I will be sharing some keto recipes that call for low carb tortillas in the near future, so I thought I’d share my take on a popular version making the blog rounds. They’re a little hard to work with, but I’ve got a little trick that will help you make near-perfect tortillas every time.
Yields 10 servings of low carb tortillas.
The Preparation
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 4 tablespoons psyllium husk powder
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 2 cups chicken broth, boiling
The Execution
1. Put all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.
2. Add butter, coconut oil, or lard. I used a combination of butter and coconut oil here. Mix thoroughly.
3. Pour hot broth over all, then stir with a spoon until all the butter is melted and ingredients are well incorporated. (Alternately, this can be done in a food processor)
4. Shape dough into a log shape. Cut into 8 equal parts. (By using my method to make them all the same shape/size you will end up with 10)
5. Grease a griddle, cast iron skillet, or frying pan lightly with butter or coconut oil, then heat to medium heat. Shape each part into a ball. On a sheet of parchment paper, take each ball and roll out as well as you can. If necessary, use a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough, as well. If the dough tears, it is easily fixed. Just keep working with it. Your goal is to get it spread out evenly.
6. Now here comes the cool part. Take a medium-sized pan lid and set it on top of the dough, like so:
7. Give it a little twist, then lift the lid up. Carefully remove dough around circle. Set that extra dough aside. These pieces will combine to make the other two tortillas for a total of 10.
8. There you have it! Perfect shape, perfect size! Lift parchment and place tortilla over hand, then peel parchment with other hand.
9. Put the tortilla on griddle and cook until bottom begins to brown.
10. Carefully flip, using a spatula if necessary, and cook other side. Remove from pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining dough.
Quesadillas
11. To make quesadillas, place one tortilla on griddle over medium heat. Put about 1/3 cup grated cheese on top of tortilla.
12. Add some cooked chicken, either cut into cubes or shredded. (I like to heat my chicken in a little bit of Frank’s hot sauce first)
13. Then top with a little more cheese. This helps hold the quesadilla together when you flip it. Top with second tortilla, let cheese melt for a minute, then flip.
14. Cook until cheese is melted, then remove from pan. Cut into equal pieces with a pizza cutter or knife and serve with salsa, sour cream, and/or guacamole. MmmmMmmm!
15. Save leftover tortillas to make some burritos with.
Since the recipe is for 10 tortillas, the macros per tortilla breaks down like this: 132.3Calories, 11.74g Fat, 2.1g Net Carbs, and 2.06g Protein.
This makes a total of 10 servings of Best Low Carb Tortillas. Each serving comes out to be 139 calories, 11.2g fats, 2.6g net carbs, and 2.1g protein.
| NUTRITION | CALORIES | FAT | CARBS | FIBER | NET CARBS | PROTEIN |
| 1 cup coconut flour | 320 | 18.7 | 53.3 | 37.3 | 16 | 16 |
| 4 tablespoon psyllium husk powder | 224 | 0 | 51.2 | 44.8 | 6.4 | 0 |
| 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder | 3 | 0 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 0.1 |
| 1/4 teaspoon cumin | 2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes | 3 | 0.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.1 |
| 1/2 cup butter | 814 | 92.1 | 0.1 | 0 | 0.1 | 1 |
| 2 cup chicken broth | 30 | 1.1 | 2.2 | 0 | 2.2 | 3.2 |
| Totals | 1395 | 112 | 108.1 | 82.5 | 25.6 | 20.5 |
| Per Serving (/10) | 139 | 11.2 | 10.8 | 8.3 | 2.6 | 2 |
Best Low Carb Tortillas
Ingredients
- 1 cup coconut flour
- 4 tablespoon psyllium husk powder
- ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon cumin
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- ½ cup butter softened
- 2 cup chicken broth boiling
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients. Put all dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix well.
- Add butter, coconut oil, or lard. I used a combination of butter and coconut oil here. Mix thoroughly. Pour hot broth over all, then stir with a spoon until all the butter is melted and ingredients are well incorporated. (Alternately, this can be done in a food processor.)
