Air Fryer Southwestern Fish Lettuce Wraps

If you’re like me, this is the time of year that your pants are fitting a bit tighter. The new clothes you got for Christmas are giving you excitement for a new look. And it just feels like it’s time to step into a new chapter. I swear I ate more sweets this Holiday season than ever before, and I’m not even a sweet tooth! The indulgent time of year is now behind us and it’s time to get some of this Holiday weight off. Maybe you are looking to fulfill a New Year’s Resolution of eating better. Maybe it’s to lose your Holiday weight. Or you are simply excited to use that new Air Fryer you bought. Either way, this recipe popped into my head after trying to come up with some fresh recipes for us to use and honestly, I’m so happy with how it came out!

As most of you know, my struggle with my weight has been a life long battle. Last summer, I can confidently say that I was in the best shape I had been in a long time. I was walking on average 4 miles a day, in our neighborhood that has a lot of hills in it. I was eating right and felt awesome! But then, life picked back up with me doing some double shifts at school and everything else. The working out halted and my diet, well, kinda slid by the wayside. I didn’t eat horribly, but it wasn’t as controlled as it had been. I started running our restaurant within my school and that absolutely didn’t help. While trying to eat as well as I could outside of work, the sad/awesome part of my job is that I have to test all the food. The menu was simply not as clean and healthy as I would have liked to be.

Long story short, here we are. Up almost 10 pounds from where I was last summer, when I wrote that weight post. I go back into the restaurant later this month so there has to be a better plan. My few weeks of break where I had planned to get back on track, start walking again and shed some pounds went to pot by getting sick for over two weeks. While the working out will come, there was no excuse why my food situation couldn’t get better.

So here we are! Tacos and Mexican food are a favorite of ours. Frequently, we make ours with shrimp, chicken or ground turkey. While these options are by no means bad, the tortillas do add up in WW points or in calories. I always enjoyed lettuce wraps as a great gluten free option and a fun way to switch things up. However, if you are like me and have looked up the P.F. Chang ones that were the first to burst on to the scene back in the day, you’d see that they are actually horribly high in fat and WW points. Why do you ask? How is that possible when they are LETTUCE. WRAPS? Easy. They have a very high level of sesame oil in it for one thing, and that is extremely high in fat. Two, they are generally garnished with those fun styrofoam noodle things, which taste great but are deep fried. So can you do lettuce wraps that are better for you? YES YOU CAN!

So back to tacos, fish tacos are generally already a healthier option for you then ye olde standard ground beef tacos. My Ahi Tuna Tacos are a favorite of ours for that reason. But I wanted to switch things up and use some white fish this go around. It’s cheaper, it’s easier and you can get some great frozen options right now. So first up was the fish. I chose Haddock for this time around. It’s a thicker, meatier white fish that will hold up structurally and be more filling. You can choose any fish you’d like for this, whether it be flounder, tilapia, cod, grouper (which is a favorite!), snapper or whatever you’d like. Season this up really nice with any kind of flavor you’d like. We used this Citrus Garlic Rub from Trader Joe’s that has become a favorite.

Now when it comes to the air frying, I use a Power XL Air Fryer (love that thing!). This one has the shelves so to ensure no sticking, I placed down some aluminum foil with some non-stick spray on it. We seasoned the fish, placed it on the shelves and cooked it for 12 minutes at 325 degrees.

In a medium sized saute pan, add black beans and corn kernels. The corn can be canned, fresh or frozen. I used canned black beans and frozen corn kernels. No oil was used for this so no points lost there. We added in some tomatoes here too. Cooked everything just until it was hot and kept it warm.

Now for the sauce. Sure you can make this with a sour cream if you aren’t worried about calories or points. But plain Greek Yogurt can actually be a great substitute. So that’s what we used. Greek Yogurt, chopped cilantro, lime juice, salt, pepper and a little bit of this great Green Goddess seasoning from Trader Joe’s (can you tell we shop there a lot?). Mix it together and set it aside.

For the lettuce itself, I know some people use romaine lettuce for these, which do work great. However, I’m partial to Boston Bibb Lettuce. The leaves have a better bend to them, making them easier to fold up and eat then the romaine, which have that rib in the center. Clean them, dry them and fan them out for assembly.

Once the fish is done, and has reached an internal temperature of 145 degrees, flake the pieces apart with a fork. It’s now time for assembly. Place the fish down and add a tablespoon of the black bean, corn and tomato mixture. Then drizzle your sauce on top. Next you can add some sliced avocado if you’d like, some chopped cilantro or chopped scallions and a squeeze of lime juice. And that’s it!

If you want a bit more to this, you can add in some rice to your black bean mixture or even serve it on the side. Honestly, it was filling enough for me as it was. I couldn’t finish a third because I was full. All three wraps came to a whopping 5 blue WW points for me. The only pointed things we used was some spray for the fish and the avocado. That’s it. Everything else was 0 points. So if you leave off the avocado, it’s a 1 point dinner. Pretty amazing to have all that for 1 point!

If you aren’t worrying about calories and want to do this with good old tortillas, just swap out the lettuce and put the lettuce on top, like Randy did!

These are not only great for a healthy dinner option but would be perfect in the summer time as well. You can easily swap out doing the fish in the air fryer for cooking it on the grill instead. Of course, it can also be Roasted or Baked in the oven as well as Sauteed as well. The options are actually endless.

Air Fryer Southwestern Fish Lettuce Wraps

Makes 6 Tacos

5 WW Blue points for 3 tacos

Preheat Air Fryer to 325 degrees.

Season fish with southwestern seasoning. Place in air fryer (see note above about preventing sticking) and cook for 12 minutes at 325 degrees or until it reaches an internal temperature of 145 degrees.

In a medium sized saute pan, heat black beans, corn kernels and grape tomatoes until warm. Add salt and pepper to taste. No need to add oil. Keep warm to serve.

In a small bowl, combine yogurt, cilantro, lime juice and green goddess seasoning if using. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pull 6 lettuce leaves off head, or more if they are smaller, wash and dry with paper towels. Place on plate for assembly.

Flake fish with a fork into large chunks. Distribute the fish pieces onto the lettuce leaves. Place one tablespoon of black bean and corn mixture onto fish. Drizzle with yogurt sauce. Top with sliced avocado and garnish with a lime wedge. Repeat with other lettuce wraps and enjoy!