Cassava Flour Tortillas

These Paleo AIP Cassava Flour Tortillas are bendable. Fold-able, tear-able, taco-able, even. 

These babies made from cassava flour are just that-able.

Important note:  Due to the inconsistencies in different brands of cassava flour, I highly recommend you use Anthony’s brand for this recipe.  Readers have reported varying results when using Otto’s and other brands.

Four simple ingredients make these naturally AIP, Paleo and gluten free

Anthony’s cassava flour

Avocado oil

Himalayan salt

Water

That’s it, babe!  I’ve also tried making these with lard and shortening with varying results (see my Flaky Flat Cassava Bread, also AIP friendly), but the best tortilla-like outcome came from the avocado oil.

So while it’s perfectly fine to experiment with different ingredients in recipes, just remember that the different molecular structures of different fats will provide vastly different results here.

Benefits of cassava

The cassava (aka yuca) root is a wonderful source of carbohydrate that’s easily digestible and converts easily to energy.

Its low fiber content can be easier on compromised guts than coconut flour or almond flour.

Since it does contain some fiber its also less heavy on dat belly than tapioca starch.

Tortilla-rolling tips & tricks

These can be a little tricky to work with if they are rolled too thinly, so try them rolled just a little bit thicker than you would normally roll tortillas. 

Since they don’t contain the gluten that helps bind traditional white flour ones together, these are more delicate during the rolling process.  Hence the use of so much parchment. 

If you feel this is wasteful, you can freeze and reuse the parchment pieces for next time or for other recipes! 

Another option is to wait to roll a new tortilla as you cook the previous one in your cast-iron pan, and just re-use the two pieces of parchment until you have cooked the whole batch.

These actually cook better from frozen than fresh!

Just keep them layered between parchment and store in an air-tight container like this guy so they don’t get broken as they get shuffled around in the freezer.

Cook immediately from frozen (pulling one tortilla out of the freezer at a time) and enjoy!

Looking for a flavor-packed taco filling?  My Smoky Mocha Chili cooks up thick and tender in the Instant Pot and goes great with lettuce and avocado inside tortillas.

Or try this AIP Slow Cooker Shredded Beef – it’s so good!

Cassava Flour Tortillas

2017-05-04 10:13:56

Serves 2

Cassava flour makes, in my opinion, the closest thing ever to a traditional flour tortilla. The texture and flavor are absolutely superb: tender but firm; fold-able and fun; pliable and bendable; stuff-able and totally delicious.

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Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

12 min

Total Time

42 min

Prep Time

30 min

Cook Time

12 min

Total Time

42 min

Ingredients

1. 3/4 cup cassava flour
2. 1/4 tsp Himalayan salt
3. 3 Tb avocado oil
4. 1/2 cup warm water

UTENSILS NEEDED

1. medium mixing bowl
2. fork
3. kitchen / paper towels x 2
4. parchment paper
5. rolling pin

Instructions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, add cassava flour and salt. Stir well with a fork to combine.
2. Drizzle in avocado oil and stir gently into flour mixture until it looks crumbly.
3. Drizzle in 1/2 of the water and stir gently again.
4. Depending on brand of flour used and the humidity of your region, you may need more or less of the rest of the water.
5. Add most of the remaining water and stir again.
6. Knead the dough a bit, and if it crumbles at all, stir in a little more water then knead again.
7. Continue adding water/kneading this way until the dough no longer crumbles and is BARELY sticky to the touch.
8. It should be moist but not goopy.
9. If you feel you accidentally added too much water, you can always sprinkle over and mix a little more flour into the dough until it’s the proper texture again.
10. Allow to rest, covered with one of the kitchen / paper towels, for about ten minutes. This allows for the flour to fully expand.
11. Roll dough with your hands into 6 balls.
12. Keep them inside the mixing bowl you used, covered with the same towel to keep them from drying out.
13. Lay a new slightly dampened kitchen / paper towel down on your work surface.
14. Lay a square sheet of parchment on top of the towel, then lay another parchment sheet on top of that one.
15. Place one dough ball at a time in between the parchment papers.
16. Use your rolling pin to roll the dough to about 1/8' thick (thin, but thick enough to not have cracks).
17. Keeping the tortilla and two parchment squares intact, set aside.
18. Lay another two squares of parchment down and repeat the process.
19. Stack this on top of the first tortilla/parchment package. (This keeps the tortillas from sticking together)
20. Repeat this process until you have used all of the dough.
21. Place stack of tortillas in the freezer for at least 20 minutes to make handling them during cooking easier.
22. Heat a cast-iron pan over medium heat.
23. When hot, add 1 Tb favorite cooking fat to the pan.
24. Remove ONE of the tortilla-parchment layers from the freezer, and leave the rest in the freezer.
25. Carefully peel the top parchment layer off of the tortilla, then place the tortilla-side down on your palm.
26. Carefully peel the remaining piece of parchment off.
27. Carefully add one tortilla at a time to the pan, cooking for about a minute on each side until air pockets begin to form inside the tortilla, and each side is a gentle golden brown.
28. Transfer each tortilla as they come off the pan to a covered container to hold in the moisture and heat.
29. Serve immediately, or cool then store in the fridge until ready to reheat. If storing, layering parchment between each tortilla will keep them from sticking together. I just save and use the pieces of parchment that I used for layering.

Notes

1. ***A quick note, y'all!  Due to the inconsistencies in different brands of cassava flour, I highly recommend you use Anthony's brand for this recipe.  Readers have reported varying results when using Otto's and other brands.***
2. These can be a little tricky to work with if they are rolled too thinly, so try them rolled just a little bit thicker than you would normally roll tortillas.  Since they don't contain the gluten that helps bind traditional white flour ones together, these are more delicate during the rolling process.  Hence the use of so much parchment.  If you feel this is wasteful, you can freeze and reuse the parchment pieces for next time or for other recipes!  Another option is to wait to roll a new tortilla as you cook the previous one, and just re-use the two pieces of parchment until you have cooked the whole batch.
3. These also freeze well! Just keep them layered between parchment and store in an air-tight container like this guy so they don't get broken as they get shuffled around in the freezer. Cook immediately from frozen and enjoy.

By Samantha Jo Teague, The Unskilled Cavewoman

Primal Sam https://primalsam.com/