Quick Dinner Idea: 5 Minute Tacos

Quick dinner idea: 5 minute tacos!

What’s for dinner tonight? It all started with a challenge from my sister. I asked her what kind of recipes she’d like to see from A Couple Cooks next. She asked, “Can you make a 5-minute dinner recipe?” Of course, that got our wheels turning. Because the question we’re asked again and again is: What are your top quick and easy dinner ideas?

• The format: a taco. We often make tacos or quesadillas as weeknight dinners, and they’re a good format for quick and easy dinners.
• The filling: a taco-spiced scramble. The taco-spiced eggs from our veggie burrito bowl consistently get rave reviews. Adding cumin, chili powder, and garlic powder to scrambled eggs and cooking them on low heat forms a meaty substance that we make often. So why not use them as a taco filling?
• The verdict: so good. We whipped up a batch and served our 5-minute tacos to my sister. Her response: “Whoa. These are SO good.” Yep, they’re one of the best vegetarian recipes we’ve made.

Can you really make them in 5 minutes?

That’s a good question. 5 minutes is pretty ambitious, right? Our answer: Yes, these tacos can be made in 5 minutes. Here’s what you need to pull it off in 5 minutes:

• A quick chef who’s confident in the kitchen.
• No toddlers interrupting things!
• Memorizing the recipe before you start. We’ve made it easy to memorize using ½ tablespoon of all the spices and olive oil.

Depending on your environment, it may take you between 5 and 10 minutes to finish this recipe. But either way: it’s one of the quickest dinner ideas you’ll make.

The magic of taco-spiced scrambled eggs

The filling for these quick tacos we call taco-spiced eggs. This quick dinner idea is vegetarian, and the eggs stand-in for meat. Adding a few magical spices to eggs makes them taste⁠—and look⁠—seriously meaty! The texture looks oddly similar to chorizo, but it’s only eggs. We stumbled on this trick and we use it all the time. You can use taco-spiced scrambled eggs for:

• A quick and easy dinner idea, wrapped in a tortilla
• A tasty breakfast or brunch
• Filling for a burrito
• Protein for a burrito bowl or rice bowl
• Filling for a breakfast sandwich
• In place of taco meat in a taco salad

How to keep tortillas warm?

A warm tortilla is key to a good taco. Usually we warm our tortillas over a gas flame on the stovetop (see How to Warm Tortillas). You can do that in this recipe as you’re cooking the eggs. Or you can skip it if you’re just trying to get dinner on the table fast! Tortillas start cooling the moment they’re off the flame, so they can end up brittle within minutes.

Luckily, there’s an invention for this problem that’s inexpensive and does the trick: a tortilla warmer! It’s an insulated pouch traps in the heat and keeps them perfectly heated. You definitely don’t need it for this recipe, but we like having one around our household at the rate we eat tacos around here!

More topping ideas

Of course, you can use any toppings you’d like for these 5-minute tacos! This quick dinner idea is completely customizable to what you have in your kitchen. If you have some things laying around in your refrigerator, this is the perfect way to use them! Here are a few more adders we’d suggest: but only if you have them on hand:

• Sour cream or cashew cream
• Avocado slices
• Chopped tomatoes
• Shredded cheese
• Sliced cabbage
• A spritz of lime juice