We love the latest taco craze in restaurants, bars and food trucks — because we can’t get enough of them either! Whether they’re totally authentic or ideas with creative flair, we love finding new and interesting filling combinations.
Since we eat mainly meatless at home, it’s sometimes a challenge thinking of vegetarian taco ideas that are both flavorful and satisfying. This time, we decided to combine our favorite standard lentil tacos recipe with another one of our favorites — grilled vegetables! The result was a delicious combination that had just the right amount of contrasting textures and flavor complexity to satisfy our palates.
Lentil tacos is one of our favorite go to recipes — and I’m noticing as I write this that we posted the original recipe 1 year ago today! This recipe has definitely stood the test of time. In this most recent version, I got lazy and didn’t want to make the entire taco seasoning batch, so I threw all the spices in with the lentils. It may seem like a lot of spices, but you’ll likely find many of them in your spice drawer (if not, they’re good ones to have around!).
These tacos may take a bit of time to put together (especially if you try out all the components), but they’re worth it! To save time, you could purchase your tortillas. And make sure to make up the pickled onions in advance (they’re easy to put together!).
Enjoy!
And, don’t forget to check out our tortilla press giveaway!
Other Tacos from Around the Web
Black bean tacos with zucchini avocado salsa from Love and Lemons
Summer squash tacos with avocado chimichurri from Cookie and Kate
Soft shell squash tacos from Happyolks
Spiced black bean, grilled avocado, and goat cheese tacos from Naturally Ella
White fish tacos from Annie’s Eats
Raw tacos from My New Roots
Peachy sweet corn tacos with lentils and basil slaw from My First Mess
- 1¼ cups brown lentils (8 ounces)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- ½ tablespoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes (or more, depending on your spice tolerance)
- 1 summer squash
- 1 zucchini
- 1 onion
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Pepper
- Tortillas (make your own, or purchase them)
- Pickled red onions
- Chili lime sour cream
- In a medium saucepan, bring 1¾ cups water to a boil (and add a pinch of kosher salt). Once boiling, add 1¼ cup brown lentils, cover and reduce heat. Simmer covered for 20 to 25 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed.
- Turn off the heat, then stir in 1 tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons ketchup, 1 tablespoon chili powder, ½ tablespoon ground cumin, ½ teaspoon paprika, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon onion powder, ½ teaspoon dried oregano, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, and 1 pinch crushed red pepper flakes.
- Heat a grill to medium heat. Cut the squash, zucchini and onion into thin strips. Place them in a bowl; toss with enough olive oil to coat, and sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Grill the vegetables until tender, for about 5 minutes, turning frequently.
- Make the pickled red onions and chili lime sour cream.
- To serve, add lentils to a warmed tortilla; top with grilled vegetables, pickled onions, and chili lime sour cream.
12 Comments
Melissa @ Kids in the Sink
July 12, 2012 at 8:28 amI’m still learning the grill but these look amazing! I love your other version of lentil tacos but adding grilled veggies to it sounds even better. Can’t wait to try this and hopefully not fail with the grilled veggies!
Cookie and Kate
July 12, 2012 at 9:42 amI love lentils and tacos so much! Your lentil tacos look fantastic, I’ll have to give them a try soon. Glad your site is back up and thank you for the link love!
Jeanine
July 12, 2012 at 10:24 amI see you’re making up for loss time! Looks delicious… Thanks for including me!
Riley
July 12, 2012 at 11:18 amThese definitely look worthy of those homemade corn tortillas!
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
July 12, 2012 at 2:02 pmI am trying to swing it so I can have this tonight! Looks awesome!
KIM
July 12, 2012 at 3:52 pmGarlic Chicken Tacos are my favorite!
Pretty cool stuff
July 13, 2012 at 8:56 amLove this blog!!!
Greetings from Belgium.
jaime @ sweet road
July 14, 2012 at 5:01 amI love tacos as well, I made tacos from a black bean and jicama salad last night. I have yet to try using lentils, it sounds amazing though!
Sara {Home is Where the Cookies Are}
July 14, 2012 at 7:14 amYum!! This looks so delicious! I might try it with a combination of black beans and quinoa instead of lentils, since my husband refuses to eat them! But wow – I might have to make it just for myself!
Dave
December 10, 2012 at 5:08 pmI usually do these with half a bottle of beer instead of ketchup, you get that
nice yeasty flavor without all the added sugar.
viva mexico !
Alex
December 10, 2012 at 5:14 pmClever! We’ll have to try it.
Jess
May 21, 2013 at 7:35 pmI just made these for dinner. I was honestly a little bit weirded out about the ketchup, but I’m so glad I made these anyway. Absolutely delicious!