These vegan and wheat-free tortillas are made with just two basic ingredients (plus spices and water). Chickpea flour and flax meal make for deliciously pliable tortillas for tacos, wraps and more!
But can we all agree that in the flour vs. corn debate, flour tortillas are clearly the superior taste winners? But also: those doughy and pliable rounds are all made out of refined flour and lard. Ew.
Luckily, it’s now possible to make really similar tortillas out of just chickpeas, flour and flaxseed. GET EXCITED!
The key: chickpea flour, which is also known as garbanzo bean flour, gram flour or besan. It’s just ground chickpeas and it has approximately double the nutrition of masa harina (the corn flour used in corn tortillas).
¼ cup of masa harina = 100 calories, 2g fiber, 3g protein
¼ cup of chickpea flour = 110 calories, 5g fiber, 6g protein!!!!
Chickpea flour is one of the cheapest alternative flours you can buy—if you can’t find it in your local grocery store, it’s available in a lot of ethnic markets OR you can just buy a pack of dried garbanzo beans and grind the flour yourself in a powerful blender or food processor.
These are amazing—doughy, just like flour tortillas, with the perfect amount of chew and a slightly nutty flavor. They’re just slightly less springy (they’ll crack if you happen to try to wrap an especially thick tortilla around a wet burrito filling). Instead of rolling out dough like traditional tortillas, these cook up like crepes with a runny batter. They take just a few minutes to make and then voila! A healthy, fiber-filled tortilla is ready for any number of fillings you feel like throwing at it.
If you don’t have flaxseed, you can omit it, but I highly recommend it for an extra nutritional boost. Again, these are vegan and gluten-free, but I stuffed them with the highly NOT vegan filling of steamed kale, egg whites, tomatoes, parmesan and avocado. It was delicious.
Chickpea Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ground flaxseed flax meal
- 1 cup chickpea garbanzo bean flour
- 2/3 cup water + additional if necessary
- pinch of salt
- pinch of cumin
Instructions
- Whisk together the flax meal, chickpea flour, water, salt and cumin and whisk until there are no lumps. Let sit for five minutes to thicken slightly. The mixture should be about the consistency of pancake batter. If you want thicker tortillas, use only 2/3 cup water. I liked the texture at around 1 cup of water; just add water a tablespoon or two at a time until you reach a consistency you like.
- Preheat a lightly greased 9-inch frying pan over medium heat. Pour about ½ cup of batter into the pan and swirl to coat the bottom. Let cook for 2-3 minutes or until you see the edges start to dry out. You will easily be able to slide your spatula underneath the tortilla when the bottom is fully cooked and ready to be flipped. Flip and cook for an additional 30-60 seconds, then remove from pan and repeat with another ½ cup of batter.
- I didn’t need to re-grease the pan between tortillas, but if your tortillas start sticking to the pan, add a little oil to the pan and swirl it around before adding the batter. I laid the cooked tortillas flat on a plate, slightly overlapping each other. I folded a few of the last ones in two since I was running out of space, but the thicker tortillas started to break along the fold. I would recommend storing the cooked, cooled tortillas on a plate covered with plastic wrap in the fridge.
- To kale burrito your tortillas: Add 3 cups of kale to the pan over medium-high heat once you’re finished cooking the tortillas. Cover and steam for 1-2 minutes. Add four egg whites–whisked until foamy–chopped tomatoes, grated parmesan, salt and pepper. Scramble everything until cooked through. Top with avocado, roll up and eat!
Notes
Nutrition
lee
Just made these with garlic powder and dried rosemary…….beautiful
They stuck at first but I turned the heat up and it did the trick
erika
Hi Lee! So glad to hear these turned out well for you and thanks for the tip!! 🙂
Brenda
Yikes I tried making but they stuck so badly to pan that I was unable to flip. Ditched the first one, cleaned my ceramic crepe pan, added coconut oil and started again. Same problem. I believe the heat was med low. Is it my pan or am I doing something wrong? Would like to give another go. Thanks!
erika
Hi Brenda–sorry that these didn’t work out well for you the first time! Hmm–is your ceramic pan nonstick? Did you end up using the flaxseed and how much water did you end up adding? I think you were exactly right in using medium low heat if they started to stick. Let me know what you did and I can try to puzzle this out some more.
marvelous.max
My first one was cemented down too. The trick though, is simply waiting paitiently and occasionally trying to slide the spatula under. Only when the bottom is sufficiently cooked will they unstick! Crank up the heat if it takes too long.
erika
That’s great advice! Thanks for the feedback!
Mariana Maia
just made this! amazing! thanks a million!
i also just found the recipes for socca and panelle on NY Times, and will def be making both versions soon! ^_^ excited!
erika
Woowoo so glad you liked it!! Omg I LOVE that panelle recipe. If you’re looking for more chickpea flour recipes, you might want to give the chickpea taco “meat” I just posted a try…not to toot my own horn or anything 😉 Thanks for commenting, Mariana!!
Mariana Maia
thanks for replying! and for the taco meat recipe, sounds amazing – i’ll let you know when i try it out!
