Cassava Flour Tortilla Recipe

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Wheat and corn are the most common types of tortillas and also some of the most common allergens. If you're looking for an alternative, cassava flour tortillas are a grain-free and generally well tolerated option. All you need is a tortilla press, cassava flour (my favorite is from Thrive Market), grapeseed oil, and salt. I won't make you scroll all the way through the post to find the recipe but they can be a little tricky to make for the first time. If you'd like detailed instructions - read on!

​Cassava Flour Tortillas

2 cups cassava flour

2-3 tablespoons avocado oil

1 teaspoon of salt

Water

Combine flour, oil, and salt in a bowl. Add water until dough is soft and pliable but not sticky. Turn on a non-stick griddle to 350 degrees. Roll the dough into balls just smaller than a golf ball. Tear off two pieces of parchment paper, 10 inches wide. Press tortillas in parchment paper (folded in half) with 8 inch tortilla press. Unfold the parchment and lay the tortilla side down, the other side won't come off until it cooks for a bit. If both sides stick you can just put the whole thing on the griddle and cook it until the parchment comes off (you may need to add flour to your dough if it is too sticky). Flip them after a few minutes, don't cook them too long or they'll get really hard and tough, they should not brown. When they are done, put in a pile on a plate, flip the pile every now and then to keep them soft.

(I use avocado oil now - no seed oils for cooking!)

Start by adding 2 cups of cassava flour, 2-3 table spoons of grapeseed oil, and about a teaspoon of salt to a bowl. I actually never measure these ingredients, the recipe is not finicky, you may find you like different ratios. The difficult part is getting just the right amount of water in the dough. If it's too dry, you'll have thick, doughy tortillas. If it's too wet, you'll have a sticky mess.

Add water slowly while mixing and kneading the dough by hand. If your dough looks like this, it's too dry. Slowly add a little more water, you're almost there.

Your dough should look just like this. Soft and pliable but not sticky. This makes for a nice thin tortilla. Now is a good time to turn on your non-stick griddle to 350°F. Next, taking sections of dough, roll into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball.

Get out your 8 inch tortilla press and tear off two strips of parchment paper just wider than the tortilla press (about 10 inches). You'll reuse these two parchment strips for all of the tortillas.

Place a dough ball on the parchment, fold the parchment over, and firmly push down on the tortilla press. Open the press right away and slowly pull back the top layer of parchment. You need to remove the parchment right away to avoid sticking but you need to do the actually peeling back slowly or you may end up with some of the tortilla sticking to the top layer. Occasionally you may have a tortilla that doesn't want to come apart form the top layer of parchment, no big deal, just leave it folded and cook it on the griddle until it does peel off. If this is a consistent problem, you may need to add more flour to your dough.

Put your tortilla on the griddle with the parchment paper open, just like the bottom tortilla in the picture. Within a couple of minutes, you'll be able to easily remove the paper. I like to keep a rotation of three tortillas going at all times. One with parchment still attached, one with parchment pulled off, and one that has been flipped. As soon as you pull off the parchment paper, you can press another tortilla and have it ready and waiting to go on the griddle. That keeps things moving as fast as possible as tortilla making can be a time consuming process. After you remove the parchment, cook for a couple more minutes, until the tortilla starts to look cooked or kind of slightly dried out. The upper right tortilla is what the bottom side should look like when it's time to flip. It should not brown. You don't want crispy tortillas, they will be too tough to chew. Cook a few more minutes on the second side, again, your tortillas should not be stiff and crispy, take them off before that. If you do over cook one, put it in the middle of the tortilla pile, it will soften. It may take a couple attempts to get the hang of it, so don't be discouraged if your first one isn't perfect!

Once you've take the tortillas off the griddle, place them on a plate, flipping the pile occasionally. This keeps all the tortillas nice and soft without the bottom ones getting soggy. This recipe makes roughly 18 tortillas. Add your favorite taco or fajita ingredients and enjoy!!