Grain Free Soft and Tasty Low Carb Tortillas

A couple of weeks ago my friend Sara, who writes Words to Run By, posted a Facebook message with a link asking me if I had tried ‘this’ yet…

Well I have finally tried ‘this’ and it is one of the greatest ideas I have come across since Cauliflower Rice… perhaps even better!

‘This’ just happens to be soft and delicious tortillas, grain free, gluten free and completely Paleo… and just guess what they are made from.  What do you think?

Cauliflower and eggs!  Unbelievable!

I wish I could take credit for this wonderful idea… but it’s not to be.  And the creator at Slim Palate links to another blog called Empowered Sustenance  where a very similar approach had been taken to produce much the same thing before she did…. so I had a complete read through both of them, and sort of combined what I thought was the best of both approaches.

I am going to share the method I used and the ingredients.  I admit, there are several steps.  But once you make them you will understand why the time it takes (about half an hour) and the clean up is totally, absolutely worthwhile.

Cauliflower Tortillas

• 1/2 large head of cauliflower
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 eggs
• Dashes of salt and pepper

1. Prepare a baking sheet by covering it with parchment paper.
2. Wash and roughly cut the cauliflower and place the chunks in your food processor.
3. Pulse till the pieces are very small and wet.  You should have 2 cups of cauliflower.
4. Place into a saucepan along with 1/4 cup of water and cook for 5 – 7  minutes over MEDIUM heat.
5. Put in fine sieve and strain as much water out of the cauliflower as you can.
6. Preheat the oven to 375°F.
7. Put the cauliflower into a clean tea towel or double layer of cheese cloth and wring as much water out of it as you can. It will be hot so take care not to burn yourself.
8. Put the cauliflower into a mixing bowl.  Add the eggs and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
9. Mix till well-combined.
10. Spoon into rounds (or whatever shape you like) on the parchment paper.  The batter should be about 1/4 inch thick.
11. Place in oven  and bake for 10 minutes.
12. Remove from the oven,  flip them over, and replace and bake for 7 more minutes.
13. Remove from the oven and keep warm till you serve them.

After processing,make sure that you have approximately 2 cups of cauliflower.  It will be wet and looks a bit like cream of wheat.

Watch to make sure that the cauliflower and water mixture doesn’t burn.

Push the cooked cauliflower through a fine sieve and then place in a tea towel or cheese cloth to wring more water out of it.

It’s hot and steamy so be careful you don’t burn yourself.

The amount in the cloth gets smaller and smaller as the water gets squeezed out. I kept twisting the top of the ‘bag’.

When you have squeezed out as much water as your patience allows, or have wrung that little bag as tight as you can, place the cauliflower in a bowl, and mix in the eggs and salt and pepper.

I formed 3 tortillas on the baking sheet.  But you can make any number you like.  They do not spread out while baking.

Bake them for 10 minutes…

Flip them gently and then put them back in the oven for 7 minutes more.

Keep them soft till you eat serve them and they are nicer if you keep them warm.

I served them with a tasty Roasted Red Pepper Sun Dried Tomato ‘Hummus’ spread on top.

But they are so soft and pliable, that you could use them to scoop up dips or chilis or stews… so versatile.

I decided to make them a second time before publishing this post… I made 4 tortillas and after they cooled for a while, I stacked them and put them in a container and froze them.  After a couple of days, I took them out of the container and let them thaw at room temperature.

I was very curious to see how the texture would be… just as good as freshly baked.  I did want to eat them warm though so I heated a couple in the mike for about 30 seconds to have with some chili for dinner.

As soft as they were when just baked.

I used the tortillas to soak up the tomato sauce in the chili and they worked beautifully.

So I pushed my experiment one step further… I had one tortilla left over from this batch and I decided to try toasting it in a regular 2-slotted toaster.

I put it into the toaster cold from the refrigerator and made sure to keep an eye on it so it didn’t burn.

My hope was that it would dry out a bit and crisp up… however it didn’t.  It just got warm and then sorta sagged into the bottom of the toaster slot.  I ended up having to turn the toaster upside down to get it out!

But it still made an awesome wrap with some lettuce and ham for my lunch!

All in all, I am completely in love with with tortillas and will be making them over and over again…. so happy that they freeze well… but I won’t be trying to double the batch. I doubt I could squeeze enough water out of it.

For the whole recipe.

Weight Watchers P+ = 4.

Calories 199; Protein 16g; Carbohydrate 12g; Fat 10g; Fibre 5g.

Oh... a p.s....  I even got The Captain to taste one and he HATES the flavor of cauliflower… and he said he would never have known what they were made of, if he hadn’t smelled the cauliflower cooking… and seen the bits that somehow ALWAYS end up on the kitchen floor!

What do you think?  Would you give these a try?