Homemade gluten free tortillas are made with three simple ingredients: chickpea flour, tapioca starch and water. This recipe makes tortillas that are soft, flexible and are perfect for tacos, burritos, enchiladas and more! I love using these tortillas with my jackfruit tacos and smoky cauliflower tacos recipes.
Life right now during the coronavirus pandemic is nothing short of bizarre. We are sheltering in place and I am the only person leaving our house to go out and get essentials. I’m doing grocery pickup whenever possible and limiting my exposure inside stores. And then, I am going home and washing my groceries on our back porch. Is this real life? For now it is my friends. Not forever, but for awhile.
Because people are limiting their exposure to the outside world, they are also hoarding food. And, I hear that tortillas are a coveted and hoarded item right now. But do you know what people aren’t hoarding? Chickpea flour and tapioca starch. Yep. Now, I post this recipe at the risk that everyone will now go out and start hoarding these items, but please don’t do this. Leave some for the rest of us, okay?
Ingredients in gluten free tortillas
There are just 3 simple ingredients in these gluten free tortillas from scratch: chickpea flour, tapioca starch and water. (And does water even count as an actual ingredient?)
- Chickpea flour is also called garbanzo bean or besan flour. These are all the same thing, so if you get your hands on any of these they will work in this recipe. (If you’re looking for more recipes using chickpea flour, try these savory mushroom and spinach muffins.)
- Tapioca starch is also sold as tapioca flour and they are the same thing, so can be used interchangeably.
That’s it! Now that you have your ingredients, let’s get to making these delicious tortillas.
How to make gluten free tortillas from scratch
This gluten free tortilla recipe makes tortillas that are similar to a flour tortilla. These tortillas are soft and flexible and easy to roll up for burritos and enchiladas. They come together quickly and store well in the refrigerator or freezer for later use.
First, preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat. Next, whisk together your chickpea flour and tapioca starch in a medium sized bowl. Add the water and whisk until a smooth batter forms. When whisking by hand some small lumps may be left in the batter, and this is perfectly okay. But, if you don’t want little lumps in your tortillas, use an immersion blender and blend for 20 seconds to quickly smooth out the batter.
Now, at this point you have to decide what size tortillas you want to make. I have found a scant 1/4 cup (or about 3 tablespoons) make a perfect 6-inch taco sized tortilla; a full 1/4 cup makes an 8-inch or small burrito sized tortilla; and a scant 1/3 cup makes a 10-inch or full burrito sized tortilla shell.
Using a measuring cup pour your desired amount of batter onto your preheated pan. Quickly pick up the pan and swirl the batter into a circle, spreading it as thin as you can. Return to the stove and allow to cook for a couple minutes or until lightly browned on the underside. Flip the tortilla and cook another 1-2 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, taking care not to stack them on top of each other until they’ve cooled. Repeat with the remaining batter.
For a full tutorial on how to make these tortillas you can watch my video below.
Tips for making chickpea flour tortillas
- Play around with different flavors in the tortillas. Depending on what I am using the tortillas with, I like to add garlic powder, spices, herbs or curry powder to the batter. This will amp up the flavors in your taco recipe!
- Make a large batch at once to have tortillas on hand all week long. This recipe easily doubles or triples.
- To quickly make more than one tortilla at a time, use two pans on the stove. I can fit two taco sized tortillas at a time in a 12-inch pan.
- Don’t stack the tortillas on top of each other until they are completely cooled. I found that they get gummy when they aren’t cooled separately. Cool the tortillas on a wire rack.
- These tortillas will keep for two days on the counter, a week in the refrigerator or a month or more in the freezer.
- To reheat the tortillas: put them in a skillet over medium heat, cover with a lid and cook for a couple minutes. This will lightly steam them and restore their flexibility.
What should I serve with gluten free tortillas?
We eat these tortillas several times a week for making sweet potato black bean enchiladas, jackfruit tacos, cauliflower tacos, or substitute the lettuce for tortillas in these chickpea lettuce wraps. I like to use whatever leftovers we have such as stir fry, roasted veggies, tofu scramble and beans and stuff them into a tortilla shell. We even slather them in peanut butter and jelly to eat for a quick snack. Tortilla shells are a blank canvas for creativity in cooking. So have fun! Enjoy!