- Shape dough into a log shape. Cut into equal parts that amount to slightly less than serving size amounts. As you shape tortillas in the following directions, you will use the leftover dough to form more tortillas. (For clarification, please read through instructions first.)
- Grease a griddle, cast iron skillet, or frying pan lightly with butter or coconut oil, then heat to medium heat. Shape each part into a ball. On a sheet of parchment paper, take each ball and roll out as well as you can. If necessary, use a piece of parchment paper on top of the dough. If the dough tears, it is easily fixed. Just keep working with it. Your goal is to get it spread out evenly. Don't worry how it looks. Take a medium sized pan lid and set it on top of the dough, as pictured.
- Give it a little twist, then lift the lid up. Carefully remove dough around the outside of the circle. Set that extra dough aside. These pieces will combine later to make the other tortillas. Typically, if you start with 4 parts, you will end up with 5 tortillas (or 8 parts and 10 tortillas, etc). This is where the leftover dough (outside the circle) makes more tortillas.
- There you have it! Perfect shape, perfect size! Lift parchment with circle on it, flip, and place tortilla over hand. Peel parchment with other hand.
- Put the tortilla on griddle and cook until bottom begins to brown. Carefully flip, using a spatula if necessary, and cook other side. Remove from pan and set aside. Repeat with remaining dough.
- These work well for any recipe using tortillas. To make quesadillas, simply put grated cheese and diced, cooked chicken between two tortillas and toast on griddle. Cut into even sections using a pizza cutter.
Do these freeze well? How long do they last?
Yes, these do freeze well, but I’m not sure how long they would last. They never last around my house long enough to find out!
How important is the Phyllium husk powder? What does it do? Can I make the tortillas without it?
I’m sorry, there is no substitute, that I know of. Tried with chia, flax, etc, and it didn’t work. The psyllium husk powder performs much as gluten would. If you should discover a replacement, please let us know!
Hi.
i am a bit scared of adding 2 cups of broth to only one cup of coconut flour….will one cup of flour absorb 2 cups of broth? 🙂
As long as you have the other ingredients, it should! But if you’re scared, add the liquids slowly 🙂
Serioursly! I made it, BEST TORTILLAS EVER! Thanks!
So glad you liked them! And thanks so much for leaving feedback!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I consider myself a pretty good keto/primal cook but I’d failed at multiple attempts at tortillas. This was a perfect success. Sometimes a lettuce wrap just won’t do.
Jessica, so glad you loved them!
I just tried to make the tortillas and failed. They were to crumbly to stay together. Maybe the water wasn’t hot enough. Do you let the water come to a boil?
I’m so sorry it didn’t work out for you. I’ve always used broth for the liquid and always let it come to a boil. It makes the dough a little hot to work with, but I usually mix it in my food processor, then start making them as soon as it’s cool enough to handle.
Sorry, also, for the belated reply. For some reason I thought I had already answered.
I just made these and they are great…the coconut flou is still kind of overpowering to me…but you cant beat that texture…its very much like thick tortillas or like a naan bread or Flat bread….you know i was thinkng these would be good as pancakes as well…I think if you were to experiment and throw in some DaVinci Caramel Syrup (sugar free) and some splenda…dash of vanilla extract….maaaybe even some baking soda…i might experiment and report back
Rhett,
If you experiment we’d love to hear back. I always like to see what people can recreate or adapt things into!
Mine fall apart very easily when flipping, any tips on avoiding this?
Hi, Devin. I’m sorry you had problems with them. I’ve had that happen, also, but found that they are super forgiving. I’ve been able to piece them back together in the pan as they cook. Also, a wide spatula helps a lot, too.
I made these for the first time tonight. OH MY GOSH! These are wonderful! Thank goodness I have a “go to” recipe for tortillas now… I’m from south Texas and my meals were getting pretty dull without tortillas since starting my low carb journey.
Woo! Heather, they blow those store bought ones out of the room. I used to be a “store bought” tortilla eater and they were pretty soggy/chewy after a while, these ones hit the spot.