Sharada
Rookie question, but can I omit the flaxseed and the cumin? I don’t have flaxseed and I’m avoiding cumin because I think it’s been causing the stomach aches I’ve been having.
erika
Hi Sharada! Yes, you can definitely omit the cumin–that’s purely for flavor (you might try another spice if you like instead). You can also omit the flax, although your results may differ slightly. Hope you enjoy! 🙂
Sara
Great recipe find thank you! I was looking for things to make with gram flour for my dairy and, newly, gluten free daughter. It turned out well – I am used to making English pancakes, which are thin crepe style and have a special flat bottom pan. I am also used to the quick swirl action that is needed to get a nice thin and even coverage. The taste when raw was very ‘beany’ but this became much more muted when cooked. We have all just enjoyed them as small wraps around salad for lunch 🙂
erika
Oh awesome! That quick swirl action is the trickiest part, so if you have that down, you’re golden 🙂 Isn’t it strange how strong that bean taste is when it’s raw vs. cooked? So glad you guys enjoyed them and thanks for letting me know! 🙂
Raisha
Hi, can I mix 1/2 cup white rice flour with 1/2 chickpea flour? I like chickpea flour but I don’t like it alone. Would the texture not work out well for the recipe?
erika
Hi Raisha! It’s actually never occurred to me to try that combination so unfortunately I can’t say whether it’d work out or not! My hunch is that the tortillas might be a bit crumblier with the white rice flour. If you are not gluten-intolerant, I might try mixing half chickpea flour with half spelt flour–I think that should work. Hope that helps!
Raisha
Okay, also, do you think that adding like 2 parts chickpea flour plus 1 1/2 parts rice flour plus 1/2 part and using the mix of flour would stabilize the flour to make is less crumbly? I always have these flours at home so I want to ask for your opinion if you don’t mind, thank you for all the advice. 🙂
~Raisha
erika
Hi Raisha–not sure if you left out a word after “1/2 part.” If you meant 1/2 part spelt, I think that would definitely help make it less crumbly, but still not sure whether it would stand up to being tortilla-ed. I’ll have to experiment and let you know! (Are you working with sweet white rice flour or just white rice flour?)
Raisha
Oh, I’m sorry, I meant potato starch. ^^; I was thinking 1 cup chickpea flour, and 1/2 cup each white rice flour and potato starch or something like this for a flour blend. I was worried that starch wasn’t an option.
erika
I’m pretty sure starch could only help the consistency, but I’m not a big starch user when I bake gluten-free, so I can’t say for sure!
PS. The chickpea taste really isn’t that strong in these tortillas if you want to try a half-batch or something as written… 🙂
Martine @ Chompchomp
I am always on the look out for new GF pancakey-type ideas. Have got besan flour in the pantry but never known what to use it with. You have solved my problem! Thanks lass!
erika
Yay!!! I also have a huge sack of besan flour that I’ve desperately been trying to use up. Have you ever made chickpea fries? I use the ny times recipe usually (I think–i just google and use one of the first recipes that comes up) and they are SO GOOD and great for using up chickpea flour!!
Mel
Anyone tried this with garfava flour? I haven’t seen chickpea flour at my grocery but I do have garfava flour that I use in other recipes. Curious.
erika
Interesting! I can’t see why that wouldn’t work, but I hope you hear back from some other readers! 🙂
Paul
Mine came out like a pancake 🙁
erika
Oh no! Have you ever made crepes before? The trick to making these is to cook them like a crepe (i.e your batter should be runny and should be swirled around the pan in a very thin layer). I’m sorry these didn’t quite turn out for you–let me know if you have any specific questions on how to improve your results!
Paul
Yeah I made it a little too thick and didn’t thin it out very well. But I just piled my guac and sauted veggies on top of the “pancake” and ate it like that. It was still really delicious just wasn’t a wrap. Tomorrow’s wrap will be better I’m sure 🙂 I’ll make it every day until it’s perfect!!
Paul
Success! I made it and it worked! Thanks!! 🙂
erika
Oh YAY!!!!! Thanks for reporting back Paul 🙂 (Although your guac + veggie pancake creation also sounds fabulous!)
Amy
I never normally post anything, but I have to THANK YOU and tell you how incredibly happy I am to find this recipe!! I’m allergic to gluten, yeast, tapioca, dairy, eggs, banana and pumpkin, so needless to say normal baked goods are totally off limits, and even GF or vegan doesn’t usually fit the bill. I’ve tried so many recipes that called for a long list of hard to find ingredients, or tried adapting recipes, and the end result is typically a sad, gummy or dry, terrible disappointment! But this was SO EASY, looked just like the picture, and was delicious!! I also tried it without cumin and less water and made regular pancakes! I’m so happy-these will definitely be a new staple recipe!! Great job! 🙂
erika
Amy!!!! You made me smile so big when I read this. I am so happy you liked these + they turned out well for you 🙂 Thanks for making my day and happy tortilla-ing! 🙂
Suebaroo
Made these last night; great corn tortilla substitute! I haven’t had tacos in years! Now I just have to perfect the consistency so I can roll/ wrap them up like you did in the pictures.
erika
YAY! Thanks for letting me know 🙂 I’m curious–how did your consistency turn out? I know these are a little tricky to spread + flip in the pan!
Eloise
Omg gurl! These are like an answer to my prayers! Will try them after work tomorrow. Thanks!
Klaus
Hi, I like the taste of falafel. They are made of chickpeas but unfortunately deep fried. So I make this pancakes with the spice of falafel and wrapped around a raw vegan salad.
erika
That sounds like a great compromise! 🙂
Danielle
not sure why, but mine did not turn out and I tried several times 🙁
erika
Oh no, I’m sorry to hear that! What happened when you tried making them?
afracooking
I LOVE the flavour of chickpea flour. I usually make them into a fluffy pancake using whisked egg whites (I have the recipe on my blog). But I am totally excited to try your recipe using flaxseeds to make more of a tortilla style pancake.