Pressure Cooker Turkey Lentil Taco Filling
Taco filling made with good-for-you lentils, lean ground turkey, onions, garlic, and a great blend of Mexican spices. Makes a big batch in your Insta Pot so you can have some for dinner tonight, and freeze some for lunch or dinner another day. This Instant Pot recipe for Pressure Cooker Turkey Lentil Taco Filling is the perfect dinner solution for Taco Tuesday!
This recipe is adapted from a slow cooker recipe in a wonderful new cookbook, Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook: Freezer-Friendly Recipes and Frozen Food Shortcuts, from my good friend and fellow Utah blogger, Becky from Vintage Mixer.
How to make Turkey Lentil Taco Filling in an Instant Pot
An Instant Pot is one of the most popular brands of electric pressure cookers. They are easy to use and your Instant Pot can help you create this delicious Turkey Lentil Taco Filling!
The cookbook doesn’t contain any pressure cooker recipes, but many of the recipes could easily be converted into pressure cooker recipes. If you need help learning how to convert conventional recipes to make them in a pressure cooker, check out my post – How To Convert A Recipe Into A Pressure Cooker Recipe.
The reason I’m excited to share the cookbook on Pressure Cooking Today is the great freezing tips at the front of the cookbook. Freezer meals make dinner prep so quick and easy!
I like to use the Divide and Portion Method Becky elaborates on in the cookbook. Then I use Ziploc freezer bags to freeze things in individual portions. When I made the Instant Pot recipe this time, I divided the pressure cooker turkey lentil taco filling into single serve portions for quick lunches and dinners.
Becky also talks about freezing in other containers, jars and rigid plastic containers. I know many pressure cooker enthusiasts freeze their stock in round containers that fit easily in the pressure cooker so they can pressure cook the stock without thawing. Pressure Cook Recipes uses ice cube trays to freeze their pressure cooker stock.
I’d love to hear your tips for freezing the great meals you’re whipping up in your pressure cooker. Leave me a comment with you best freezing tips.
If you’d like to win a copy of Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook, be sure and scroll down to get the details on how you can enter my Giveaway.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 pound ground turkey*
- 2 onions diced
- 4 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 3 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1 pound dried lentils
Instructions
- Select sauté and add oil to cooking pot. When oil is hot, sauté ground turkey, onion, and garlic until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Stirring occasionally to break up turkey. Stir in remaining ingredients in the order listed.
- Select high pressure and 6 minutes cook time. When beep sounds turn pressure cooker off, use a natural pressure release for 10 minute. After 10 minutes release any remaining pressure with a quick pressure release.
- When valve drops carefully remove lid. If necessary, select saute and cook stirring frequently until all liquid has evaporated.
Notes
The Giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to Maureen McCulley!
The Countryman Press is giving away to one lucky Pressure Cooker Today reader, one copy of Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook.
Here’s How To Enter the Sweepstakes Giveaway:
Leave a comment on this post before Wednesday, July 6th at noon, MST.
The giveaway is only open to residents of the continental US (excluding Hawaii and Alaska.) Be sure your email address is included with your comment(s). Winner will be chosen randomly, notified by email and will have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.
Disclosure: I purchased Fast to the Table Freezer Cookbook to review, and as always, all opinions expressed are always my own.
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I love tacos, but not a big eater of ground beef. This recipe is perfect. The content and the way it is frozen makes an ideal recipe to keep and use. Thanks.
Somewhere I have a recipe for a taco filling that uses only lentils. I need to look it up and see if I can make it in the pressure cooker. It is tomato based and was really good. Can’t believe I forgot about it. Your post made me remember it. Thanks!
I love trying new taco recipes and this one looks delicious. What a great way to add turkey to my meals.
I am a pressure cooker convert and tell all my other converts new to pressure cooking about this blog. I stopped making my own stock because it was inconvenient having to wait for it to thaw. I like the ice cube idea. Thanks.
Hi Rebecca – thanks for sharing my site with your friends! Give the ice cube idea a try and let me know how you like it 🙂
I love my pressure cooker and really look forward to trying this recipe! Looks delish!
Sounds yummy I am going to try this next week. Love the pressure cooker all year round
Lentils and tacos – what could be better? I love being able to prep ahead and have things ready to go. Especially during the summer. Thanks for sharing this recipe (and converting it from the book) and for the sweepstakes!
I am always looking for new Pressure Cooker idea’s and recipes and this one sounds like a real winner. I love healthy eating and new ways to be able to do that with my pressure cooker, especially using grains.
We love this recipe. I have made something like it before. I love anything with lentils. My granddaughter just asked me for Spicy Lentil Soup. Probably will make this recipe and have the kids put it over rice. They are into a rice thing right now.
I am new to the pressure cooking scene and I love it. Your recipes are the best. Thanks.
