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Thai lettuce cups with wild boar

Thai lettuce cups — but make them wild.

Grilled wild boar, loads of herbs, and 2 bold dipping sauces – my Thai wild boar lettuce cups are all you need for your next summer BBQ.

And the best part? Wild boar is one of the most sustainable meats you can cook with: no feed, no transport, no industrial farming. Just wild game from our region.

For this recipe, I’ve partnered with the FSHCL (Hunting Federation of Luxembourg), the Ministère de l’Environnement and the Ministère de l’Agriculture to shine a light on the value of local game meat – sustainable, traceable, and delicious.

Find more summer BBQ recipes here in my recipe archive.

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Ingredients

Serves 2

For the meat:
300g filet de marcassin (wild boar)
4 makrut (kaffir) lime leaves
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 tsp white peppercorns
½ tsp cumin
¼ tsp chili powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar

For the nuoc mam dipping sauce:
2 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp palm sugar or maple syrup
1 tbsp lime juice
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 bird’s eye chili, finely chopped

For the peanut dipping sauce:
2 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp ginger, grated
1 tsp soy sauce
Lime juice, to taste

To serve:
Outer leaves from 3 gem lettuces
Coriander
Mint
Thai basil
Lime wedges

Method

Start by preparing the meat. Finely chop 4 makrut lime leaves and pound them together with the coriander seeds, white peppercorns, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, salt and brown sugar. Rub the spice mix all over the wild boar filet and leave it marinate at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the sauces. For the nuoc mam dipping sauce, mix the Thai fish sauce with lime juice, garlic, chili, and just enough palm sugar or maple syrup to balance the flavours — start with about 1 teaspoon and adjust to taste.

For the peanut sauce, stir together the peanut butter, ginger, soy sauce and a squeeze of lime juice. Add a splash of water to loosen the texture.
Once marinated, grill the meat over high heat for about 4 minutes per side, until nicely charred on the outside and still juicy in the centre. Let it rest for a couple of minutes, then slice thinly.

To serve, arrange the gem lettuce leaves on a large platter. Add soome sprigs of coriander, mint, and Thai basil, then lay out the grilled wild boar slices. Let everyone build their own cups, layering herbs, meat and dipping sauces to taste.