Gluten Free Tortilla Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chickpea flour (also called garbanzo bean or besan flour)
- 1/2 cup tapioca starch (also called tapioca flour)*
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Preheat a non-stick skillet over medium heat.
- Whisk the chickpea flour and tapioca starch together in a medium sized bowl. Add the water and whisk until a smooth batter forms. When whisking by hand some small lumps may be left in the batter, and this is perfectly okay. But, if you don't want little lumps in your tortillas, use an immersion blender and blend for 20 seconds to quickly smooth out the batter.
- At this point you have to decide what size tortillas you want to make. I have found a scant 1/4 cup (or about 3 tablespoons) make a perfect 6-inch taco sized tortilla; a full 1/4 cup makes an 8-inch or small burrito sized tortilla; and a scant 1/3 cup makes a 10-inch or full burrito sized tortilla shell.
- Using a measuring cup, pour your desired amount of batter onto your preheated pan. Quickly pick up the pan and swirl the batter into a circle, spreading it as thin as you can. Return to the stove and allow to cook about 2 minutes or until lightly browned on the underside. Flip the tortilla and cook another 1-2 minutes until lightly browned. Remove to a wire rack, taking care not to stack them on top of each other until they've cooled**. Repeat with the remaining batter.
Notes
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Brilliant. exactly the recipe I have been looking for! super easy to whip together just as you said. And, so many ways to dress the recipe up! everybody needs options! However, I will need more practice, I think mine were a bit thicker as I didnt get as many you did per batch…but I also did not use an immersion blender this first time so that might have made a bit of a difference too, not sure. But, this will be a regular go to recipe for us for sure! The whole family loved this recipe, my daughter is eating it as a peanut butter and jelly vessel as I type!! Thanks Maggie!!
I’m so glad you loved these! We love them for peanut butter and jelly too. You can play around with the amount of water if they seem too thick. Try adding a tablespoon at a time until you find the perfect amount for your tortillas. Happy tortilla eating to you!
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! These are my new FAVE!
Yay!! I am so happy these were a hit. I am looking forward to using them to make your enchiladas!
I have yet to try these, as I need to gather up the ingredients first. But I am wondering how durable these are? I’m recently gluten free and I find corn, rice and cauliflower tortillas fall apart. I miss having egg wraps every morning. Hoping these are my fix!
Hi Danielle, These hold up amazingly well. The first day they are very pliable and can be eaten as is right after cooking. These store best in the fridge. When I use them out of the fridge I put them in the pan with whatever I am cooking and put the lid on top to steam them for about a minute. You can also just put in a pan with a teaspoon of water, cover and steam about one minute. This will make them soft and pliable again. Hope this helps!
Just tried it today with cornstarch and it worked perfectly fine. I used it for quesadilla and it so delicious thanks for this recipe.
I am so happy to hear you enjoyed these! They’re just the best as quesadillas. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your feedback.
Thanks so much for this recipe! How should we cook if we don’t have a non stick pan? Can we oil a pan to avoid sticking?
I haven’t tried it in a pan that’s non-stick, but I would try oiling the pan really good. I have used cast iron and oiled the bottom with a paper towel and that works well. Good luck!
I feel like I found a needle in a haystack! I’ve tried so many store-bought gf/vegan tortillas and recipes for them and they either have oil in them (I don’t eat oil) or they are like cardboard. Or they fall apart or break when I tried to roll them.
This recipe is not only easy to make, but they actually come out flexible and strong! The taste is mild and made the perfect complement to my homemade refried beans and all the other burrito fillings! I can’t wait to try them with other fillings. Thank you!!!
Yeah! So glad you had such great success with these Trish! These were a game changer in our household too. To finally be able to have burritos again….that was a treat. So glad you’ve found your “needle in the haystack” with these tortillas. Thanks for sharing your success.
I’ve really missed flour tortillas and was so happy when I found this recipe as these remind me so much of them….nice and soft & easy to fold or wrap around your favourite fillings. I made them for my family on our Friday night taco fest and they were a huge hit with both the celiac folk and the regular foodies. In fact I had made some back up corn tortillas just in case and they were left mostly un-eaten as everyone was so excited to eat up these tortillas! The next day I used them to make myself a wrap for my work lunch and they were still as good as the night before. So happy to have found this recipe – thank you!
Hi Leah! I am so glad you enjoyed these tortillas! We love them around our house as well for taco night and wraps. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!