Glad you liked them!
Silly question, I’m sure but how does this equal 10? “Shape dough into a log shape. Cut into 8 equal parts. (By using my method to make them all the same shape/size you will end up with 10)”
These look amazing and I can’t wait to try them. I have all the ingredients!
By the way, some grocery stores sell psyllium husk powder in the pharmacy. Just look for the one that say 100% psyllium husk with nothing else added.
The 8 equal parts is to get the initial tortillas made. Then the leftover dough will give you 2 more. Hope that helps 🙂 Thanks for pointing out the psyllium husk part out!
Thank you so much for this recipe. Do you put any salt in it or just the spices? Thanks again.
Luba,
Just the spices, but you can add the salt if you want. I don’t think it’s necessary.
These were great! I added some extra spices to help cover the coconut, but the texture was wonderful. I am freezing the leftovers to see how it goes, thank you so much.
Rachael, so glad you liked them! They freeze awesome 🙂
this sounds awesome…. question, can we replace the coconut flour with almond flour?
Nando, no you can’t. Coconut flour and almond flour have completely different absorptive qualities.
All i got was a soupy texture… no dough. Is it really 2 CUPS broth?
To be clear, I had coconut flakes that I processed into powder. Do you think that messed it up?
James, it’s quite possible. Coconut flour is extremely absorptive – I’ve never made my own flour out of flakes, but it could give you a less absorptive flour.
Thanks for your reply. I think I also ade the mistake of measuring out one cup of coconut flakes then proccessing that into my powder. The end result was probably less than one cup of coconut flour.
I’m going to try again- these look ridiculously tasty.
Go for it. Most grocery stores around me carry coconut flour, and it’s not too overpriced – so it might be easier/turn out better if you do that. But if you want to test with coconut flakes, I have nothing against it.
You don’t want to use coconut flakes straight from the store, as they are still full of fat and won’t absorb like coconut flour. I make coconut milk from unsweetened flakes, then dehydrate the left over coconut and grind it up in a coffee grinder or my Vitamix. It doesn’t come out as finely ground as the store-bought stuff but I have had good results with it in other recipes. You should be able to find the Bob’s Red Mill brand in the supermarket.
Thanks for weighing in Barbara!
I wanted so badly for these to be good like everyone said- but the coconut flour was just too sweet for me. I followed the recipe exactly, the tortillas looked perfect and my husband was so excited to try them with me (even though he does not have any known food allergies) but we just did not like them. Like someone else said- I may try making it into a sweet flat bread with cinnamon and such.
Sorry you weren’t impressed with them 🙁 It’s quite possible you are more sensitive to the coconut flour than I am. I think if you added some savory spices to these you might be able to create a more savory batch that would please you. Best of luck – hopefully you can redeem them somehow!
The recipe looks like Maria emmerich quesadilla from mariahealth.blogspot.com you just double everything.
Madel,
Actually Karen posted this recipe (see author below the title) and she used to run a website called “Being Conformed” (beingconformed.wordpress.com). She has been using this recipe (and posted it) in 2010. Since Maria posted her recipe in 2012, I would point the finger in the other direction.
The recipes are very different, in fact. The other uses eggs and has an option for almond flour.
I’ve been using a recipe very similar to this that was posted on a Low Carb bulletin board, so I have no idea where it originally came from, but I have to try seasoning them like you do here, and also using broth instead of water. Yum. Also, I LOVE your idea of using the pan lid to shape them – mine frequently come out looking like something from an ink blot test, and I can’t wait to have them come out looking round and professional.
Eric I know you’ll love this recipe if you add some spices and use broth – makes a world of difference! Hope you enjoy the now round tortillas 🙂
Made a batch of these yesterday – fantastic! Thank you so much – I was starting to get tired of egg wraps. I now have a batch in the freezer awaiting my attention.
So glad you liked these, Bryce! I keep meaning to batch cook these so I have them available in my freezer!
Hi! These look great – have you tried using only coconut oil and not a combo of butter and coconut oil?
