Name: Vegan Lentil Tacos
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 30 min
Ingredients: 1 cup dried lentils (green or brown, NOT red); 3 cups water; 1 tablespoon tomato paste; 2 tablespoons taco seasoning; 2 teaspoons soy sauce (or salt to taste); 6 tortillas; toppings of your choice

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Whether it’s Taco Tuesday or not, you need these vegan lentil tacos in your life! Top with an avocado crema or your favorite toppings.

A close up of a vegan lentil taco topped with red onions, tomatoes, vegan cheese, and parsley.

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Avocado Crema
Ingredients
Instructions
Tips & Tricks
Prepping & Storage
Recipe

These vegan lentil tacos were one of the first deliberately meatless meals I made. It helped me realize that going vegan wasn’t as scary as I perceived it to be – and could actually be super delicious.

Lentils make a great beef substitute in a lot of dishes (like shepherd’s pie) and they soak up flavor like no other.

Avocado Crema

The original recipe (published back in 2018) included a recipe for avocado crema. Unfortunately, when I reshot and retested this recipe to update it, I couldn’t include the avocado…because I developed an allergy to it. Fun! *sarcasm*

Regardless, I still wanted to stick the recipe here for those interested. It’s creamy and refreshing, perfect to atop spicy lentil tacos! Of course, vegan sour cream is always a winning taco-topper, too. Or nacho cheese!

Avocado Crema Ingredients

1 cup raw cashews (soaked and drained)
1 ripe avocado, pitted and peeled
1 garlic garlic powder
1 lime, juiced

Avocado Crema Instructions

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy.

Ingredients

Lentils: The best kind of lentils to use are either green or brown lentils. Avoid red lentils. Red lentils best for soup recipes – they kind of mush up and break apart easily, like split peas. Green or brown lentils hold their shape well.
Tomato paste: Adds flavor! Can be omitted.
Taco seasoning: Use your favorite! Or make homemade.
Soy sauce: Adds salt and an umami flavor. Can be omitted.
Toppings of your choice: Like vegan nacho cheese, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos, etc!

A collage of two side-by-side images. The first shows water, lentils, taco seasoning, soy sauce added to a pot before boiling. The second shows the lentils fully cooked.

Instructions

Stir the lentils, water, tomato paste, taco seasoning, and soy sauce together in a pot.
Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer.
Cook until tender, about 20 minutes.
If the lentils don’t have enough kick for you, add some more taco seasoning.

Tips & Tricks

Tender lentils: If all the liquid is soaked up and the lentils are still dry/crunchy, add a little more water.
No-beef broth: Instead of water, cook the lentils in a broth made with no-beef bouillon. This will give your taco meat even more of a meaty flavor!

Prepping & Storage

This taco meat is an excellent recipe to meal prep! Enjoy with tacos, of course, or make nachos with it!

Store your meal prepped or leftover lentils in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can also make a big batch and freeze them for up to 3 months in an airtight container/bag!

A close-up of a taco made with lentils held by a hand. The taco is in a corn tortilla topped with vegan sour cream, vegan cheese, tomatoes, red onion, and parsley.

Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and a star review below. Then, snap a photo and tag me on Instagram @karissasvegankitchen so I can see your delicious creation!

Recipe