Ancho Lentil Taco Salad Wraps

Spring has sprung? Wishful thinking?

Rob and I took advantage of the glorious weather this weekend to ride our bikes for the first time this year.

Having my bike cleaned and tuned over the winter meant I had a sparkly bike to ride! Except I noticed my fender is broken, so I have to figure out whether I will fix that.

We used this as an opportunity to bike to our new favourite restaurant: Hot Beans. Turns out the shops and restos in Kensington Market are open for the long weekend, YA!

I don’t know why, but it took me a while to finally try out Hot Beans, a fast-food vegan resto with burritos, tacos and nachos… and my favourite: burrito bowls. Sounds possibly terrible, but it is vegan goodness in its glory. Filled with vegan staple goodness: beans, brown rice, salsa, lettuce, chili aoili and vegan cheese sauce with your main topping of choice. Ask about their special menu. Mix-and-match but you can basically pick from Ancho-spiced TVP, seitan, black beans, lentils and Rob’s favourite: BBQ jackfruit. Add hot sauce as you see fit. Rob and I both had similar versions of the The Bill’s Big Dick, aka BBQ jackfruit + Ancho TVP burritos (mine in bowl form, Rob in burrito form).

After being stuffed to the gills, we peddled home. I definitely have to get my legs back into cycling mode as we train for Rideau Lakes again. Hopefully the warmer weather will persist.

I figured we would be Ancho’ed out but later that afternoon, Rob was whipping up Ancho lentils! Destined to be a Rob’s Repeater Recipe, because it was so easy and SO GOOD. This recipe didn’t make PPK’s Top 100 list for nothing! Spicy, but not too spicy, and a bit sweet, these lentils were so flavourful. We went really low-key after such a lunch-fest, stuffing Romaine leaves with the filling and topping them with thick slabs of avocado. Rob doesn’t like collard wraps as much as me, but he gave the Romaine boats two thumbs up. Romaine is definitely sweeter than the darker leafy greens and the inner part of the leaf makes it easy to scoop up a beany filling.

Am I behind the times? Have you made these lentils already? If only Rob didn’t finish off the last of our green lentils with this batch. 🙂

How do you like green wraps? What’s your favourite? I like collards because they are bigger and easier to make transportable wraps but I was really digging the lettuce this time around.

This is my submission to this month’s Bookmarked Recipes and to this week’s Weekend Wellness.

Ancho Lentil Taco Salad Wraps
Adapted from Post Punk Kitchen

1 cup dry lentils, sorted and rinsed (green or brown lentils)

1 tbsp coconut oil
1 small onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
2 tsp ground Ancho chile
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 tsp sriracha, or to taste

4-8 Romaine leaves
1 large avocado, sliced

1. In a medium pot, add rinsed lentils and cover with 1-2″ of lightly salted water. Bring to a boil and cook until lentils are soft, approximately 30-45 minutes. Drain but reserve the cooking water.

2. In a large skillet over medium-high heat, heat oil. Once hot, add onion, sprinkle with salt and saute until lightly browned, approximately 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1 minute more. Stir in oregano, ancho chile powder, cumin, coriander and salt and toast for 30 seconds, until lightly fragrant.

3. Lower heat to medium and add cooked lentils with a touch of the cooking liquid. Stir in tomato paste and sriracha (or you choice of hot sauce). Mash your lentils if you wish, but we didn’t. Cook for 5 minutes to get the flavours to meld, adding any additional reserved cooking water as necessary.

4. Use as a filling for tacos. This time, we opted to stuff a Romaine lettuce leaf and top with avocado.

Serves 4.