Now that spring seems to have officially arrived, I find myself looking to cook things with a fresher and lighter feel – like salad style dinners. I’m pretty sure it’s because I have a built in bathing-suit timer that signals me to panic about swimming season exactly on the day the clocks spring ahead.

The first thing that popped into my head as the weather warmed were LETTUCE WRAPS! As a Celiac, I often sub out lettuce for bread as an easy and healthy alternative, but truthfully I’ve been enamored with lettuce wraps ever since I ate at my first PF Changs in college.

The filling for these wraps is a ground chicken meatball, with chickpeas and zucchini as the binders. Even the non-zucchini eaters in my house loved these, so I highly recommend telling them after they’ve eaten it and loved it. I don’t usually advocate for trickery, but this time, it worked for me. I put crumbled feta cheese into the meatball and it helped keep it juicy and offered a little melty surprise too.

The Cucumber Dill sauce is greek yogurt based and is really the crowning touch to this recipe. It gets better overnight in the fridge and there is generally enough left over to dip carrots in too. In fact, much of this recipe can be done ahead so that all you have to do it bake the meatballs and assemble the wraps come dinner-time.

My inspiration for this recipe was a falafel pita sandwich I used to eat a few lifetimes ago in New York City. Pre-celiac, pre-kids, pre-mommy metabolism. This hits all of the high notes and still takes me back in time.

As an aside, I had a few leftover meatballs and crumbled them up and threw them into an omelette the next day for lunch…was the gift that kept on giving.

Mediterranean Lettuce Wraps with Cucumber Dill Sauce (Gluten Free)

Prep Time: 20 min
Cook Time: 25 min.
Serves 4-6

Ingredients

Meat Balls:

1 T extra virgin olive oil

2 lbs. ground chicken

1 shallot diced

2 cloves garlic minced or pressed

1 Cup canned garbanzo beans

4 oz. feta cheese (cut into small cubes)

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

1 medium zucchini grated

1 head iceberg lettuce

Cucumber Dill Sauce:

1 Cup greek yogurt

1 small/medium cucumber finely grated and strained

1 tsp. salt

1 lemon juiced

1 Tbs. fresh dill

Instructions

Meatball:

Preheat the oven to 400° and line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
Drizzle the pan with extra virgin olive oil and spread around the pan.
In a sauté pan, sweat the shallot until translucent. In the last moment add the garlic, stir and remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
Grate the zucchini and squeeze out the liquid through a clean dish cloth and add to bowl.
Add, garbanzo beans, shallot, garlic, feta, salt and pepper to a bowl and stir to combine.
Add the mixture to the ground chicken and combine until evenly distributed (I use my hands).
Using your hands (or a 1/4 cup scoop) make medium size meatballs and place on the foil lined tray.
Place in oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until internal temp reaches 165°
Remove from oven and serve on a leaf of lettuce topped with the cucumber sauce
Garnish with fresh parsley and greek olives if desired.

Cucumber Dill Sauce:

Grate the cucumber and place in a fine sieve over a bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and allow to sit for 15-20 minutes (or longer)
Squeeze the liquid out of the cucumber by pressing down on the cucumber in the sieve with a spatula.
Add the strained cucumber to the yogurt. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and allow to sit in the refrigerator while preparing the rest of the meal. (This can be made up to 24 hours in advance)