Lighten up steakhouse favorites by making lettuce wraps

Lettuce wraps are often thought of in terms of Asian flavor profiles, but there's no reason to limit yourself when it comes to stuffing a lettuce leaf. It's a great way to take big flavors and enjoy them in a way that keeps you feeling light, which becomes more important as summer starts heating up.

A steakhouse is not typically known for light, summery meals, but the flavors of a juicy steak, a wedge salad showered with blue cheese, pickled onions and cherry tomatoes and drizzled in a creamy dressing can be delicious tucked into a crisp, cool lettuce leaf. Which is exactly what this week's recipe, Grilled Steakhouse Lettuce Wraps, illustrates perfectly.

To make this dish work, it's important to use a nice, tender steak, such as a thick rib-eye. Most other steaks will work, too, as long as they are well-marbled. The steak is simply seasoned and grilled until perfectly pink inside, and then thinly sliced.

Corn is also a steakhouse staple, but instead of simmering it in cream, we grill it on the cob until it's cooked and charred in all the right places. The slightly blackened kernels are cut off and placed on a serving platter with a generous number of lettuce leaves, crumbled blue cheese, cherry tomatoes and pickled red onions.

Pickling red onions is easy to do and delivers big results. Thinly sliced red onions are briefly soaked in a mixture of white vinegar, water, sugar and salt, until they lose their raw bite. The onions gain a nicely balanced acidity that brings a bright note to the wraps.

A quick and easy creamy buttermilk dressing, usually found ladled over that wedge salad, can be drizzled inside or used as a dipping sauce for these light, but decadent wraps.

Serves 4.

Note: All the flavors you love at your favorite steakhouse, wrapped in a lettuce leaf. From Meredith Deeds.

Pickled red onion:

• 1/2 c. white vinegar

• 1/2 c. water

• 3 tbsp. sugar

• 1 tsp. salt

• 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

Dipping sauce:

• 1/3 c. mayonnaise

• 1/3 c. sour cream

• 1/3 c. buttermilk

• 1/2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

• 1/4 tsp. salt

• Freshly ground black pepper to taste

• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped

• 1 tbsp. chopped chives, plus more for garnish

Wraps:

• 2 (12-oz.) rib-eye or other well-marbled steak (at least 1-in. thick)

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 large ears of corn, husks removed

• 1 large head Boston or butter lettuce, leaves separated

• 1 pint cherry tomatoes, quartered

• 4 oz. crumbled blue cheese

Directions

To prepare the onions: In a medium bowl, combine the vinegar, water, sugar and salt. Whisk until the sugar and salt are dissolved. Add sliced red onion and press down to submerge in the vinegar mixture. Let sit for 30 minutes. Drain.

To prepare the dipping sauce: In a medium bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sour cream, buttermilk, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, garlic and chives. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Can be made up to 2 days in advance.

To prepare the wraps: Heat a charcoal grill or set a gas grill to high; bank coals or turn off burner on one side. Season both sides of the steak with salt and pepper. Place on the hottest part of grill, flipping once, until browned, 3 to 5 minutes. Cook to desired doneness, another 3 to 5 minutes for medium-rare, or until an instant-read thermometer reads 125 degrees. (If the outside starts to burn before the steak is fully cooked, move the meat to the cooler side of the grill until done.) Transfer to cutting board and let rest for 10 minutes. Cut into thin slices.

Place corn on grill, directly over the heat. Cook, turning every minute or two, until cooked and charred in spots, about 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer to cutting board. Cut the kernels off the cobs.

Place the steak and lettuce leaves onto a large platter with the corn, cherry tomatoes, blue cheese and pickled onions. Place dipping sauce into a small serving bowl, garnish with chives, and let everyone assemble their own wraps.

Meredith Deeds is a cookbook author and food writer from Edina. Reach her at meredithdeeds@gmail.com. Follow her on Instagram ­at @meredithdeeds.