Almond Flour Tortillas (Low-Carb, Keto, Vegan, Paleo)

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Almond flour tortillas are a great low-carb alternative to regular tortillas. These homemade almond flour tortillas are tender, pliable, soft, and will not break when you roll them. They are vegan (dairy-free, egg-free), grain-free (gluten-free), soy-free, and refined sugar-free.

What do you appreciate the most about tortillas? How soft and pliable they are? Their slight chewiness? Fluffy texture straight off the griddle? Or perhaps the slightly nutty, neutral flavor? Believe it or not, all these amazing qualities come from gluten.

Gluten is a protein found in the grains wheat, rye, barley and triticale. Gluten is actually made up of two smaller peptides, or proteins, called glutenin and gliadin. When gliadin and glutenin are combined with water and mixed or kneaded, the bonds between the proteins become longer and stronger. More compact gliadin proteins allow the dough to flow like a fluid, whereas glutenins contribute strength. As mixing continues, the chains of protein organize into sort of a webbing that has both elasticity (the ability to stretch) and extensibility (the ability to hold shape). During fermentation gluten helps dough rise by trapping gas bubbles. It also absorbs and retains water, preventing baked goods from turning dry and powdery. Without this little protein tango, bread would be a very different thing: flatter, crumblier, denser, and less chewy.

So, as you can imagine, when you remove gluten, you add challenges. Without gluten, tortillas tend to be dry, powdery, rubbery, and tasteless. Doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it.

To get around this problem, commercial gluten-free products tend to use a combination starches and flours, and one or two hydrocolloid sources (such as xantham gum, guar gum, cellulose gum, alginates, or psyllium). Using the right combination of key functional ingredients can indeed replace gluten without compromising the taste and texture of gluten-free tortillas. Here’s how it’s done.

Tips for Making Almond Flour Tortillas

Ingredients

Almond flour: look for finely ground almond flour. I don’t recommend using almond meal for low-carb tortillas because it’s coarser in texture and darker in color. Almond flour and almond meal are quite similar, but almond flour is made from blanched almonds, which have had the skins removed, and is ground more finely than almond meal. If you’d like to replace the almond flour with coconut flour, please, follow this recipe.
Psyllium husk: what makes the almond flour tortillas soft and flexible is psyllium. Psyllium is a form of soluble fiber that provides not only elasticity and structure, but also binding. It works a bit like gluten in traditional baking, and makes it possible to handle the dough. I prefer whole psyllium over ground because it has usually a higher grade of purity.The higher the purity level, the lighter the psyllium husk. This is why psyllium ranges from brown to off-white color. So, whenever you’re purchasing psyllium, get whole psyllium husk with the highest purity level you can find (so your tortillas turn out light-colored).
Olive oil: this is completely optional, but I like to add a tiny bit of olive oil for moisture.
Baking powder: to give a little bit of lift and fluffiness to the tortillas, I used a leavening agent. If you like flat tortillas, you can leave itout.
Salt: almond flour is naturally slightly sweet. Adding salt balances the sweetness out.

How to Make Almond Flour Tortillas

Ready to learn how to make almond flour tortillas? Here is a step-by-step guide:

Prepare the dough. Add the almond flour, psyllium husk, baking powder, and salt into a medium mixing bowl and stir to combine. Add the olive oil and water, and mix to create a dough. The dough will be wet and sticky at first, but as the psyllium absorbs all the water – it takes about a minute or two – the dough will get drier and easy to work with.
Knead the dough. Scoop the dough and knead it just until smooth, elastic, and pliable. There is no need to knead the dough for a long time since there is no gluten. I also like to let the dough rest for 5-10 minutes to let the psyllium absorb all the moisture. The dough will always be slightly moist, but it shouldn’t stick to your hands. It should come together as a soft, elastic dough. If the dough is too wet, add ½ tsp./2.5 g psyllium at a time. If it’s too dry, add 1 tsp./5 ml water at a time.
Roll out the dough. When you’re ready to cook the tortillas, divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Pick up one piece and shape it into a ball. Place the ball on a piece of parchment paper, cover it with another piece of parchment paper and flatten it with the palm of your hand. Place the rolling pin in the middle of the dough (a handle-less rolling pin allows for more control than a pin with handles) and roll halfway away and halfway toward you. Turn the dough 180 degrees and repeat. If this is your first time making low-carb tortillas, I recommend that you roll out the dough a bit thicker and smaller, no larger than 8 inch/20 cm in diameter. The thicker and smaller the tortilla, the easier it is to handle. However, a great texture tortilla comes from about a 1⁄16-in/1.6-mm thickness.
Shape the dough (optional). As the tortilla goes from disk to roundish shape, you may want to use a varied technique to form it into a clean circle. I usually use a bowl or a lid to make a round shape and cut out a perfectly round tortilla.Keep the outside dough to reform a ball and roll out 1-2 more tortillas – that is how I make 1-2 extra tortillas from the 4 balls above.
Cook the tortillas. Flip the tortilla onto a hot, non-stick skillet and cook it for2-3 minutes on the first side. Then flip it over, and cook it for 1-2 more minutes on the other side. I use a well-seasoned cast iron skillet, but I imagine that any non-stick surface will work. A stainless steel surface will not work!

How to Serve Almond Flour Tortillas

There are so many ways to serve low-carb tortillas. I typically turn them into bean burritos, quesadillas, or wraps for grilled vegetables. Of course, you can also use these low-carb wraps as a side dish for stews and soups.

My kids love these in sweet applications – with sliced bananas and a sprinkle of cinnamon or baked into cinnamon chips.

You could also roll out the tortillas a bit thicker foralmond flour naan bread.

How to Store Almond Flour Tortillas

Refrigerating: allow the tortillas to cool to room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for 4-5 days.
Freezing: allow the tortillas to cool to room temperature. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze with a piece of parchment paper in between each tortilla (so the tortillas don’t stick together as they freeze) for up to 1 month.

More Low-Carb Tortillas Recipes

I have several variations of this recipe on the blog:

Coconut flour flatbread: if you’d like to make these tortillas with coconut flour (as opposed to almond flour), try the coconut flour flatbread. I usually use this recipe for thicker naan, but it works for tortillas as well. The coconut flour flatbread is slightly sweeter and softer.
Almond-coconut flour flatbread: this is yet another variation of gluten-free flatbread. It’s made with a blend of both coconut flour and almond flour.
Flaxseed tortillas: one of the most popular recipes on this blog are flaxseed tortillas – 1-ingredient low-carb tortillas.

If you try any of these recipes, please, leave a comment and rate the recipe below. It always means a lot when you do.

4.95 from 19 votes