Green Lentils and Maitake Mushroom Tacos | Gluten Free, Vegetarian

Earthy and umami filled tacos with green lentils and maitake mushrooms on corn tortillas topped with pickled purple cabbage, cilantro and garlic Greek yogurt!

You know how when sometimes, some ingredients inspire you to make something really amazing. These Green Lentils and Maitake Mushrooms Tacos were a product of one such inspiration and the ingredient was the beautifully gorgeous maitake mushrooms. I am not the greatest fan of mushrooms, so I mostly skip that section while browsing for produce at the grocery store. The other day I went to Whole Foods and could help but notice these gorgeous mushrooms. Even though I don’t like mushrooms a lot, I do love me some wild mushrooms and shitakes and maitakes. It is the regular button mushrooms that I cannot stand. These were expensive at $19.99 / lb but I still wanted to buy some, so I carefully weighed out ½ lb and brought them back home with me.

The mushrooms just by themselves were not enough to make a filling that will suffice all three of us for dinner, so I decided to add some “meat” to it and soaked and cooked some green lentils. That was one of the best decisions I made and the earthiness of the mushrooms and the lentils just blended in without being overpowering at all. I sauteed some cipollini onions and the mushrooms, added the cooked lentils, seasoned them with salt and black pepper and added just a dash of white wine vinegar for some oomph. That did the trick. It was a very flavorful and earthy taco filling and we all enjoyed it, including the little guy! After all, the “little dragons” love tacos too!

Look at that gorgeous looking maitakes!

Green Lentils and Maitake Mushroom Tacos – The Recipe

Ingredients

• ½ cup green lentils
• 2 cups water
• 1 tbsp grapeseed oil
• ½ lb maitake mushrooms
• 1 cipollini onion, chopped
• salt, to taste
• black pepper
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp, minced cilantro
• 12-15 corn tortillas

For the pickled cabbage:

• 1 cup purple cabbage, thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• ½ tsp red chili flakes

For the garlic yogurt:

• ½ cup greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp water
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• salt, to taste

Method:

Wash the lentils and cook them in the 2 cups of water, adding a little salt to it. It will take about 25 mins or so to cook.

Heat the oil in a saute pan and add the onions to it. Saute till they turn translucent and tear the mushrooms gently with your hand and add them to the pan. Saute for 2 mins. Add the cooked lentils, salt, pepper and white wine vinegar. Switch off heat and keep aside.

Mix the cabbage, white wine vinegar and red chili flakes and keep aside.

Thin the yogurt with the 2 tbsp water, add the garlic powder and salt and mix well.

Warm the tortillas, top with some of the lentil mushroom mix, the pickled cabbage and a squeeze of the yogurt mix. Garnish with the minced cilantro and devour!