Whether you love to cook or you're just attempting to make more homemade meals, making time to cook from scratch every night can be challenging. However, many staples of Latin cuisine are actually ideal for quick, easy weeknight meals.
More from MamásLatinas: The 40 best Latin slow cooker recipes ever
Just think about it–tacos, rice and beans, soups and stews–they all either require very little cooking time or can be cooked low and slow with very little hands-on time required. Plus, lots of Latin-inspired dishes are also perfect for making ahead and freezing, and many even taste better as leftovers since all of the yummy flavors have extra time to seep in.
Keep these 40 easy Mexican and Latin-inspired recipes on hand and make them a part of your weekly dinner rotation to take the guesswork out of your weeknights.
Lomo Saltado takes just about 35 minutes from start to finish.
Lomo saltado is a Peruvian beef and veggie stirfry that's combined with get this…french fries! How could you go wrong?
Get the full recipe from Potato Goodness.
These chili-lime power bowls are full of flavor.
These nutritious chili-lime beef and black bean power bowls, do require remembering to marinate in advance, but otherwise take very little time to prepare and they're packed with protein.
Get the full recipe from Healthy Aperture.
This Peruvian seafood stew is really versatile.
This Peruvian seafood stew features a verdant cilantro-based broth that would go well with chicken or even garbanzo beans instead of seafood if you're in a pinch and need to make substitutions. Plus, it's even ready to eat in well under an hour.
Get the full recipe from Feasting at Home.
Mexican-inspired stuffed peppers are loaded with flavor.
Stuffed peppers sound complicated, but they're actually such an easy all-in-one dinner. These Mexican-inspired stuffed peppers have lots of flavor from the use of sausage, cheese and taco seasoning.
Get the full recipe from Mama Loves Food.
Crema de Mazorca is filling and so easy to prepare.
Topped with aguacate and served alongside bread or tortillas, this creamy corn and potato soup makes for an easy, filling dinner.
Get the full recipe from My Colombian Recipes.
This chicken enchilada casserole is great to make ahead.
This chicken enchilada casserole uses just four ingredients, including storebought enchilada sauce. There's no shame in taking a short cut every once in a while.
Get the full recipe from Jodeze Home and Garden.
Serve arepas with simple sides for an easy dinner.
Make up a quick batch of arepas and serve them alongside some sliced ham and cheese, and you'll have a sandwich-like dinner on the table in no time.
Find the full recipe on MamásLatinas.
This Mexican chicken quinoa casserole is healthy and easy.
I love a good quinoa bake or quinoa salad, and this Mexican-inspired version makes a delicious, nutritious and simple dinner.
Get the full recipe from Pinch of Yum.
This simple corn and shrimp chowder looks impressive.
This corn and shrimp chowder requires a bit of chopping, but it cooks quickly and looks impressive enough for company.
Find the full recipe at MamásLatinas.
This Mexican rice casserole is great for Meatless Monday.
This one-skillet Mexican rice casserole is an easy and delicious take on classic rice and beans. It's loaded with veggies and has protein from the beans, so it really is a complete meal in one.
Get the full recipe from Making Thyme for Health.
Go grain-free with these easy Mexican spaghetti squash boats.
These grain-free Mexican-inspired spaghetti squash boats have all the flavors of a burrito without the gluten or any grain at all, and are super-simple to make.
Get the full recipe from Honey and Spiced.
This sofrito shrimp is more like a 20-minute meal.
Puerto Rican-style sofrito shrimp is something my mom used to make growing up. It's seasoned well, cooked quickly and served over rice in about 20 minutes' time.
Get the full recipe from Vivian and Me.
This sheetpan chicken dinner is full of Cuban flavors.
I'm having a bit of a love affair with sheet pan dinners lately. They are just so easy! This Cuban version is full of citrus and spice and served with an avocado salsa. Yum!
Get the full recipe from Half Baked Harvest.
Try this Puerto Rican steak stir fry for a quick weeknight meal.
After a quick marinae, this affordable cut of steak is cooked with peppers and onions and served with rice for a super-fast meal any night of the week.
Get the full recipe from The Levantess.
This cilantro lime chicken is the perfect taco filling.
This tasty cilantro lime chicken shreds up easily after hours in the slow cooker, and can be turned into the perfect taco filling in just minutes.
Get the full recipe from Belle of the Kitchen.
Empanadas look complicated, but they're not.
When you use storebought empanada dough and bake them in the oven instead of standing over a pot of hot oil, empanadas are totally doable and healthier to boot.
Get the full recipe from Kitchen Dreaming.
This quick Mexican shrimp skillet is so versatile.
Any time you use shrimp, you're pretty much guaranteed a quick and healthy meal. This Mexican-inspired skillet shrimp can be served over a salad, any grain or in a tortilla for a complete meal.
Get the full recipe from Family Food on the Table.
Substitute lentils for beef in this vegan picadillo.
All is not lost if you forgot to defrost meat for dinner. In under thirty minutes you can serve up this vegan picadillo, which uses lentils instead of ground beef.
Get the full recipe from Cilantro and Citronella.
