Leftover Lamb Tacos

Learn how to turn your leftover lamb into a delicious feast with this amazing leftover lamb tacos recipe! Say goodbye to food waste and hello to flavour explosion!

I love using leftover meat to create delicious Monday night meals. It’s a great way to save money, reduce food waste and just try new things. 

This recipe for tacos with leftover roast lamb is absolutely delicious, and perfect whether you’ve got a little lamb or absolutely tons!

Disclaimer: While I aim to be as accurate as possible, any advice in this post, including but not limited to, cooking times, quantities, nutritional information and storage and freezing guidance is based on my own experience. Please use your own skills, knowledge and judgement, and get up to date food safety information. 

Why Tacos are the Perfect Way to Use Leftover Roast Lamb

Leftover Roast Lamb Tacos are perfect for using up leftovers because:

• Who doesn’t love tacos?
• You can add salad, sides, and sauces, but you don’t have to. Add what you like!
• They’re not spicy lamb tacos, so perfect for kids.
• If you have lots of lamb, fab, but if not, you can add beans, or even corn, to create more filling for your tacos. 
• You can use store-bought taco shells to make life easier. 
• We use soft taco boats, but hard shells are great too. You could also use wraps. 
• Tacos are fun!
• These easy lamb tacos are ready in about 15 minutes, and who doesn’t need a quick dinner on a Monday night? 

Ingredients for Leftover Lamb Tacos

Tacos are fantastic because they are very much use what you’ve got! When I make my leftover lamb tacos I use:

Cooking Spray – Or olive oil/other cooking oil

Red Onion 

Red Pepper – Other colours are fine too.

Leftover Roast Lamb 

Kidney Beans 

Cumin

Chilli Powder

Paprika

Oregano

Cinnamon – Just a pinch, but it adds a lovely deep flavour. 

Salt and Pepper

Water

Soft Taco Boats 

Cheese, Salad and Dips 

How Should You Cut the Lamb for Lamb Tacos?

Pulled lamb tacos would be great. But while I find chicken and pork really easy to pull, or shred into strips with my hands, I never find it as easy with lamb. 

So instead, I wait until my leftover roast lamb is cool and then dice it into little cubes, probably about 5mm-1cm big. 

There’s no right way really though. 

However you choose to cut your lamb, make sure it’s kept in a sealed container in the fridge, only kept for a day, or two at the very most, and only reheated once. 

You can find out more about reheating and saving meat here.

Do You Have to Add Kidney Beans?

No not at all. 

If you’ve only got about 300g of lamb, and you want to make tacos for four, adding kidney beans is a great way to make it go further while adding nutrition. 

But things like more peppers, diced courgettes, and frozen corn on the cob are great too. 

If you’ve got around 500g of lamb, you should have enough without any other additions. 

Can You Add Other Beans?

Yes. Kidney beans are great, but other beans, like butter beans or cannellini beans, are fine too. 

In fact, if you want to make your tacos go further, or stuff them fuller, two different kinds of beans are great. 

What if You’ve Got More or Less Lamb?

If you’ve got more lamb, that’s fine just add more, with or without the beans. Add a little more water if you need to. 

Less lamb will mean either fewer or emptier tacos or that you’ll need to add things like beans and veggies to bulk them out. 

Can You Use Crunchy Taco Shells?

Yes, leftover lamb tacos are great with crunchy shells, or small tortilla wraps. 

We use soft boats because the kids prefer them and find them easier to eat. 

You can use whatever you prefer. 

Can You Use This Taco Seasoning for Other Tacos?

Yes, this is a super simple lamb taco seasoning that would work with other meats and vegetables just as well. 

How to Make Tacos with Leftover Lamb – Step by Step

You can get full quantities and easy-to-follow instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post too. 

Step One

Dice the lamb into chunks less than 1cm. You can either do this on Sunday, once your leftover lamb has cooled down before you put it in the fridge, or right before you cook your tacos. 

Step Two

Slice the onion and dice the peppers. 

If your kids are onion haters, you can finely dice to hide the onion, but I keep mine in thin slices.

Step Three

Heat the cooking spray or oil in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat on the hob. 

Step Four

Add the sliced onions and fry for 5 minutes until soft. You’ll want to stir fairly regularly so they don’t stick.

Step Five 

Add the pepper and fry for another 2 minutes, stirring often. By now your onions should be really soft and translucent. If you want to add other veggies, do it now. 

Step Seven

Add the lamb, beans, water and spices and stir really well, so you can see the water has mixed the spices, and coated the lamb. 

Step Eight

Simmer for around 10 minutes, stirring regularly. This is quite a dry dish, so it will stick if left.

If you need to add a little more water, that’s fine. Just make sure your lamb is absolutely piping hot before you serve. Cooking for a little longer if needed. 

Step Nine

Build your tacos. I tend to add lettuce, cucumber, grated cheese and tomato salsa or guacamole and sour cream to mine. But add your own favourite taco fillings. 

My kids prefer taco boats for Mexican lamb tacos because they are easy to fill and eat. But you could use crunchy shells, or corn tortillas if you prefer. 

We tend to put everything out on the table and let the kids build their own leftover roast lamb tacos. 

What to Serve with Lamb Tacos

These tacos with lamb have everything, so you don’t need any side dishes at all. 

If you did want more, corn on the cob, a side salad and fresh lime wedges, jacket potatoes, spicy rice or garlic bread would all be fine. 

Other Recipes with Leftover Roast Lamb

Some of my other favourite ways to use up leftover lamb include:

• Lamb Tikka Masala
• Leftover Lamb Ragu
• Shepherd’s Pie with Leftover Lamb
• Leftover Lamb Stew
• Leftover Lamb Tagine
• Greek Wraps with Leftover Lamb
• Leftover Lamb Hotpot
• Lamb, Mint and Potato Pie
• Leftover Lamb Curry
• Enchilada Sauce

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