Need a reason to make tonight a vegan taco night? These hearty quinoa lentil tacos are easy, delicious, totally vegan and gluten-free!
This is a good news/bad news post. For me at least. I found out last Friday that I’m losing my job. I’m being laid off and have another week to wrap things up. This is bad news because losing a job is generally a little rough, regardless of the circumstances. So what’s the good news? I’m incredibly optimistic about the future. Whatever I do next is going to be great! I’ve got some time to figure things out. That will be nice. Time to breathe and unwind while I decide my next move will be nice. I maybe started to burn out a bit over the last few months, between work and all the other stuff I do, which tends to be a lot. Yoga, food, blog, art classes, projects…the problem is that I love it all and can’t stand the idea of giving any of it up. Now I have a breather where I don’t have to. Sigh.
I’ve seen a few recipes using quinoa as taco filling and I’ve even tried it myself as a quesadilla filling, which was delicious. Although quinoa is hearty and stands well on its own in the protein department, I wanted to give it a little boost. I thought lentils would be the perfect complement. I often keep a bag or two filled with precooked lentils and/or quinoa in my freezer, which made this a relatively quick and easy meal. I did fancy things up a bit by making my own taco shells, using this method. It was easy and well worth the effort. My only word of caution is that it is seriously easy to burn yourself on the oven rack. Or maybe it’s not and I’m just a kitchen klutz. Either way, be careful. If you don’t burn yourself you will be very happy. These shells totally tasted (to me) like something out of a nice authentic Mexican restaurant, which maybe makes up for the inauthentic Mexican vibe from the quinoa. Whatever…authentic, not authentic…it’s all delicious. Make this stuff.
Quinoa Lentil Tacos
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup red quinoa okay, it doesn't have to be red, I just like that color with the lentils
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 large red onion finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups cooked brown lentils or 1 can
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 tbsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. chipotle chili powder
- 8 taco shells use premade or make your own with this awesome method, like I did
Instructions
- Bring vegetable broth to boil in small saucepan. Add quinoa, cover, and lower heat to simmer. Cook about fifteen minutes, or until broth is absorbed.
- Allow to sit, covered, for another five minutes. Meanwhile, you can get started on the rest of your taco filling.
- Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sautee for about thirty seconds.
- Add onion and sautee until soft - about ten minutes.
- Add lentils, cooked quinoa, tomatoes and spices and cook until heated through.
- Make your shells last if you're doing that part (it only takes ten minutes - you should go for it). Stuff your mixture into shells and top with your favorite taco fixings. I highly recommend some fresh cilantro, scallions, lettuce, tomato, perhaps an avocado.
- Happy taco night!
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