The TikTok Hack For Effortlessly Separating Lettuce Leaves For Wraps

Sure, when you're craving a leafy lettuce wrap, you can grab a full head fresh from the farmer's market and cut it up with a kitchen knife. But making sure that every leaf stays intact for your wraps takes a lot of extra effort; while you could spend your precious time separating out each individual leaf, there's actually a much easier — and faster — way to get the perfect leaves you need. 

As TikTok user Cook It Erica demonstrates, begin by smacking the lettuce on the counter and cutting the core out from the bottom. Then, place the head in a colander in the sink, turn on the water, and rustle those leaves around. The combination of running water and gentle movement will separate the leaves easily. This ensures that you have bigger, fuller leaves for breadless sandwiches, salads, and more, not to mention some extra time to prepare everything exactly to your liking.

Hitting the lettuce on the counter might feel a bit silly, but it's actually important. Lettuce leaves are attached to the core, so knocking it against a hard surface breaks those connections. Prior to cutting out the core, consider resting the whole head in ice water, which crisps up the lettuce leaves a little, ensuring some extra crunch in every bite.

Once you remove the core, running the remains under water loosens things up even more. Pulling dry leaves off with your bare hands might require too much force, causing unwanted tears or putting holes in the leaves. By contrast, gentle, steady pressure from running water prevents this damage while still loosening the leaves (submerging the head of lettuce in a bowl or other large container full of water will have a similar effect). As a result, once you start shaking them, they'll fall off almost effortlessly.

Once your lettuce leaves have been completely removed from the head, you can fill them with your favorite toppings — meats, veggies, rice, and more — to make some lettuce wraps. Try making your filling out of frozen orange chicken for a quick and easy dinner, for example.

Similarly, if you're out of bread or you want to cut out some extra carbs, you can stack toppings in between two lettuce leaves and eat the sandwich as usual — picture an "Unwich" from Jimmy John's if you're having trouble imagining it. During your next summer barbecue, you could even roll up a hot dog in a leaf instead of a bun and top it off with your favorite condiments.

If you wind up with any leftover lettuce, just stack the leaves into a tower with some paper towels to preserve that crispy texture. Then, you'll have some pre-prepped lettuce leaves ready to enjoy with another meal.