Primal Tex-Mex Tortillas and Taco Seasoning
Taco night is a tradition in many families and one that doesn’t have to stop just because corn chips and flour tortillas aren’t on the table. Our favorite wrap for tacos is lettuce, whether the filling is grilled fish or flank steak. We’ve also been known to bake up a batch of kale chips and serve them along side avocado, salsa and taco meat. Often, we simply pile up taco toppings in a bowl with seasoned taco meat and eat it with a fork.
The trick to making a taco bowl really flavorful is in the seasoning, but store-bought taco seasoning packets often contain too much salt or unsavory ingredients. Making your own is easy and tastes almost identical to the seasoning packets you can buy in stores. We use it to flavor ground meat, but you can season steak or chicken with homemade taco seasoning, too.
But we know what a few of you are saying to yourself right now… lettuce wraps and taco bowls are all well and good, but what about those nights when what I really want is a Primal tortilla for my taco fillings?
You’ll be happy to know we’ve been doing a lot of experimenting on behalf of all you tortilla-lovers out there and we think we’ve hit upon a solution that will satisfy.
Primal Tex-Mex Tortillas are fluffier and more delicate than flour tortillas. The flavor can lean towards being slightly sweet from the coconut flour but we’ve added cumin, chili pepper and a hint of lime, which covers the sweetness and gives the tortillas a Tex-Mex flair. Our tortillas are a delicious base for tacos, but don’t wrap around the fillings quite as well. We tried versions of this recipe that used only egg whites and wrapped a little better, but in the end we liked the extra protein and richness (and convenience) of using the whole egg. The tortillas fry up quickly in olive oil, and then can be stacked high with any fillings you like – salsa, guacamole and sautéed onion and peppers are great add-ons to whatever meat you choose.
Tortillas made from coconut flour may not taste exactly like traditional tortillas made from wheat flour, but this isn’t to say they aren’t good in their own right. We tried at least a half dozen recipes for Primal tortillas and think our version the best one out there – try these Tex-Mex tortillas on your next taco night and let us know what you think!
Primal Tex-Mex Tortillas
Makes 4 tortillas
Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water
- 2 eggs
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lime juice
- 2 tablespoons coconut flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
Instructions:
Whisk together water, eggs, olive oil and lime.
Mix together coconut flour, baking powder, cumin and chili powder.
Slowly pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, whisking as you pour so clumps don’t form.
Heat several tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, pour 1/4 cup of batter in the pan, tilting pan so the batter spreads thinly.
Let the batter sit untouched for one minute then put a lid on the pan and cook one minute more. Flip the tortilla and fry for 2 more minutes.
Taco Seasoning – to season 1 pound of meat
Ingredients:
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 teasoon garlic powder or minced garlic
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions:
Simply season raw meat then cook as desired.
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Posted By: Worker Bee
Looks very tasty and the easiest way is to eat it with a fork. However, coco flour just doesn’t do justice. The beauty of wheat or corn, is that it stays together, no break up. The reason why people gain weight going that direction is that they eat too many of them at one sitting. One wheat or corn tort and then fill up more on the insert, would make more sense.
…and taco meat is a great place to sneak in some offal (the gamey flavor complements the spices) and red palm oil (I’m finding the flavor’s too strong for most everything else). The “tortilla” looks awesome, can’t wait to try it!
Just today, took a bull calf to the processors. I had the beef liver ground to a “chili grind” and had it all mixed in with the very lean ground beef. Will do the same w/ my venison this year. Its just too easy to stealth the liver into folks this way ;o)
Try making them small enough to not fall apart, just like the Banana Almond pancakes. Try Almond flour. Use Ghee instead of olive oil. Ghee is clarified butter. Has a high smoking point. Love it. Just keep trying…you will get it sooner or later.
I’ve NEEDED a tortilla replacement!!!!!!!!!! I will try this this week
I think I’ll stick to corn tortillas for my tacos, as opposed to what appears to be a pancake. I don’t eat tortillas often enough to fret over their non-paleo-ness.
Yesterday I made this recipe and followed it with these exceptions.
Substituted lemon juice for the lime.
Cooked about 3/4 cup coarsely chopped vidalia onions with the meat since I had no onion powder.
fried the “tortilla” in half olive oil and half coconut oil.
I only topped it with chopped lettuce, husband added grated cheese plus the lettuce. Oh, and Frank’s was sprinkled on top. We ate it with knife and fork.
As stated, the tortilla is more a pancake but I have to say, we both agreed it was really, really good. The taste was excellent, in fact. Yum!
I will be making this again and again and hope to have some tomatoes and avocado to add next time.
Thanks for the recipe!
I am going to have to make this… I love me some tex-mex food… Nice alternative to lettuce wraps!
I am going to try this as my DH loves tortillas. but I can’t abide the texture of what is called coconut flour here. so my question to you and anyone else is is coconut flour powdery like wheat or alond flour or is it supposed to be in little tiny pieces? I could use my mortar and pestle to grind it up further if it is supposed to be powdery.