Thanks for leaving a comment! Yes, it works equally well. I prefer expeller-pressed coconut oil as it has no coconut taste.
~Karen
how do I freeze these to use over a course of a week, is that possible?
Make them all first, and then freeze with parchment paper in between each one.
Made a half batch of these tonight and used one for a naan bread with your recipe for Butter Paneer Chicken Curry, except I used prawns instead of paneer and chicken :-), and coconut cauli rice. Not exactly a naan but at least I felt like I was eating like everyone else. I can definitely see how good they will be as tortilla.
Glenys, I’m glad it turned out good! I’ve tried making naan before, unsuccessfully. I know this is kind of similar, but certainly doesn’t fit the bill. If I ever can create a naan that’s similar to the real thing, I think I’d be making it every day 😛
Hi. Made these today and they turned out really lovely. Thank you.
I really love your recipes!. Will you please in the future hopefully have some recipes with grass fed gelatin in it.
I may have some, but I mainly just add gelatin to my coffee in the morning if I want to get it in. You don’t need too much of it and I feel it doesn’t alter taste – maybe you could try the same 🙂
I have made torts before and it was a sweet taste but on the second batch I used cayanne pepper in the flour mix and that made a huge difference. I think I saw freeze dried or powdered jalapeno’s some where sold so I want to add those to be on the real savory side then……going to make sour cream green chili enchiladas. I really like this recipe as a base to build savory and sweet on!
Sounds great Robin – I think that adding the cayenne or a little spice with powdered jalapeno or chili flakes would do good at getting rid of the sweetness of the coconut flour. Those enchiladas sound amazing!
I just headed into the kitchen to make these for dinner…and discovered my coconut flour canister is empty!! Eeek!! I do have a whole bag of Honeyville Oat Fiber….any chance at all it will work for a 1:1 swap for the coconut flour?
I’m sorry, Naomi, but this recipe is specific to coconut flour and to my knowledge the two can’t be exchanged without a lot of tweaking. Unfortunately, I don’t use oat fiber, so I don’t know of an alternate recipe to help you out. If you try it, please share your success if it works out.
~Karen
I made these last night & they are awesome! I found out I am not only gluten intolerant, but allergic to almonds, so that limits my tortilla options. These were perfect! Thank you!
So glad you liked them! I make them often (in fact, had them for quesadillas last night) and love we have a good keto option wherever tortillas are needed.
just to clarify-this is using psllium husk POWDER and
not the flakes, right? I saw both at my store. thanks so much!!
Hey Keira,
Yes it’s the powder rather than the whole husks. Although you can buy the whole husks and grind them into a powder 🙂
I have to say I was a bit skeptical, as I cook on a weekly basis with coconut flour and know how “fussy” it can be. The result was nothing short of amazing- perfect tortillas that tasted absolutely delicious. I used grated mozzarella, chicken and Tabasco sauce and also a sandwich toaster to “seal” the quesadillas (it’s really easy and mess-free and the end products stays together beautifully). Thank you ever so much for the crystal-clear instructions and photos, as well as for all your hard work to create such a professional and inspiring website!
Draga, so glad to hear they turned out good for you – these tortillas can definitely be finicky, but once you have the methodology down, they’re quite easy to make. Hope to hear about more of your successful recipes too 🙂
This is a great recipe but I am surprised to not find any salt being mentioned…”salt to taste” at a bare minimum should be included, in my opinion.
Thank you for sharing how you made your quesadillas! I’ve been seriously considering getting a sandwich maker just for that reason.
Hi Karen
Thank you for such a delicious recipe. I made your tortillas tonight, and they were delicious. the only thing was my tortillas were a dark brown in colour, am I doing something wrong. I like the light colour in your photographs and was wondering why mine turned out so dark.
Jane
I read somewhere–sorry I cant recall where at the moment–that the psyllium you use can effect the color. I made a batch of tortillas (not these, but similar) and they turned purple-y! Doesn’t effect the flavor, not harmful.
