Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups

These delicious Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups are guaranteed to be a crowd pleaser no matter the audience or occasion they’re served up. The freshness and big flavors in this wonderful Seafood Appetizer are fantastic, making them the perfect three bite appetizer to kick off a meal or happy hour. The fresh Tuna is served raw and mixed in with a delicious Spicy Mayo based Sauce and served in a simple Lettuce cup making for easy eating. They look great on the plate, and taste even better!|

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The most important element in this dish is ensuring your Tuna is sushi grade

This dish is served raw, so you want to ensure that you are using the best quality Tuna you can get your hands on. This will avoid any potential health issues when eating this dish. The good news, however, is that Sashimi grade Tuna is readily available everywhere these days. Most grocery stores should have some, if not, your local Fish Monger definitely will

Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups Ahi Tuna — Good quality Sashimi Grade Tuna (such as Ahi Tuna) is what you’ll need to make these Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups. The Tuna is served raw

Sashimi Grade basically means it’s Tuna that is fit for consuming raw. Sashimi is simply the Japanese preparation for raw fish. Even though this dish isn’t entirely Japanese, there are some Japanese elements, so it’s fitting. A very popular style of Sashimi grade Tuna (especially in the US) is known as Ahi Tuna. That’s a great choice, but if you can’t get your hands on that, any Tuna that can be eaten raw will do

The best quality Tuna is the highest fat quantity Tuna, sometimes known as ‘Toro’ Tuna. It is incredibly decadent, as the fat quantity is higher the Tuna will simply melt in your mouth when eaten raw. If you can get your hands on some Toro Tuna then we absolutely recommend using it in these Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups. The downside, however. It’s incredibly expensive! So, if you’ve got the cash, go for it. Otherwise, stick with the Ahi Tuna and it’ll still be an amazing bite of food

How to make Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups

Now that you’ve got your hands on a beautiful piece of Tuna it’s time to assemble the dish. This is a meal that can be made in no time at all. Unlike Ceviche, it doesn’t require any kind of marinating time before it’s ready. The Tuna is eaten completely raw, so you can literally have this dish ready in under 10 minutes time!

Easy recipe for Tuna Lettuce Cups — Follow this recipe to make the simplest, yet tastiest Tuna Lettuce Cups / Wraps you’ll ever eat!

The first step is to cut your Tuna. Use your sharpest knife and try to cut the Tuna pieces as uniform as possible. While this isn’t mandatory, as it’s home cooking after all, having evenly cut pieces of Tuna will make the eating experience more enjoyable. Depending on the size of the Lettuce cups your using, you’ll likely want to cut the pieces pretty small. Just use your judgement based on the portions you’re aiming to make

Once the Tuna is cut you can set it aside while preparing the Sauce. This is a dish best enjoyed cold, so you can cut the Tuna in advance and refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve

The Sauce is a simple preparation

When it comes to the beautiful Spicy Sauce in this dish we’re making things super-simple. There are no fancy sauce techniques required, you literally just combine a couple of different condiments together to make it!

The main two ingredients in this Spicy Mayo sauce are Mayo (of course), and Chili Crisps. For the Mayo we highly recommend using Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise. It has a sweeter flavor than regular Mayonnaise, and it pairs perfectly with the delicate flavor of the Tuna

Mayo Sauce for Tuna — The Sauce is a simple combination of Japanese Kewpie Mayonnaise, Chili Crips, and a touch of Lemon Juice

Simply squeeze a generous amount of Mayo into a bowl and then add your Chili Crisps. The primary ingredient is the Mayo, as you’ll need about 2 tbsp. of Mayo to 1 tsp. of Chili Crisps. Give it a good mix through and you’ll notice the sauce will turn a beautiful light pink color

There is no need to add any Salt to the sauce, as the Kewpie Mayo is already loaded up with Salt. I would recommend adding a little dash of Lemon Juice, however. The Lemon Juice helps to brighten up the flavors in the sauce and helps elevate the flavor of the Tuna too. Lemon Juice is always a welcome addition to any Seafood dish, and our Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups are no exception

Once you’ve got your sauce ingredients all added to the bowl, mix it through well and then add your Tuna right before serving. You want the Tuna to have a nice coating so that each bite will have a wonderful, creamy flavor to it

Finish the dish by adding the Tuna to the Lettuce Cups

The final step in making Spicy Tuna Lettuce Cups is to simply spoon the Tuna Mayo mixture into your Lettuce Cups and put them on a plate. It couldn’t be easier! Now, you can use all kinds of Lettuce for this dish. There’s no specific type that is required

Lettuce cups for Tuna — You can use any type of Lettuce you like, just so long as it can hold the Tuna when picked up to eat

I like to opt for a style of Lettuce Leaf that naturally folds in, to create a ‘cup’ like shape for the Tuna to nestle into. Baby Romaine or Baby Gem Lettuce is a great choice to achieve this. However, another nice way to serve is to simply lay some Lettuce flat on a plate and spoon the Tuna on top. Diners can then pick up the lettuce and fold it up as they eat it, almost like a Taco

Try to get some Lettuce with a little bit of crunch to it. There isn’t a lot of texture in the Tuna mixture, so the crunchy element of the dish can be introduced through the lettuce. You can also add some crunch with additional toppings. Try finely chopping up some Peanuts and sprinkling them over the top of the Lettuce Cups for a tasty textural component

Recipe Details

Servings

2 – 4 people

Prep time

10 minutes

Cooking time

Total time

10 minutes