Taco Style Lentils and Rice

Oh my goodness, this was a HUGE hit!! I had my doubts while it was bubbling on the stove, but EVERYONE loved it. Every single member of the family! Yippee!!!! It was delicious and filling. The kids never knew (til they heard us talking about it later) that there was no meat inside the tortilla shells. Whenever I have served brown rice before everyone has complained. Well, again, no-one knew there was brown rice hidden inside of this dish! Cooking the lentils and rice together made it a complete protein, which means we got all the protein benefits of meat without the fat! You have got to try this! Trust me, it looks really really.....what's the word.....brown.....but it is absolutely delicious! It is also really inexpensive. Well under $5 total. I'm going to do a more exact cost breakdown the next time I'm at the store, just because I am really curious to see how cheaply I can feed my family such healthy and delicious food!

The beef bouillon eliminates this as a vegetarian dish (I think) but it obviously counts as a bean dish (I am trying to cook at least one vegetarian dinner and one bean dinner each week).

This recipe is from the Hillbilly Housewife website.

Note for larger families, I made this recipe according to the exact measurements and it was just enough for our family of 7. We were all satisfied but there were no leftovers. If you have hungry teenagers and/or more than 5 children, you will probably want to make one and a half batches or double it.

3/4 cup dry lentils (I used red lentils but you can use any type)
3/4 cup brown rice, uncooked
4 cups water
4 beef bouillon cubes or 4 tsp beef soup base
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder (I skipped this because we didn't have any)
1/4 tsp garlic powder (I upped this to 1 tsp because of having no onion powder)

In a 2 quart saucepan bring the water to a boil. As the water is heating, add everything else. Bring the whole thing to a nice fat boil. Reduce heat to low. Place a lid on the pan and allow the mixture to simmer for 45 to 50 minutes or until water is mostly absorbed. It should have about the same consistency as cooked white sticky rice when it's done, though it will be slightly more goopy because of the cooked lentils.

This is what it looked like halfway through the cooking time:




You could serve this in a variety of ways. We chose to put a dollop inside soft tortilla shells, lay the shells in a casserole pan, sprinkle with cheddar cheese and a touch of mango salsa, and bake for a few minutes until the cheese was melted.


I served this alongside waldorf salad and it was a really delicious meal! (Please ignore the paper plates. :-) My wonderful hubby was in charge of setting the table and he always chooses paper.)