These vegetarian lentil tacos feature a homemade taco seasoning that makes for the most flavorful meal! Serve with black beans and rice for a full meal.
Growing up, it was always a treat when tacos were on the dinner menu. Seems like most kids can’t get enough of them! Since I’ve become an adult, I must admit I’ve tended more towards the enchilada or tostada when I’m in the mood for some Mexican-inspired fare. But when I was recently craving the spicy goodness that is the taco, I remembered a great recipe we tried out several years ago using lentils.
We dusted it off, made a few tweaks, and ended up with a marvelous and simple meatless meal! It’s surprising how satisfying the lentils are (even when expecting the traditional ground beef), and how much the homemade seasonings enhance the flavor. Alex actually admitted to liking these lentil tacos more than their meat-filled counterpart (which is saying something since though he eats mainly meatless these days, he’s still very much a meat-lover at heart).
Give them a try – they’re simple enough to prepare for a weeknight meal, but special enough to have everyone looking forward to Taco Night!
Tips for making these lentil tacos
These vegetarian tacos are easy to make as is, but there are a few things you can do to shorten the amount of hands-on prep time. To make the lentils cook faster, you can soak them in advance for an hour or so. This will cut their cooking time by almost 10 minutes and will give them the most incredible texture.
You’ll also want to have your taco seasoning prepped and ready to go before you start cooking this recipe. We have a great homemade taco seasoning we like to use, but you can certainly buy the store-bought stuff if that’s easier for you. I’d just recommend buying a spice blend that’s low in salt; you can always add in more salt, but there’s no turning back once you add too much in!
For the taco fixings, you can add whatever you’d like! Again, we have a homemade salsa we like to make, but going the store-bought route is probably easiest if you’re serving a crowd. You can also find pre-shredded lettuce and cheese at the store, and likely anything else you could want pre-made. To make these lentil tacos vegan, omit the cheese and sour cream, and substitute nutritional yeast, if desired.
Looking for more vegan Mexican recipes?
- The Best Loaded Vegan Nachos
- Grilled Mango Tacos with Dream Sauce
- Homemade Sopes with Black Beans
- Black Bean and Corn Salsa Fresca
- Cauliflower Tacos with Yum Yum Sauce
This lentil tacos recipe is...
Vegetarian. To make gluten-free, use corn tortillas. To make vegan, omit cheese and use Vegan Sour Cream.
PrintLentil Tacos
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 27 minutes
- Total Time: 37 minutes
- Yield: 4 to 6 1x
Description
These vegetarian lentil tacos feature a homemade taco seasoning that makes for the most flavorful meal! Serve with black beans and rice for a full meal.
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups brown lentils (8 ounces)
- 3 1/2 tablespoons homemade taco seasoning mix
- 1 red onion
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup
- 8 to 12 whole grain or corn tortillas
- Toppings of your choice: Lettuce, fresh tomatoes, shredded cheese, salsa, sour cream, or vegan sour cream
Instructions
- In a medium sauce pan, bring 1 3/4 cups salted water to a boil. Add 1 1/4 cup lentils, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer covered for about 20 to 25 minutes, until most of the water has been absorbed.
- Mix the taco seasonings. Wash and chop the lettuce and fresh tomatoes, if using.
- Finely dice 1 red onion and 2 garlic cloves. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet; add red onion and sauté for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and sauté for about 1 minute more.
- Turn off the heat and add the lentils. Stir in 3 1/2 tablespoons of taco seasoning mix and 1 1/2 tablespoons ketchup. Add more seasoning if desired.
- Warm the tortillas. (See How to Warm Tortillas for more.)
- To serve, add lentils to a warmed tortilla and top with lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream. Fold and enjoy!
- Category: Main Dish
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
Keywords: lentil tacos, vegetarian Mexican recipe
38 Comments
Zarah
July 12, 2011 at 2:56 am*stuffs recipe into the “have-to-try-or-I-might-explode-pile* :D
Lindsay @ Pinch of Yum
July 12, 2011 at 7:46 amI’m not only excited about the lentil tacos here (as I have had some lentils sitting around for a LONG time with no ideas in mind), but I’m almost more excited about the homemade taco seasoning! Yess!
Jessica
July 12, 2011 at 2:57 pmI didn’t see the recipe for the homemade taco seasoning. Can you please post it or send it to me? Thanks.
Alex
July 12, 2011 at 2:58 pmYou can find it right here: https://www.acouplecooks.com/2011/07/homemade-taco-seasoning/
Heidi @ Food Doodles
July 12, 2011 at 7:51 pmYum! I’ve seen roasted chickpeas in tacos but these look awesome too! Love using lentils but I never would have thought to put them in tacos. Awesome!
torviewtoronto
July 13, 2011 at 4:04 pmyummy looking tacos
JD Schuyler
July 13, 2011 at 6:23 pmThis is awesome!! I was just telling Jason how lentils are my new food that I’m cooking with. I’m off to guy buy some corn tortillas now. Thanks guy
sheila @ Elements
July 16, 2011 at 3:16 pmWhat a great idea! They look scrumptious! I’ll definitely try it!!! Thanks so much for sharing the recipe! :)
Melissa
July 19, 2011 at 12:53 amI made these tacos tonight and they were DELISH! Using the lentils was such a wonderful change from the norm. My family loved it. It will be our go to filling for taco nights. A huge thank you from our family to yours for a great recipe.
