Photo by toffuti break

Along with most of Austin, I have a breakfast taco addiction. They’re the perfect thing to eat in the morning. Savory, filling, and cheap. I often stop at Vegan Nom, Wheatsville, or Thunderbird Coffee for a breakfast taco on my way to work. But some mornings, leaving the house any sooner than absolutely necessary isn’t going to happen. (Read: I’m a terrible person to be around first thing in the morning.) So I thought, why not make a big batch of breakfast tacos and freeze them?

I checked the Internet for some suggestions and guidelines, but didn’t really find anything. Lots of advice on freezing breakfast burritos, but nothing much on breakfast tacos.

Pedantic side note: for a taco, a fairly small tortilla is folded over once around a small amount of filling. For a burrito, a large tortilla completely encloses the fillings. Taco fillings are usually fairly simple, often just one or two ingredients. Burritos, on the other hand, often have many more ingredients, including rice, which you rarely find in a taco.

So freezing breakfast tacos? Possible? Probably. I decided to consult vegan taco expert Lazy Smurf. She suggested freezing just the ingredients, and then assembling when I’m ready to eat. I quickly ignored her advice because it sounded like too much work in the morning.

So I winged it. And it turns out, when it comes to freezing, tacos and burritos are pretty similar.

Step One. Assemble all your ingredients. You’ll want smallish tortillas, about six inches. Either corn or flour is fine. If your tortillas are a bit stiff, warm them in the microwave, in the oven, or on an electric stove. For fillings, I chose refried beans, soyrizo, and hash browned potatoes. I used vegetarian refried beans warmed with a bit of salsa. Warming makes the beans more spreadable, as does stirring in a bit of salsa.  The soyrizo and hashbrowns were prepared as usual. You’ll also want a few squares of aluminum foil.

Step Two. Add your ingredients. The more filling you add, the harder it will be to fold the taco, so restrain yourself.

Step Three. Fold the taco in half. If you haven’t added too many ingredients, you should be able to press the edges of the tortilla together and smoosh the ingredients towards the middle so everything fits snugly.

Step Four. Remember the edges of the tortilla that you pressed together in Step Three? Fold them back toward the center of the taco. This will help the ingredients stay in the tortilla as you wrap it in foil.

Step Five. Wrap the foil around the tortilla. It’s best to fold over the edge of the foil on the “open” side of the taco first to keep the taco from unfolding as you wrap it.

Step Six. Freeze the tacos. I put all of mine into a gallon ziploc bag to add a bit more protection against moisture.

Reheating. When you’re ready to eat, unwrap the taco. Make sure no pieces of aluminum foil are stuck to your taco. Microwave on a plate for one minute.

I haven’t reheated these in an oven yet, but I don’t see any reason why that wouldn’t work. Other than my grumpy self in the morning not having the patience for it.