Specials Board: Chickpea & Lentil Taco's

As you know already there are some weird and wonderful days to celebrate throughout the year, and today is no exception, its a fabulous day. It's "Independence from Meat Day" and one I think we should all celebrate!

I'm loving Mexican style cooking at the moment, if you haven't guessed already. Today was my first day off work for a 10 day break - Yay! So I had something double to celebrate. So Mexican style cooking it was. I was feeling a little tired after a mad few weeks at work and believe it or not I haven't even been in the garden today, other than to pick a few lettuce leaves, so this recipe uses store cupboard ingredients for this meal.

Ingredients 
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Onion, diced
3 Garlic Cloves, crushed
1 Tin of chickpeas
1½-2 Tsp Hot Chilli powder
½ Tsp Dried Cumin
½ Tsp Smoked paprika
2 Tsp Porcini powder
1 Tin Green lentils
1 Tin chopped tomatoes
2 Tsp Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Tomato puree
Salt & Black pepper


Method
Saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent, about 3 minutes, then add the garlic and saute for another minute.

Meanwhile drain and rinse the chickpeas and tip into a bowl. Using a potato masher squash the chick peas, you don't want a smooth paste you want some texture. Add the chilli powder, dried cumin, smoked paprika and porcini powder and mash once more so that ll the spices are combined with the chickpeas.

Add the chickpea mixture to the pan and pour over the tin of chopped tomatoes, give everything a good stir. Add the lentils and give everything another stir.

Slowly bring to a simmer and add the balsamic vinegar and tomato paste and simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Heat the Taco shells in the oven for 3 minutes and spoon the taco mixture into the shells. Serve with homemade guacamole and a little drizzle of vegan mayonnaise. Devour!