Sometimes I make weird combinations of food and it turns out not so great. But other times I make weird combinations of food and it turns out so awesomely that I find a new fav meal/recipe and simultaneously remember that I am a genius. Today just so happens to be one of those days. Which is pretty nice considering it is a Monday and a half day Friday week (which has absolutely nothing to do with it, I’m just glad I have a half day on Friday).
Here is what happened. I bought lentils 2 weeks ago from Trader Joe’s (the premade kind). I don’t normally like lentils at all, but I saw Gina make sloppy joe’s with lentils and those looked really good..I can’t find the exact recipe, sorry! Anyways, I thought maybe I should give lentils another chance. Plus, when I confessed to my mom not too long ago that I didn’t like lentils, she got unnaturally upset over it. So I figured she would be happy to hear if I did end up liking them.
I was originally going to just make the sloppy joe’s but then wasn’t sure if I felt like those. But I liked the idea of making lentils into another ‘meat’ like dish. When I have had lentils in the past, it was just in a plain old salad and that was what I didn’t like—so why not try to ‘disguise’ lentils as something else? Brilliant. I wanted to make something mexicany with them (yeah that is a new word). A lot of times when I eat Mexican, instead of wearing out the craving, I then want to eat Mexican food a lot, so ever since Supper Club I have been trying to decide what to make.
So, if you didn’t follow the inner workings of my brain…all of this ended up with me deciding to try and make lentil tacos!
I really think you guys should try this recipe. I know I say that about everything, but honestly, I am pretty proud of myself for this one. It tastes sooo great and is a perfect recipe for Meat Free Monday, since it actually is a great stand in for ground beef or ground turkey tacos.
Lentil Tacos
8 tortillas of your choice (I used corn)
1 T olive oil
2 cup lentils
1 clove garlic, minced
2 T taco seasoning*
½ white onion, diced
3 t hot sauce (I used Frank’s)
1/2 poblano pepper
½ cup salsa
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 cup chopped lettuce
½ cup feta
*If you don’t have taco seasoning, or want to make your own, you could just mix chili powder, coriander and cumin if you wanted to. I have a costco size container of taco seasoning, so I’m set for awhile.
I also used these Trader Joe’s lentils:
They are already cooked which makes things easy. If you are going to use dried lentils, you will have to cook them first—I think the best way to do that would be to cook in a pan of broth or water for about 30-40 minutes until they are tender, then proceed with recipe.
From there, heat olive oil over medium heat in a pan and add onion and garlic. Cook for about 4 minutes until onion begins to soften and turn translucent. Then add lentils and taco seasoning. Cook until mixture is combined and lentils are heated through. If the mixture seems dry once you add the seasoning in, you could add a couple tablespoons of water. You also might want to add more taco seasoning than the recipe lists depending on your taste. I love salt, so I added a lot of seasoning, but listed what I thought would be a more moderate amount on the recipe.
I ‘made’ the shells in two different ways. I wanted to try and see if I liked these better with hard or soft shells. Since I only had tortillas, I baked a few in the oven at 350 to make hard shells (except they were flat, so more like a tostada). For the soft shells, I heated them for about 5-10 seconds per side over an open flame. If you don’t have a gas stove, then I feel sorry for you because gas stoves are way better than electric (in my humble opinion). You also can’t do this little trick. It is a great way to make the tortillas more pliable and I almost always do this when making enchiladas too—that way the tortillas don’t break when you roll them and you don’t have to douse them in oil to make them pliable. Just be careful not to burn yourself or burn your house down!
I had one of each and definitely preferred the hard shell to the soft. Not sure why, I think it just gave the whole dish a better combo of textures and added more than soft shells. But either work, so use whatever you prefer! Just add the lentils on top, with lettuce, tomato, feta and salsa! I added some cucumber on top which is kind of random, but I also added lettuce and salsa. Green salsa on one, red on the other (didn’t have tomatoes since I haven’t been buying them, but I think they would be good). I also forgot to add feta until after I took the pictures, so that is why you don’t see it in pictures.
If you use dried lentils, the meal will be a little bit more time consuming, but using ready made lentils made this sooo easy. It literally took me 15 minutes from start to finish, which is great since I just went to 2 back to back classes at the gym and was about to eat my arm.
With that, I’m off to watch the rest of the 3 hour Bachelorette finale! I was going to ask who you thought she would pick, but that part is about to happen! So, in that case…are you surprised by her decision?
I can’t decide, I keep going back and forth on who she likes more!
Have a great night!!
Katie