Alex
July 19, 2011 at 9:25 amYou’re welcome! We’re so glad you enjoyed them. They really might be tastier than ground beef – who knew?
janet
July 19, 2011 at 8:47 pmLove this! I’ve done something similar with chickpeas in a burrito.. yum!
Alycia Freimund
July 22, 2011 at 10:10 pmYUMMY. I made these and they were so good. I was out of taco seasoning so I used your receipe for that also. These were a little too spicy for the kids but my hubby and I loved them. I’m also linking this post within my menu monday blog. Thanks for a great recipe.
Sonja
July 23, 2011 at 8:11 pmI’m so glad you liked them! It’s great to know others enjoy a recipe too — thanks for sharing! :)
Kirstin
July 25, 2011 at 6:13 pmYum! I made lentil sloppy joes a few months ago! They were really, really good!
Nisha
August 9, 2011 at 1:42 amWe LOVE Lentil Tacos at our house. We’ve been using this recipe from Heather at Healthy Mom’s Kitchen. Homemade taco seasoning is so much better than store bought for sure!!
The Iowa Farmer's Wife
August 9, 2011 at 9:30 pmMade these tonight! Was looking for a lentil taco recipe and yours came up! I had leftover lentils so I prepared them a bit differently, but so yummy!
Emily Bradley
February 6, 2012 at 9:35 pmI just made these, and although I was hopeful they’d be good, I wasn’t expecting that much. Wow was I surprised! These are really fantastic and quite honestly made my former weeknight chicken taco recipe pale in comparison.
One thing I’m curious about: do you think the lentil mixture would freeze well? I’ve frozen lentil dishes of similar consistency (daal, stew-like soups, etc.) with great success, but I was wondering anyone had success freezing leftovers for this recipe.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Wendy
February 20, 2012 at 7:50 pmI just made these in hard taco shells. They’re great that way, too!
Sonja in Texas
May 2, 2012 at 5:08 pmHi, from another Sonja! Had to write and tell you how much we enjoyed this dish. Made them this afternoon for lunch. My taco was on corn tortilla and hubby had his on flour ones. Both were delicious. We topped the tacos with some ranch dressing combined with salsa. Nice little bit of moisture that hit the spot. Thanks for your beautifull collection of recipes.
Bekah @ Plenty
June 25, 2012 at 7:33 pmWe eat a lot of veggie tacos around here (2 Texans), but had never considered lentils. Can’t wait to try!
Molly
August 1, 2012 at 8:22 amJust wanted to add that we made these yesterday and, like everyone else has said, they really were amazing! If my eyes had been closed I would have thought it was beef, only I don’t really like “taco meat” beef and I LOVED this! (probably because it wasn’t greasy) You guys have got a new fan!
Alex
August 1, 2012 at 5:11 pmGlad you enjoyed them!
Katelyn
March 8, 2013 at 2:27 pmI am excited to try these! Is it made using dried lentils??
Alex
March 8, 2013 at 2:29 pmYes! Hope you enjoy the recipe.
Danielle
March 19, 2013 at 12:25 pmI love your guys’ blog! I started looking through the recipes recently and knew I would love it. I made these lentil tacos last night and they were so tasty! I can’t wait to cook up some of your recipes.
Sonja
March 24, 2013 at 7:46 pmThanks, Danielle! I’m so glad you enjoyed these tacos – they are one of our absolute favorites! Let us know if you happen to try anything else :)
Jennifer
April 4, 2013 at 9:34 amHi,
I would like to make this tomorrow night, but I would like to know if it is not necessary to soak the lentils one night before. If you get a chance, I would love to know!
Thanks in advance!
Alex
April 4, 2013 at 9:37 amHi Jennifer!
It’s not necessary to soak the lentils — they cook really quickly! :)
Jennifer
April 4, 2013 at 9:57 amThank you for the quick response! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Pam
August 26, 2013 at 9:00 pmWe tried these tonight and they were delicious! I’m always looking for new ideas for vegetarian dinners, and we really enjoyed this one. Thanks for sharing!
Nikolai
February 8, 2014 at 12:03 pmThis has become one of my favorite convenience recipes. It’s simple, quick, uses few ingredients, and super affordable.
Maya @ Maya - Kitchenette
February 27, 2015 at 7:19 pmYummy ! Tacos… this is added in recipes to try thank you so much :)
Nina at FocusedonFit.com
May 3, 2015 at 3:24 pmYum! As a vegetarian, I’m always looking for fun ways to spice up taco night….what a great idea to use lentils! Gonna try these Tuesday!
Bridget
May 25, 2019 at 7:49 pmI tried this recipe as soon as I saw it. It was awesome! My family loved them. They were great on soft and hard taco shells. They didn’t know the tacos were vegetarian until I told them.
Sarah
August 1, 2019 at 1:02 pmYum! Had these last night. They were a hit!
Sonja Overhiser
August 1, 2019 at 2:11 pmAwesome! So glad you enjoyed them.
Chris
January 1, 2021 at 4:42 pmI’m quite new to cooking with lentils and would like to know if I could use crimson or green lentils instead of brown. Do you know of a guide to lentils that I could check out? Starting a Daniel Fast with church in a few days and have been looking at tons of your recipes to try out! Excited to have so many great options!
Sonja Overhiser
January 2, 2021 at 3:36 pmThanks for asking! We like it best with brown lentils, but you could try it with green if you like — the cooking times are similar. Green just has a more peppery flavor! We would not recommend trying with red because they become mushy. Here’s our guide to lentils! https://www.acouplecooks.com/what-are-lentils/