Yes it is powdery and you can buy it in a natural food store. I think it has a light cornmeal texture when used in a recipe although I didn’t notice the cornmeal texture in this recipe. These “tortillas” are really more like a pancake but tasted great with the toppings.
Thanks. I will grind it up more next time I use it
Nice to see an alternative tortilla within the primal boundaries. Ive never had TexMex, but CaliMex is incredibly good. I havent tried this recipe yet (will soon, though, just need to find coconut flour?), but just a thought for those of you who would like to “wrap,” how about you place the Cocotilla in side a lettuce leaf and add the toppings on top of that? That way you can wrap and have a different taste/texture instead of just plain lettuce.
Tortillas have been the most fretted-about item for this Texas girl…may have to try the coconut flour recipe!
I just made mine with almond mill. Very good!
I’m gonna have to try this out this week
Thankfully I have everything so just need to figure out which day to make it!
I’m ALL over this for the upcoming weekend!
Made these tonight with turkey meat and I must say, they were awesome! Noticed that if you use a little bit more tortilla mixture for each tortilla they stay together a little better and makes eating it like a traditional taco easier.
The meat seasoning was great as well…definitely a recipe we will use again!
I am also from Texas but I find that I can make good Tex-Mex without the tortilla at all. At restaurants we order fajitas without tortillas and make our own casserole that most servers go out of their way to compliment as looking better than fajitas! Especially since I really don’t miss flour or corn I think I’ll stick to that.
tried this tonight and while the meat turned out great, the tortillas left a LOT to be desired. does elevation play a role in this? or is it the brand of coconut flour? they were really loose, fell apart in the pan and never really solidified. we’re at about 4300′ elevation. not sure what we did wrong
I don’t think it was the elevation as the same thing happened to me and we are at 60 feet above sea level.
Awesome! I am hungry!
Unfortunately I got a few complaints last night. Like, we want MORE! I made these for my family and they were awesome! Love, love, love this recipe and I had been craving taco flavors. This did the trick perfectly and nobody missed regular tortillas.
Thanks, this will be perfect for tonight’s dinner! I planned on making chili, but the kids will be much happier seeing something ‘bready-looking’ on their plates.
I’ve made tortillas using quinoa flour and they were the same shape and consistency as flour tortillas. If you ate them plain you could taste a strong quinoa flavour but with taco filling you didn’t notice.
The recipe is 1 cup of quinoa flour, 1 tbsp of olive oil and then however much water you need so that it isn’t sticky. No worries if you add too much water, just add more flour to compensate. You can buy a tortilla press to make things easy or roll it out with wax paper like I did.
For those of you having trouble getting the tortillas to hold together, here are a few tips:
Make sure your pan is hot – the oil should be crackling a bit. When you pour the batter into the pan it should immediately start to sizzle and cook. Remember – don’t touch the tortilla for the first 2 minutes. Use a wide pancake turner, one you can gently slide under the whole tortilla, to flip the tortilla. Making the tortillas smaller also makes flipping them easier if you’re having trouble. You can use the pancake turner to move the tortilla from the pan to plate, or just slide the tortilla out of the pan by tilting the pan towards the plate.
Whisk the batter each time before you pour it into the pan. The coconut flour tends to settle on the bottom of the bowl.
You can add more coconut flour, which might help the tortillas hold together better, but the tortillas will then have a stronger coconut flavor and the texture changes…to us, more flour gives the texture a sawdust-like quality, which is why we prefer more delicate tortillas with less coconut flour in them.
We like the richer flavor and convenience of the whole egg tortillas, but using just egg whites, instead of the whole egg, can make the tortillas stronger. Whisk the egg whites briskly until they are foamy, then whisk in the oil, water and lime juice.
I made these this evening. They turned out very good and I enjoyed eating them with some chicken and sour cream. I followed the recipe exactly and only poured out 1/4 cup for each one. I let it cook for one minute, then covered and let it cook for one more minute, then flipped. None of them broke apart and they turned out nice and crispy on the edges. It made 5, not 4.
We made a 1/2 batch. It’s a great way to enjoy an egg.
yum – thanks for the recipe!
I’ve been making a similar meat filling then putting into a green pepper and baking… But I’m excited to try this tortilla
try adding guar gum. They may just be more flexible. This is what is used in gluten free tortillas
we made these last night. they were ah.some!!!!! the tortilla was almost like a crepe………… a whole new world has just developed……. oh the possibilities!!!!
we noticed it was super important to use alot of ghee (or butter or whatever)…. that seemed to be the only difference in the three that looked like tortillas and the one that fell apart.
I finally got around to making these this morning for breakfast. Hubby referred to them as a REVOLUTION! Absolutely amazing. I never thought I’d be able to eat “tortillas” again. Delicious! Keep these recipes coming!
Made this recipe over the weekend. It turned out amazing! I served it with a fresh tomato, onion, cilantro salsa and homemade guacamole. The kids loved it, as well. Thanks, Mark!
I cooked the tortillas for about 30 seconds uncovered and 30 seconds covered before flipping after the first couple were more brown than I would like. Range temps vary, I suppose.
these were so fantastic!!!
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