Easy Lentil Tacos

These easy lentil tacos are super simple to make, with a smoky chipotle flavour, and they can be customised with your favourite toppings.

These easy lentil tacos are such a people-pleasing dinner – and the recipe is so easy, a monkey could do it. Start with a basic chipotle lentil mixture, scoop it into taco shells, and then load each taco with different toppings. Everyone’s happy!

Easy lentil tacos

These lentil tacos are made with a smoky, slightly spicy lentil mixture, with chipotle paste for a beautiful flavour. Lentils don’t have a huge amount of flavour on their own, so they soak up the chipotle flavour beautifully, and become really tasty.

Some fresh toppings bring different flavours and textures to the lentils, giving you the perfect dinner.

Vegetarian tacos

I began my lentil taco mixture by cooking off some mushrooms, grated courgette (zucchini), and garlic.

To be honest, you could easily swap those veg for any others, and it would still work fine – just use whatever you have in the fridge. Peppers, fresh tomatoes, finely chopped carrots, aubergine (eggplant), onions… it’ll all work well.

I cooked the vegetables quite thoroughly, so they weren’t overly prominent in the finished dish. I do love getting extra veg into my cooking wherever I can, but I still wanted the lentils to be the star of these tacos.

Chipotle lentils

Next, add a tin of green lentils to the veggies, and some chipotle paste.

You can use lentils that you’ve cooked yourself instead, if you prefer – I just love using tinned lentils for things like this, as they’re so convenient. They’re already pre-cooked, so all you need to do is heat them through, and you’re good to go. They make these easy lentil tacos really quick to make.

Brown lentils and green lentils will both work well here. Red lentils will give a different texture, as they cook down a lot more than brown and green lentils, so I’d avoid those on this occasion.

The chipotle paste will really bring the mixture to life, and I also added some tomato puree and a bit of extra smoked paprika for good measure (I can’t resist the stuff).

Soft vs hard taco shells

The lentil mixture will soon be ready for scooping into taco shells.

I do love crunchy taco shells (they’d actually be a really good contrast to the soft lentils), but I find them a bit messy to eat, so this time I used soft tortillas. I used those stand-and-stuff ones because I thought they were really flipping cute, but mini tortillas will also be great.

Taco toppings

There’s only one last thing to do, and that’s to pile your lentil tacos high with whatever toppings you choose. Toppings are a great way to bring some different flavours and textures to your tacos – make each one different, if you like!

Here are some taco topping ideas:

• guacamole
• sour cream
• grated cheese
• fresh tomatoes
• sliced avocado
• fresh coriander (cilantro)
• spring onions
• shredded lettuce

I like to put the various toppings in small bowls, and let everyone help themselves. It’s a great way to feed a crowd if everyone has different dietary preferences.

Print Recipe

Easy lentil tacos

These easy lentil tacos are super simple to make, with a smoky chipotle flavour, and they can be customised with your favourite toppings.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time15 mins

Total Time25 mins

Course: Main meals

Cuisine: Mexican, Tex-Mex

Servings: 2 people

Calories: 233kcal

Author: Becca Heyes

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp oil
• 6 medium mushrooms, sliced
• 1 medium courgette (zucchini), grated
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 400 g tin lentils (brown or green), drained (265g, or ~ 1 1/4 cups, when drained)
• 1 tbsp chipotle paste
• 1 tbsp tomato puree / paste
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• Salt
• Black pepper
• To serve: Taco shells (soft or crunchy), toppings (see blog post for ideas)

Instructions

• Heat the oil in a frying pan, and add the sliced mushrooms, grated courgette, and minced garlic. Cook over a medium heat for 5-10 minutes, until any excess liquid has cooked off and the vegetables are soft.
• Add the tin of lentils, along with the chipotle paste, tomato puree, and smoked paprika. Mix well, and cook for a further 5 minutes or so, until piping hot. If the mixture seems too dry, just add a splash of water.
• Season to taste, and serve in taco shells (soft or crunchy), with your choice of toppings. I used grated cheese, fresh tomatoes, and spring onions.

Note: Nutritional information is approximate, and will depend on exactly what ingredients you choose. Information above is for 1/2 the recipe, not including taco shells and toppings.

Another favourite Tex-Mex lentil recipe is my enchilada lentil casserole: