice of half the lemon, salt and black pepper. Taste: it should be well seasoned and lemony.
- Spoon the warm lentil mixture into the lettuce leaves, tuck in a stick or two of cucumber and scatter with the rest of the parsley. Serve the remaining lemon in wedges for squeezing over.
Leftovers: The lentil filling keeps in the fridge for 3 days and firms up as it cools; eat it cold or reheat until piping hot.
Ingredients
Serves 4.
- 250 g red split lentils, rinsed
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 45 g tomato purée
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 bunch spring onions, thinly sliced
- 1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
- 1 lemon
- 1 iceberg lettuce, leaves separated
- 1 cucumber, cut into sticks
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp paprika
- salt, to taste
- black pepper, to taste
Always read the labels if you cook for someone with an allergy.
Method
- Put the lentils in a saucepan with 600 ml of just-boiled water and a pinch of salt. Simmer on medium-low heat for 12–14 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft and the water is absorbed, then mash roughly with the spoon so the mixture holds together. Add a splash more water if it dries out before the lentils are soft.
- Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat and cook the onion for 6–7 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic, tomato purée, ground cumin and paprika and stir for 1 minute until the paste darkens.
- Stir the onion mixture into the lentils with the spring onions, most of the parsley, the juice of half the lemon, salt and black pepper. Taste: it should be well seasoned and lemony.
- Spoon the warm lentil mixture into the lettuce leaves, tuck in a stick or two of cucumber and scatter with the rest of the parsley. Serve the remaining lemon in wedges for squeezing over.
Leftovers: The lentil filling keeps in the fridge for 3 days and firms up as it cools; eat it cold or reheat until piping hot.
Nutrition per serving
| Calories | 422 |
|---|---|
| Protein | 19 g |
| Carbohydrate | 57 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Fiber | 12 g |
| Sodium | 42 mg |
| Calories | 381 |
|---|---|
| Protein | 21 g |
| Carbohydrate | 42 g |
| Fat | 16 g |
| Fibre | 17 g |
| Sodium | 30 mg |
Worked out from the ingredients, 393 g a serving; optional extras and salt to taste aren't counted. US and UK values differ a little because each uses that country's food data and products. US values from USDA FoodData Central.UK values from McCance and Widdowson's Composition of Foods Integrated Dataset 2021, under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
What it costs
About $1.82 a serving in the US (range $1.39–$2.41) and £1.19 in the UK (range £0.91–£1.57). That's the share of each ingredient this recipe uses; basics like oil, salt and spices aren't counted.
Prices are estimates. Item prices come from public price data where available (US: Bureau of Labor Statistics and USDA; UK: Office for National Statistics). Where that data has no match, we use our own estimate. Ranges set using Open Prices data (Open Food Facts, ODbL). Prices as of October 2026. How we estimate
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