Hm, I’ve never heard of that before (and never had that happen to me). Sounds kind of awesome though – like blue corn tortilla chips 🙂 I’d fry those up!
I made these tortillas this morning and they were beyond delicious. I was truly amazed at how good they were. I made them smaller and made breakfast tortillas filled with sausage and lettuce. They were very filling too. Thank You so much for sharing. Will try more of your recipes.
Glad to hear is Cassy! Those fillings sound great – and I hope you enjoy the other recipes 🙂
These were so tasty, we LOVED them! Thanks for the recipe. Mine formed well and cooked well but when I folded them with the filling in it they kind of fell apart. I’m wondering if I didn’t “work” the dough enough prior to cooking them? I mixed them by hand not in a food processor.
You’re so welcome! I find that that sometimes split if you cook them too long in the pan when you’re browning them. That could have been the problem. Also, were they thin enough?
These are great! We couldn’t make them fast enough…as we cooked them we just kept eating…with cream cheese and chives…with butter…come on skillet…hurry up and cook those suckers!!! Great job Karen/ Craig! and thank you for a great tortilla recipe!
Really appreciate it Kirsten – only thing I can ask for is that people enjoy 🙂
Does the psyllium husk need to be in powder form? Can I just add shredded husk? The ones I have are not too coarse but they are not powdery either.
Tammy, I generally recommend powdering it completely if you got the whole husks. It can lead to weird textures if you leave it in chunks. But it’s really up to you in the end. When I get psyllium husk, I always get the powdered form.
these sound awesome!! quick question, if I’m going to be using them over the course of a few days, do I still do the stage when I cook/brown the dough or do I just do that when making, for example, the quesedilla?
I would, but when you are going to re-heat them, you could brown them a second time. I’ve done this before and it worked just fine. But, they also keep relatively well so you could go a few days without needing to re-brown them.
Tried to make these today and it was, well, an epic fail. I just couldn’t get them to roll thin enough like a tortilla and what I was left with was more of a pancake….it was nice and all but too thick to fill and roll. Not sure if it was the lack parchment paper, I tried doing it between cling film and then tried aluminum foil just ordered some parchment paper from amazon so kept the rest of the dough to try again when that arrives!!!
The biggest thing with these are working very quick. Once the dough starts the cool, the psyllium will begin the harden and make it quite difficult to roll out. One way to make them fast is to use a tortilla press (if you scout Amazon, you can get them from Amazon warehouse for around $5 shipped). The other way is to do the flax tortilla recipe that I have posted (search “flax tortilla” and you’ll find it). That one is MUCH more forgiving and gives you plenty of time to work with the dough, re-roll it, start over if needed. I actually prefer that recipe to this one now, as this one needs to be done quite quickly and I know how hard it can be to roll them by hand.
I just tried to make these but without some ingredients and they did not come out at all the way i wanted them to.. without the husk powder and cumin powder but the dough wasn’t even like dough and it just kept falling apart.. could someone help me?
Amir, the psyllium husk powder is needed for it to thicken. That’s probably what the problem was.
Thank you so much haha.. Sorry i’m still a rookie
No problem.
What can you sub for the psyllium husk powder? Would arrowroot powder work?
Jessica, arrowroot powder is not exactly accepted on keto. So I’d suggest ordering some psyllium powder. It works well in many recipes 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe, the tortillas turned out great.My chicken quesadillas ware yam! I was very happy to see Trader Joe’s had husk powder.
Awesome to hear Diana! I’m happy they turned out good 🙂
I’ve been bookmarking a ton of your recipes over the last few days and found this on the same day I planned on making taco salad (sans tortillas). You saved my taco night. It was a lot of work rolling them out and I ended up with 13 because I cut them with a smaller pan lid. However, they fit the bill. I can’t wait to make quesadillas with some of my leftovers tomorrow! Thank you for all the amazing ideas!
Hi Greg,
I was wondering if their was a substitute for Phyllium Husk for some of your recipes. I am allergic to that product. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks for all you do. Really great recipes.
