This vegan picadillo recipe is a delicious and colourful Cuban-style dish of spiced lentils, potatoes, tomatoes, olives and raisins. Served with rice, it’s quick and easy to prepare for a weeknight dinner and the warming spices of cinnamon, cumin, cloves and nutmeg make it a comforting and hearty meal for chilly weather.
Just reading that description makes picadillo seem like the weirdest dish ever. What a strange and interesting combination of flavours. But let me tell you that it works!
You know that balance of sweet, savory and sour that I go on and on about in Thai recipes? Well, this vegan picadillo recipe has all that and so much more! You can even add a bit of chili powder if you want a bit of a kick, why not?
So what is picadillo, exactly? It’s a sort of a Cuban meat hash normally prepared with ground beef. There are many ways you can substitute the ground beef to make a vegetarian picadillo.
Lots of people on the interwebs seem to like to use meat analogue, veggie ground round type products. Personally I’m against using processed food when there are perfectly good plants that can do the job.
Lentils are an obvious choice for replacing ground beef; they do such a wonderful job in vegetable shepherd’s pie, make killer meatballs for this vegan meatball sub and do a wonderful job in my vegan picadillo recipe.
Another great idea is this recipe for Cuban picadillo bowls from Cotter Crunch with roasted spiced chickpeas, sweet potatoes and dried cranberries, it looks delicious!
You can eat this vegan picadillo as is with a side of rice or fried plantains, or you can use it as a filling for tacos, burritos or empanadas.
My recipe cooks out as a dry dish (making it great as a filling) but if you like it with a bit of a gravy-like sauce, feel free to add a bit of the juice from the tomato can or a splash of vegetable stock.
Wanna see how easy vegan picadillo is to make? Watch the video and share it on Facebook:
This vegan picadillo recipe is a delicious and colourful Cuban-style dish of spiced lentils, potatoes, tomatoes, olives and raisins. Served with rice, it’s quick and easy to prepare for a weeknight dinner. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Vegan Picadillo
Ingredients
Instructions
Recommended Products
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 4
Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 478Total Fat: 10gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 741mgCarbohydrates: 81gFiber: 23gSugar: 19gProtein: 23g
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Agness of Run Agness Run says
Yummy! I needed a delicious recipe like this! Thanks for giving me an idea for lunch, Melissa!
Andrea says
This was delicious, and very healthy. I definitely needed the juice from the tomatoes, and I think next time I will add more raisins and increase the spices some.
Melissa says
Great, so glad you like it and thanks so much for your feedback!
Agata says
I tried it, but sadly cinnamon and tomatoes together appeared to be not my taste 🙁 looks good and it's very healthy. If someone likes this combo I highly reccomend
Melissa says
This was pretty spot-on! I'm Cuban, I should know (haha)! Seriously, though - it was absolutely delish...so much so that even my very picky, 5 year old cousin ate it up (two servings, in fact)! I didn't follow the recipe to a T...I didn't really measure anything, I just adjusted to taste and I left out the cinnamon and nutmeg. This was a hit in my house and I'll definitely be making it again!
Diane A says
This dish is delicious! I love it! Thank you for sharing.
Cynthia says
I am Cuban and this recipe is a God sent! I love being a vegan but I do miss the Cuban flavors and this is pretty darn good. I didn't even need to add salt.
Heather says
Wow! I was just thinking about this the other day. How to turn picadillo vegan Thank you for this recipe!
Meredith says
Any gauge on nutrition content? Macros?
J A Shimel says
This turned out very much like what they call seasoned rice in my part of the Caribbean.
I used fewer raisins and more olives, and mixed the lentils with minced, leftover veggie burgers.
Will definitely make it again.
Drina says
I loved it. I added garlic cumin powder instead of regular, and garlic stuffed green olives, so I only chopped one clove to add. I also added about a half cup veggie broth with juice from tomatoe can.
DLM says
Found this on Pinterest, I used a veggie meat option, but followed the recipe otherwise. SOOOOO delicious! My house smells amazing, this will be in regular rotation.
Jasmine says
This was so so so delicious! The olives, cinnamon, garlic...had a very Spanish feel. Absolutely amazing.
La Beatrice says
I've made picadillo out of analogs (veggie crumbles, tofu) they've turned out great, but I too am trying to move away from processed foods, por razones obvias. Thanks for the recipe, I plan to try it in empanadas!
Suzanne says
This looks so good! What a yummy, healthy lunch meal prep idea!
Dcb says
So delicious! My whole family enjoyed. Does this freeze well? I would love to make a double batch...half for the freezer.
JOSIE says
Excellent recipe which is easy to make.
Erin Ryan says
What type of lentils do you use for this? and are these lentils the same type that you use for the vegan meatball sub?
Melissa says
Brown lentils, yes, I use the same for the meatball sub.
Rebecca says
This recipe came out amazingly! I made the following substitutions to use what I had on hand:
-yellow split lentils instead of regular
-apple cider vinegar instead of red wine vinegar
-dried cranberries instead of raisins
-kalamata olives instead of green
This recipe is definitely getting on the rotation! I used to work at a Cuban restaurant before going veggie so it's amazing to get to enjoy some Cuban food again. Thanks for the recipe!
Cary says
Can o make this in the instapot?
Bob says
Thank You Melissa for sharing your talents! This has become one of our very favorite recipes.
B says
I've made this a couple times, and it's delicious - and only gets more delicious sitting in the fridge! I had some trouble getting the potatoes to cook, but threw them in while I was cooking the lentils the second time and that worked well.
Warning to others who, like me, might not engage their brain: the amount shown is COOKED lentils, not uncooked. If you decide to halve it, you are cooking ONE cup of lentils, not two. Duh.