I think I’ll try this (omitting the salt)– I’m always looking for heart-healthy recipes.
Turkey and lentils in a taco? Who would have thought how delicious that would be.
These look really good! I love lentils cooked in the pressure cooker.
I love to cook large batches of dried beans in my pressure cooker, then freeze in 1.5 cup servings in pint jars. This recipe looks like a keeper! Pinned to my Pinterest board.
Thanks Kelly! Great idea.
I remember my mom’s pressure cooker and we couldn’t stay in the kitchen when it was going for safety. Now it is a favorite kitchen item and I use it often. Would love to replace it, or maybe even have a second one.
It is nice having two in the kitchen 🙂
This is an excellent recipe, flavored very well. Thanks for adapting it to the PC. That book looks like one I could get a lot of use out of.
Thanks Maureen 🙂
This is awesome Barbara! And the tips for using the pressure cooker to defrost stock – that would be a huge time saver! Now, if I could fit one more appliance in my tiny house then I must get a pressure cooker 🙂
Thanks Becky – I look forward to trying more great recipes from the cookbook. You definitely need to put a bigger kitchen on your wish list 🙂
This looks like a great recipe to add to our menu. Thanks for converting it to Pressure Cooking for us!
Thanks Jan – hope you enjoy it.
Thanks Jan – slow cooker recipes are usually easy to convert to the pressure cooker.
I love lentils and tacos – win/win. Also, I just bought almost 7 lbs. of lentils from Amazon, so I am always looking for ways to use them.
Wow – 7 lbs. You’ll have to share how you used them with me. 🙂
Si far, letil risotto and lentil soup. Your recipe will be next!
I’m not a huge lentil fan, but this looks pretty tasty!
Hi Rebecca – I’m not a huge lentil fan either, but hardly even noticed them in this recipe.
I always enjoy reading and trying your recipes, Barbara. This one is no exception. I am a pressure cooking novice, and I’m wondering if you’d consider doing a post on things to consider when one converts a slow cooker recipe to pressure cooking. I see people talking about doing this all the time, but I’m lost to know where to begin making the conversion.
Thanks Meg! That’s a great idea for a post. I’ll get working on it.
Thanks for the great suggestions for making the turkey lentil taco mix! Great idea for those of us who are empty nesters. Love your pressure cooking recipes, but also like the tips and hints. I would love to read the book… I absolutely love to read cookbooks! sometimes I even cook! lol
Thanks Lois. Good luck with the giveaway.
Looks like a keeper! Sounds tasty plus reduces the amount of meat and adds extra fiber with the lentils. This past month I’ve cooked double amounts on the weekends and am freezing half of that for use during those extra hectic, too tired to cook nights.
My parents were huge advocates of freezing food. My dad had a large “industrial” type freezer in the basement. He would even freeze milk when it was a bargain, of course first he removed about 3 inches of the milk to prevent expansion from cracking the jug.
Thanks Sharon – I think we all have those kinds of nights. How great would it be to have all that freezer space.
This sounds great! I would definitely be interested in this book.
Thanks Karen! Good luck 🙂
This looks delicious and easy! Plus cooking with the pressure cooker keeps my kitchen cool in the summertime.
I think people forget about their pressure cooker in the summer, but it really is a great time to use it.
This sounds great! All the better that it can be frozen in portions.
Thanks Jan!
You know….this might JUST be the way to get Bob to eat lentils….tucking them into something Mexican with all those great seasonings and spices. I like it! 🙂
I love making a big batch of pressure cooker stock when we have chicken or turkey hand freezing it in freezer containers for recipes….I try to keep a few containers in there at all times-there’s nothing like homemade stock and the pressure cooker makes it so quickly.
I’ve been doing a lot of freezing portions these days for nights that the day has been crazy and I don’t feel like cooking from step one. They’re lifesavers to grab and thaw…makes dinner super easy.
I think you’re right Carol – it’s the perfect way to get Bob to eat lentils. You’re also right about how much better homemade stock is.
This sounds great. It will be dinner tonight.
Thanks Catherine – let me know how you like it.
Lentils…yum! This looks like a terrific book.
That sounds good and I like the idea of freezing info too !!!!
I’m new to using a pressure cooker and can’t wait to become a master!
This recipe is just what I have been looking for as my family loves turkey tacos. Love lentils and the great freezer tips. Thanks!
This recipe sounds like just what I need to get through this years hot summer – we have been over 100 for the past 3 days now with no cool down insight till Saturday Jul 2. I love my new electric pressure cooker- have used on old one that was my mom’s forever. I am going to make this recipe tonight for sure as Taco’s sound perfect. Thanks for sharing and for the change to get a free cook book too.
This looks fabulous and thanks for the tip on converting to pressure cooking
This taco recipe looks delicious! I love lentils. Thanks for the giveaway; I could use some new ideas.