This vegan picadillo is made with spiced lentils simmered up with juicy tomatoes, bell peppers, sweet raisins and pimento-stuffed green olives. Serve over rice for a cozy, delicious and healthy meal!
Sometimes, okay usually, when I learn about some new to me food item, my reaction is to get really excited and want to veganize it. This can happen even if I know nothing about the food. I just really like playing with new dishes and ingredients, and if somebody likes it, there's usually something I can work with.
That was pretty much my reaction when I first learned about picadillo, and once I investigated, I wanted to make a vegan version even more. It's basically a big old Latin American stew of ground beef with spices, olives and raisins. I'm fascinated by the olives + raisins combo, or just olives and sweet flavors in general. My brain says "weird," but it's always delicious.
It took me a while to getting around to actually making some vegan picadillo, because I was a little confused as to what to do with it. What do you do with a dish that's 90% ground meat? Shouldn't it be picadillo tacos or picadillo bowls or picadillo chili? I think blogging has me a little hung up on turning everything into a meal.
Really, you can do whatever you want with this one, and if you're about tacos or bowls or chili, be my guest. I served mine up very simply, over some rice cooked up with a pinch of saffron. I'm not sure how authentic that is, but to be honest, I'm not sure what traditional picadillo even tastes like, so who cares? Bottom line: this was tasty business. Cozy, delicious, super easy and healthy.
Vegan Picadillo
Ingredients
- 1 cup dried brown lentils
- 3 cups water
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium onion, diced
- 1 bell pepper, any color, diced
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- pinch cloves
- ⅔ cup pimento-stuffed green olives
- ½ cup raisins
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
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Combine lentils and water in a medium saucepan and place over high heat. Bring to a boil and lower heat. Allow to simmer until lentils are almost done, but still a bit firm at their centers, about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and drain any excess water.
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Coat the bottom of a large skillet with oil and place over medium heat. Add onion and bell pepper. Sauté about 5 minutes, until softened and onions are translucent. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute more, until very fragrant.
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Add lentils, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, cumin, paprika, oregano, cinnamon and cloves to skillet and flip a few times to combine. Bring to a simmer and cook just until lentils are tender and the sauce thickens up a bit, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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Remove from heat and stir in olives and raisins. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve.
Just wanted to let you know how much I look forward to your posts. The recipes always look like ones I would (and will!) love to try. Thanks! :)
Thank you so much! Glad you're enjoying them. :)
How can any dish with olives not be wonderful?
I could probably eat a plate full of olives for dinner myself. :)
I make a Mexican version of picadillo with lentils all the time and use it as a sope filling.. I've only had cuban style picadillo once, inside empanadas. It was so good! I think I'll be trying that with this version very soon :)
Oh yum! Empanadas are on my "to make" list. I never even thought to stuff them with this, but it sounds delicious. :)
Hello! I just wanted to let you know that I've been enjoying your recipes! Amazing that you try to veganize things you haven't even eaten! Very creative! I'm going to try this and serve it with rice the way you did. I'm not so sure about the amount of cumin though. Is there a particular brand of cumin that tastes better than others?
Thanks so much Sylvia! It is heavy on the cumin flavor. If you're sensitive to it I'd suggest starting with half or so, then adding to your taste. I'm not really partial to any particular brand though - I think right now I've got a bottle of McCormick in the pantry.
So excited that I found your page! And so stoked to give this a try!! Would green lentils work as well? I have so much of these on hand!
Thank you :)
I think green lentils would work just fine! Enjoy!
What about red lentils? I happen to have those on hand
The texture would be different, but I think it would still be delicious. :) They'd also cook up quicker than brown. I'd love to hear how it works out if you try!
Hi ! I am Mexican and we usually don’t put olives or raisins in our picadillo. We add carrots , zucchini and other seasonal veggies ( like chayote , celery or potatoe )
I made this recipe and added the veggies to keep it lower in calories and it came out really good. If you like spicy food you can always add canned chipotle.
Thank you for the idea !
Chipotle sounds like a delicious addition! I'm glad you enjoyed it! Thanks Claudia!
Just made this in my pressure cooker though I didn't use oil because I cook salt-oil-sugar (SOS) free. To reduce the salt load, I soaked the olives in water to leech out some of the salt. I added some saffron. Delicious!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!! Thanks Ralph!
This is genius! Picadillo (cuban) is one of my favorites, but I haven't had it in forever b/c we don't eat very much meat anymore. I think the recipe is good as is, but it's lacking that deep (umami?) flavor you get from beef. I added quite a bit of tomato paste to get the depth I was looking for and it made a noticeable difference. I can't wait to try out more of your recipes! Those ethopian lentils are next on my list!!
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it and I hope you like the Ethiopian stew as well!
Hmmm... maybe that umami flavor can come from miso paste? Thanks for the info on your modifications