Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Lentils are so much better than Ground Beef

Mock Taco Meat

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 cup dried lentils, picked through for rocks, and rinsed
a lot of taco seasoning (I have a large container and would guestimate that we use...1/4-1/3 cup?)
2 and 1/2 cups veggie broth + more if necessary

Saute onions and garlic in oil till soft. Add lentils and seasoning and cook 1 minute more. Add veggie broth and deglaze the pan. Bring to boil. Cover and reduce heat. Simmer until lentils are tender 25-30 min. (Whit has told me that hers always take longer than that to cook- and I always end up using more broth than the recipe calls for)

These babies can be used as a substitute anywhere that you would normally use ground beef taco meat. For instance: taco salad or just plain old crisp tacos.

In the Burton family's opinion you cannot eat these taco lentils without
sliced olives... just wouldn't be as good. Other than that we just do whatever. No recipe necessary to tell you how to make typical taco salad or tacos I'm pretty sure.

This is one of my only recipes that Corey requests on a regular basis. He told me that he genuinely prefers the taste of it to ground beef taco meat. Glory Hallelujah!

6 comments:

  1. I CAN'T WAIT TO TRY THIS!!! I LOVE the taste of tacos, or anything related, but GB makes me want to vomit incessantly. Now I can enjoy some of my faves again. Thanks Ash!

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  2. I hope you like it Kate. I'm sure you know this... but don't be expecting the exact same taste as normal taco meat. It definitely has it's own flavor. Me and mine happen to prefer it, but I sometimes worry about posting vegetarian substitutes because I know some people think it will taste the exact same but just be a healthy alternative and it's not always that way you know? Anyway, let us know what you think if you try it!

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  3. We LOVE lentil tacos at our house too! They are so tasty and this is one of the recipes that we make over and over and over again. I also put them on top of salads too! They are oh so yummy!

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  4. Oh, I am soooooooooo excited to try this. I'm not a fan of buying fake meat products (doesn't that defeat the purpose to have something so overly processed and unnatural?), but I am looking forward to this!

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  5. I agree about the fake meat products! Hope you like the lentils. This is one recipe that Corey actually REALLY likes. He asks for it a lot. We do lentil tacos, lentil taco salads, lentil burritos. It's very versatile :)

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  6. Just had these last night and they were a hit!!!! Jocelyn even had spinach on her taco last night and she gobbled the whole thing down.

    A little history... since she's been old enough to know, whenever she's in the same room as any kind of "salad" she starts screaming, "no salad no salad no salad!!!!!!!!" even after you assure her you were not going to give her any...

    Apparently it was peer pressure or something? But she asked for it and ate it this time!

    I used 1/4 of a cup of Taco Seasoning, and I thought it was perfect, but Cory thought it was a bit too spicy... just for anyone wanting to make this in the future. Thanks for a great staple to go back to over and over, Ashlee!

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