Sometimes flaxseed meal can replace it in a lot of recipes, but this is one recipe where it cannot, unfortunately.
I read this part a little too late! Now I have loads of a really tasty crumble… that I can’t imagine how to use. Lol! Oops! Can’t wait to try with psyllium husks since my flax-y blooper is so yummy.
me too!
Try oat fiber. You’ll have to play around with the amount ( usually 3/4ths the amount of psyllium husks) but it will work pretty well with a negligible effect on net carbs per serving. Good luck and I hope your gut heals soon.
So easy to make! I was concerned it wouldn’t be. Thank you for the detailed instructions. I just made the most awesome breakfast burrito!
These are a life saver when trying to blend in with guests on Taco Tuesdays! Also, they are suuuuuper sturdy! Thanks!
The best Tortillas I have ever taste. But I think they need to be eat very fast. Otherwise the tortillas get soaked and the coconut taste becomes to dominant. Thank you for this recipe.
These are amazing. I made them on Christmas. I added a little xanatham gum which I think made them more “stretchy”. Cast iron made them golden and crispy. THANK YOU SO MUCH
Xantham gum sounds like a smart addition – I think I’ll be trying that in half and guar gum in the other half of the batch. Thanks for letting me know – and I’m really glad you like them 🙂
Can these be frozen??
Yes, they definitely can be!
Mine won’t turn into a rollable dough. I ground my psyllium into a fine powder but it just remains runny. And suggestions?
Hey Natalie – you could try adding the broth a little bit at a time, though psyllium usually takes a couple of minutes to get the full absorption. It’s possible that you’re not grinding it fine enough as I buy the pre-ground stuff and it feels like a dust. Also, make sure that the broth is hot when you add it as it helps the psyllium soak it up.
any chance you calculated the fiber content. This looks like a great recipe.
It’s 6.4g fiber per tortilla. There’s a table of nutritional information that gives the breakdown for all items/macros at the bottom of each recipe.
Just made these for the first time -they look finger-licking good! Needed something for our pot-luck lunch tomrrow that I know I can eat with cheese!!!! Will of course quality control tonight. Question Craig what diametre do you expect these to turn out? I didn’t quite use the whole two cups of broth as I felt the dough had come together sufficiently well. Made 9 altogether, about 12 cm diametre (just short of 5 inches).
Hey Linda – that sounds about right. I usually get 5-6 inch tortillas, mostly closer to 6 if I’m using a tortilla press. You’re correct on the broth – you just need to work it until it all comes together. Adding more can sometimes lead to a disaster. Hope you liked them!
They were wonderful! Friends who are avoiding gluten were so pleased to find something on the buffet they could eat, they asked for a link to the recipe. I will certainly be making these again. Thanks so much. Can one make the dough and/or roll the tortiallas ahead of time and freeze ? It would be good to have batches ready to go.
Not sure how I messed this one up — I feel like I followed the recipe almost to a T, but the result wasn’t very good at all. I made a couple of the tortillas, and they were just… weird. The texture was stretchy and gummy, almost Play-Doh-like, and the taste was extremely bland. Mine came out almost like vaguely chili powder-flavored fried Play-Doh 🙂 I used exactly the indicated amounts of coconut flour and psyllium husk and broth; I had to skimp on the butter by about a tablespoon because I ran out, but I don’t see how that could make a huge difference.
I ended up putting the rest of the “dough” (which btw is uncannily dough-like) in the freezer in the hopes that I can get something good out of it in the future. Any clue as to what I might have done wrong?
I’m amazed at these. I have had the Psyllium and coconut flour for awhile now. Every time I use coconut flour in anything it tastes really weird and I can’t stand it. So I was skeptical to say the least, the other thing that bothered me is all the comments about the dough being hard to work with. I figured I have this stuff let’s give it a go. The first one was way too thin and a mess, but after that I rolled out a big oversized one and used the lid trick, worked like a charm and had no trouble with the rest. I got 13 out of this recipe. These taste good and have great texture. What a game changer for me, Thank You!