Are Meatless Monday and Taco Tuesday weekly staples on your family's menu? Try our spicy lentil taco recipe for a vegan, high in protein, and healthy plant-based meal everyone will love--kids included.
More great options for tasty Mexican-style meals you will love are tacos with quinoa taco meat or cauliflower meat.
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Ingredients
Our lentil taco meat recipe is made with low cost pantry staples that are easy to find at the grocery store. Chances are, you'll have most of these ingredients already.
- Legumes: brown or green lentils
- Vegetables: onion, garlic, tomato paste
- Dried Spices: chili powder, ancho chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, cayenne, and black pepper
- Liquid: vegetable broth
- Citrus: freshly squeezed lime juice
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
How to Make
- In a medium saucepan, bring the vegetable broth to a full boil, then add the rinsed lentils. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Simmer for 30 to 35 minutes, then uncover and cook for 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Heat up the olive oil until shimmering, then cook the onion until golden brown. Add the minced garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the tomato paste and dried spices and cook for a minute, stirring constantly.
3. Add the cooked lentil mixture to the skillet and mix well to combine.
4. Add the remaining vegetable broth (1 ½ cups) and stir it in. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and add filtered water if the lentil taco meat starts to look dry, the legumes can absorb a lot of liquid.
5. Give it a good stir and taste it. You can serve it now, or take the flavor a step further.
6. Add 2 to 4 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lime juice to the lentil taco meat. This will decrease the spiciness a bit and give a hint of lime to the meat.
7. This recipe makes 2 ¼ to 2 ½ cups of lentil taco meat.
8. Serve while still warm.
Recipe FAQs
Once cooked, one cup of dry lentils will plump up and double in size and make an equivalent of a pound of ground beef. Add spices, like taco seasoning, and aromatics, like onions and garlic, to make them taste more like tacos made from ground beef.
No, it isn't necessary to soak lentils prior to cooking. They will cook in about 25-30 minutes. However, if lentils cause you lots of gassiness, soak them for 4 hours or up to overnight, then dump the soaking water and rinse with cold running water before cooking them.
For this lentil taco meat recipe, we used tomato paste and homemade taco seasoning to make the cooked lentils taste like taco meat.
In this recipe, we found on average brown lentils take about 25-35 minutes to cook while green is slightly longer at 45-50 minutes. Red lentils, which we don't recommend using here, cook much more quickly in 15-20 minutes. If your lentils have been sitting around a while in your pantry, they may take longer to cook.
Serve
For your next vegan taco Tuesday night with this lentil taco meat, serve up homemade pico de gallo, guacamole, fresh chopped cilantro, and avocado cilantro dressing, and let everyone build their own!
Lentil taco meat tastes amazing when used in other Tex Mex meals like tacos, burritos, tostadas, and quesadillas.
You can also use it in a lettuce wrap if you're on a low-carb diet.
Store
Make Ahead: This Lentil Taco meat can be made ahead if needed.
Leftovers: Allow the lentils to cool before storing in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Reheat: The taco meat can be reheated in a small saucepan or skillet over medium heat until heated through.
Freeze: This lentil taco meat can be frozen for up to one month in a freezer safe container.
Expert Tips
- Brown lentils cook in 25 to 35 minutes and green cook in 45 to 50 minutes.
- Don't use red lentils to make lentil taco meat, as they get too mushy.
- Use vegetable broth to cook the lentils, as it adds more flavor.
- The spices and salt are added in the last stage of cooking. That way the spices have the most flavor and the cooking lentils in salted water might make them tough.
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Recipe
Lentil Taco Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup brown lentils
- 4 cups vegetable broth, reserve 1 ½ cups for later
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 cup yellow onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ancho chili powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup freshly squeezed lime juice, from about 4 limes
Instructions
- Bring 2 ½ cups of vegetable broth to a boil in a medium sized saucepan. Meanwhile, rinse the lentils in a strainer, then add them to the broth once it boils. Cover and reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 30 to 35 minutes until tender, then uncover and cook for 6 to 8 minutes to thicken.
- Heat up the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat, then saute the chopped onion for roughly 4 minutes. Add the minced garlic and stir constantly for one minute.
- Add the tomato paste and the dried spices and cook for a minute, while stirring constantly.
- Put the cooked lentils in the skillet and stir until well blended. Pour in 1 ½ cups of the remaining vegetable broth and cook uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding filtered water when necessary, as this meat will absorb a lot of liquid.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the freshly squeezed lime juice. If you want, you can mash the lentils or put half in a food processor to change up the texture and appearance.
- Serve while still warm.
Notes
- Brown lentils cook in 25 to 35 minutes and green cook in 45 to 50 minutes.
- Don't use red lentils, as they get too mushy.
- Use vegetable broth to cook the lentils, as it adds more flavor.
- The spices and salt are added in the last stage of cooking. That way the spices have the most flavor and the cooking lentils in salted water might make them tough.
Nutrition
Serving sizes and nutritional information are only an estimate and may vary from your results.
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