Valerie Bertinelli Just Shared a High-Protein Appetizer

As the newest addition to the “Drew Crew,” Valerie Bertinelli is already making regular appearances on The Drew Barrymore Show—and we love it. The first recipe she shared on this season of the talk show is actually an appetizer that’s on the regular rotation whenever Bertinelli’s family comes to visit.

“These are shrimp lettuce cups,” Bertinelli shares at the start of her demonstration in a recent episode. “You know how you get those chicken cups at all these fun restaurants? This is shrimp because my daughter-in-law Andrea loves shrimp, so I always try to make shrimp something, anything whenever they come over for dinner.”

This Shrimp & Veggie Cup recipe is actually featured in the actor and cook’s newest cookbook, Indulge. Here’s how to make it—plus our own version that turns this app into a main course.

First, Bertinelli sautés the shrimp in coconut oil until they appear pink. Then, she adds fresh sugar snap peas, green onions, water chestnuts and pineapple to a separate pan. The Hot in Cleveland star also recommends adding jícama or sunchokes to the mix.

For the sauce, she mixes ginger and grated garlic with chili crisp, sesame oil, rice vinegar, hoisin sauce and tamari. Bertinelli notes that grating the garlic helps the flavor stand out in the sauce without any chunks getting in the way. While she admits she forgot this key ingredient in the demonstration, she typically adds cornstarch to the sauce as a thickener.

The sauce then gets poured into the veggie mixture and mixed in before the shrimp gets added. The last step is the presentation: in butter lettuce leaves, Bertinelli scoops on her shrimp-veggie sauté and lays it alongside cilantro, carrots and Thai basil for “some nice crunch.” 

“This is so easy and so fresh,” Bertinelli says. And the rest of the Drew Crew devoured the dish in seconds.

“There’s so much flavor, so much texture in there, so even though it’s low-carb, you’re still getting all the crunch you want when you eat a taco,” raves co-host Ross Mathews. Barrymore herself took too big of a bite due to her excitement trying the dish, but she managed to say “I love it” through her mouthful.

We love how many veggies are in this recipe, and because it’s loaded with fibrous ingredients and protein from the shrimp, it’s a satisfying dish that can even opt for a light lunch or dinner main when paired with a side salad. Bertinelli’s dish is very similar to our own Shrimp Lettuce Wraps, our 30-minute, diabetes-friendly version that has high ratings for a reason.