Cuban vaca frita makes use of leftovers!
Cuban vaca frita–or fried beef–actually uses leftover roast beef or otherwise slow cooked beef. It's simply crisped in a pan and served with rice and beans.
Get the full recipe from iCuban.
Load some tortilla chips up with lots of toppings and call it dinner.
Your options for making sheet pan nachos are pretty much limitless. You can use any protein, vegetable and cheese you have. Just pop everything in the oven to melt and get toasty.
Get the full recipe from Damn Delicious.
The crockpot takes all the work out of these Cuban sandwiches.
Use a slow cooker to prepare the pork, and these Cuban sandwiches come together in minutes come dinner time.
Get the full recipe from Sugar Dish Me.
This gorgeous tortilla soup really is easy to make.
You can't get much easier than a set-it-and-forget-it dinner than this slow cooker chicken tortilla soup. It's simple and incredibly healthy.
Get the full recipe from Evolving Table.
Rice and beans is the perfect fall-back meal.
When you're short on time, money or both, rice and beans is always a great option for a quick, filling dinner. Serve it with some avocado and a little salad or all on its own.
Get the full recipe from Kitchen Gidget.
These baked chimichangas can be prepped in advance.
The filling for these baked chicken chimichangas all gets mixed together in one bowl before stuffing and rolling it up in tortillas. Then, you can pop everything into the oven just before dinner time.
Get the full recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything.
You might not think of ropa vieja as an easy dish, but it can be.
By skipping a few of the traditional steps involved in making ropa vieja, the process is made a lot easier and hands-on time is reduced significantly.
Get the full recipe from Always Order Dessert.
There's a trick to making paella without all the fuss.
This paella is finished in the oven and is easy enough to make that you could prepare it any night of the week.
Get the full recipe from Pure Wow.
Pastelon is easier than it looks.
Making pastelon is actually as easy as whipping up a quick batch of picadillo and mashing some plantains. It's so simple even kids can make it.
Get the full recipe from Smart Lil' Cookie.
This take on arroz con pollo is healthy and quick!
This healthy take on arroz con pollo replaces white rice with cauliflower making it a low carb, grain-free and super easy supper.
Get the full recipe from SkinnyTaste.
Skip the drive-thru and make these easy enchiladas verde instead.
These chicken enchiladas are super-easy and fast to make with a little help from some storebought salsa verde.
Get the full recipe from Inspired Taste.
Picadillo is a classic for a reason.
Picadillo is a dish many Latinos grew up eating once or even more a week, and for good reason. It's super-easy to prepare and always filling. If you're not into the vegan swap we mentioned previously, here's how to make the traditional version.
Get the full recipe from Savory Tooth.
This healthy version of enchiladas is even easier than the traditional kind.
These cheesy enchilada zucchini boats are almost a cross between Mexican enchiladas and Puerto Rican canoas. Zucchini halves are stuffed with a quinoa and bean mixture for a healthy and fast meal.
Get the full recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod.
Have breakfast for dinner with this chilaquiles casserole.
In less than an hour and with just five base ingredients, you could serve this chilaquiles casserole as a hearty breakfast for dinner. If you're even shorter on time, instead of frying your own tortillas, just use storebought chips.
Get the full recipe from Smitten Kitchen.
These vegan tacos are literally minutes from your dinner table.
These vegan cilantro-lime tacos are far from traditional, but they are so fast to make, healthy and absolutely tasty.
Get the full recipe from Spinach 4 Breakfast.
Elote is transformed into a complete dinner with this tostada recipe.
A crispy tortilla is topped with refried black beans and esquites–Mexican street corn–to create a quick, flavorful and well-rounded meal.
Get the full recipe from Isabel Eats.
These spicy sofritas bowls look phenomenal.
The recipe for these vegetarian spicy sofritas bowls is a bit involved, but it's still a quickie. The entire sauce is just whizzed up in a blender.
Get the full recipe from Pinch of Yum.
This is the easiest posole you'll ever make.
This chicken posole verde takes just 20 minutes to prepare, but has all the flavors you know and love.
Get the full recipe from Gimme Some Oven.
These baked tacos look like a crowd pleaser.
These quick, crunchy oven-baked chicken tacos look like they would be a hit, especially with kids.
Get the full recipe from The Cookie Rookie.
One skillet means having these sweet potato burrito bowls for dinner makes for quick clean up.
This recipe for burrito bowls is actually vegetarian, which helps cut down on cooking time, and because it uses just one skillet clean up is faster too.
Get the full recipe from Chelsea's Messy Apron.
You don't have to wait for the holidays to get the taste of tamales.
This recipe for tamale pie makes getting your tamale fix manageable–even on a weeknight!
Get the full recipe from Aunt Bee's Recipes.
These shrimp and avocado tostadas look so fresh and tasty.
The use of ready-made tostada shells makes this shrimp and avocado version a cinch to prepare. Add a little guac, top with some cooked shrimp and chopped tomatoes, and you've got dinner.
Get the full recipe from Dinners, Dishes and Desserts.
