Betel leaves are hard to find. Nearly 2 years ago, we tasted Bo La Lot for the first time. Since then, whenever we would go to an Asian grocery store, we would check for betel leaves in hopes of making our own version.
Now that it’s been nearly 2 years of searching for these elusive leaves, we finally found some!
To be fair, it really didn’t NEED to take that long because their location was pretty obvious. We went to our local vietnamese market and sure enough, there were betel leaves! Who would have guessed that vietnamese ingredients would be at a vietnamese store? Amazing.
We decided to make 2 different versions: a curry powder version and a 5 spice version. Both flavors were so good we decided to leave the choice up to you!
Keep your beef on your leaf, not the floor,
Your favorite alternative chefs, K & T
Bo La Lot
Ingredients
Filling
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 tbsp fish sauce
- 2 tbsp chopped lemongrass
- 2 cloves garlic crushed and minced
- 1 shallot minced
- 1 tsp coconut sugar
- 2 tsp curry powder or five spice
- 1 tsp freshly cracked black pepper
- ½ tsp sea salt
20 wild betel leaves
4 skewers (soaked in water to prevent burning)
For serving
- Lettuce leaves
- Rice noodles
- Crushed peanuts
- Additional fish sauce
- Fresh lime juice
Instructions
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Rinse the betel leaves, dry them, and set aside.
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Turn on the grill and set to medium heat.
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In a medium bowl, combine all filling ingredients and mix together.
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Place a betel leaf flat with the shiny side down. Roll about 2 tbsp of filling into a small sausage and lay it on the middle of the leaf. Starting at the pointy end of the betel leaf, roll towards the wide end.
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Thread the roll onto a skewer in a way that secures the leaf, Repeat steps 4 & 5 until all filling is used. We placed 5 rolls per skewer.
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Grill the rolls for 2 minutes, then flip and grill another 2 minutes, or until the meat is fully cooked.
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To plate: Place down a layer of lettuce, rice noodles, and some bo la lot. Sprinkle with crushed peanuts, then drizzle with fish sauce and fresh lime juice as desired.