Tacos are a fun and easy meal to make, but you don’t always want to make the same thing. Get some unique Taco Recipes With A Twist in this post, like Taco Rice, Taco Pie, and more.
Looking for more things to eat? Check out all our recipe posts.
I love Mexican food. I always joke that I should have been born Mexican or Italian because I love their food. If I had the choice, I would eat tacos every day. I don’t know if Pete would, but if I’m cooking tacos for dinner every night, he’s eating tacos for dinner every night. That’s love.
If you love tasty tacos, but you don’t want the same exact meal every day — just the same flavors — you’re in luck.
I have a great list of Taco Recipes with a twist. They’re all based in taco flavors, but they aren’t all ground meat and toppings in crispy shells. Each of these recipes have some sort of twist to them, making them really unique taco recipes. Or, well, taco-adjacent, if we’re being literal.
If you bought too much taco seasoning mix or made too much homemade taco seasoning for these recipes and now you’re trying to figure out what else you can do with it, check out our list of Budget-Friendly Recipes Using Taco Seasoning (that aren’t tacos).
5+ Taco Recipes With A Twist
Affiliate links are included in this post and Drugstore Divas may make a small commission if you use them.
These are all the unique taco recipes we currently have on Drugstore Divas. But, as we add more of our favorite taco recipes to the blog, we’ll update this list. So be sure to save it (bookmark it, pin it, however you save posts) and come back to it from time to time to see what else we’ve added.
Grilled Taco Burgers
A burger and taco aren’t the same thing. I know. But once you try this Grilled Taco Burger, you’ll understand why it needs to be in your Taco Tuesday rotation.
For this recipe, pound of ground beef is seasoned with taco seasoning, then formed into patties instead of broken apart into smaller pieces. You eat this with a bun instead of a taco shell (I mean, it is a burger), and trust me, you won’t miss the hard shells (which fall apart all over anyway).
Top it with you favorite taco toppings: lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and (of course) cheddar cheese.
Lentil & Cauliflower Vegan Tacos
Don’t scroll past these lentil and cauliflower tacos just because they’re vegan. You’ll be missing out on some of the tastiest tacos you’ve ever experienced. The lentil and cauliflower mixture is delicious and is a great substitute for meat. And the mashed avocado perfectly balances the lentil mixture.
We top ours with spinach and tomato to keep them vegan. But, if you’re okay with them just being vegetarian tacos instead of vegan, you can top your own tacos with cheese and your favorite toppings.
If you want these for taco night, you do have to plan ahead because the lentils need to be soaked overnight. The next day, you drain them and mix with cauliflower to make perfect taco filling (that’s meatless!).
Taco Lasagna
Taco Lasagna is such a fun twist on tacos. It has so many components of traditional tacos — cheese, salsa, ground beef, and taco seasoning — made into a lasagna. A lot of taco lasagnas use flour tortillas for the layers, but that sort of just makes it a layered taco, not lasagna. Our Taco Lasagna is a little different because it uses lasagna noodles to form the layers.
This is a pretty easy recipe for any night of the week. You can boil the lasagna noodles while the meat cooks, then layer everything. Bake for less than an hour, and dinner’s ready.
This recipe fills an entire lasagna pan, so you can easily feed the whole family.
Slow Cooker Taco Soup
The slow cooker is one of my favorite kitchen appliances because it make cooking so easy. You dump all your ingredients into the slow cooker and ignore them until it’s time for dinner. You can make a lot of different meals in the slow cooker, including Slow Cooker Taco Soup.
This recipe calls for ground chicken because it’s a little bland so it’s able to absorb the flavors from all the other ingredients without adding a competing flavor. I love classic ground beef tacos, but beef would add a lot of flavor to this soup and you’d be missing out on the other flavors of the soup. If you don’t want chicken, you can substitute ground turkey.
Whatever meat you use, don’t forget to add crushed tortilla chips and sour cream on top. That’s delicious.
Homemade Taco Bowls
One of my favorite memories growing up is my mom making homemade taco shells. Those were honestly the best tacos ever. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized just how much work it is to make taco shells from scratch. You make the batter, shape it into a circle and cook on both side on the stovetop, then deep fry the shell to get the folded shape.
It’s so much work, but it’s so worth it.
These homemade taco bowls use that recipe, but instead of shells for tacos, you can use it as a taco bowl for taco salad. You made the batter, cook it on the stovetop, and then transfer the shells to a muffin pan and bake them instead of frying. That’s a lot easier if you’re making this for a weeknight dinner.
Taco Rice Casserole
Pete has a list of the top five things I make for dinner, and Taco Rice Casserole is on the top of the list. Any time he sees me grabbing the casserole pan, he asks if I’m making taco rice. I think he would eat taco rice every day for every meal. I’ve even made it for non-taco fans (of course, I didn’t know there were non-taco fans until I brought this out), and they were converted. It’s that good.
Taco Rice Casserole is basically all your favorite parts of tacos, plus rice, mixed together. It’s much easier than tacos because you make the meat in a large skillet on the stove, then just dump the meat and other ingredients into a casserole dish. That’s it. Super easy cleanup. Unlike tacos, which have a million little bowls to clean up after the meal is over, this is only one pan.
Wonton Taco Cups
I’m a big fan of snack dinners, and Wonton Taco Cups is one of my favorite snack dinners. Snack dinners are basically when you have dinner, but it’s served in a snackable form. Like these are tacos, but in wonton cups. How fun is that?
These Wonton Taco Cups are also a really great one-bite appetizer. So if you’re having a party, these would be a really great option of something fun to serve.
Taco Pie With Crescent Rolls
If you want to enjoy tacos without any of the mess, this Taco Pie With Crescent Rolls recipe is perfect.
It has all the flavors of tacos — meat, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, and sour cream — but instead of being served individually in taco shells, you’re making a “pie” using crescent rolls as the crust. That’s the base for all the yummy taco ingredients.
Make this once and it’s sure to be a new family favorite.
What To Serve With Tacos:
If you want to make some of these taco recipes, but you’re not sure what to serve with them, definitely make homemade guacamole and homemade salsa. You’ll also want to serve some tortilla chips on the side of those. We also really like rice and beans too. I usually do a can of refried beans, but we went out recently to a Mexican restaurant that made refried black beans, so that’s my new obsession.
If you’re not into tacos, but you want to make something Mexican(-ish) for dinner, check out our list of quesadilla recipes and nachos recipe for some more recipes.
Which of these taco recipes will you try first? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
Beverly
Wednesday 1st of May 2024
Wow, these tacos look awesome.
stephanie
Wednesday 1st of May 2024
What a great list of taco recipes!
Joanne
Wednesday 24th of April 2024
So many delicious taco alternatives! I bet my boys would love that taco lasagna.
Jennifer Wise
Tuesday 23rd of April 2024
I'm with you--I'm a huge fan of Mexican food. These variations look yummy. The taco rice casserole is calling my name. I've had wonton taco cups, and they're really good!
Swathi
Saturday 4th of May 2019
I like the idea of taco lasgna and vegan tacos. May I will give this one try for this cinco de mayo.