These soft, flexible cauliflower tortillas, made with just 3 main ingredients, are grain free, and have less than 2 net carbs each. There’s even a Paleo option.
How to make these low carb tortillas
These low carb, grain free cauliflower tortillas are soft and bendy, and are made of just three basic ingredients. They are cauliflower, eggs, and grated Parm.
If you’d like to make them Paleo, replace the cheese with 1 ounce of nutritional yeast. Scroll down to the Ingredients and substitutions section for additional dairy-free information.
I promise these tortillas don’t taste eggy. Only actual omelets should taste like them, not tortillas.
The best thing about these tortillas is really their texture, which has bite and chew. But there’s also plenty of flavor from the cheese.
You can’t cook these tortillas in a skillet. You can only brown them a bit in a hot skillet after they have been baked in the oven. Ask me how I know that for sure. ?
Can you make flour from cauliflower?
The cauliflower is simply “riced” cauliflower, not actual dried flour that you have to purchase. Scroll down a bit for details on how to rice cauliflower (or buy it already riced).
If you buy frozen, already riced cauliflower, you’ll need 12 ounces as frozen. Then, defrost without heating (on low power in the microwave usually works).
How to rice cauliflower
Buy it riced and frozen
Since I originally shared this recipe, I’ve been buying already-riced frozen cauliflower at my local Trader Joe’s grocery store regularly. The regular grocery store now even carries their brand as well.
I simply place the frozen riced cauliflower in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave it on low power for about 4 minutes. Alternatively, you can defrost it at room temperature, which takes much longer but is very easy to do.
The cauliflower preparation can all be done days ahead of time. In fact, I recommend you rice and fully prep at least 2 heads of florets.
Then, store them in the refrigerator a few days before you plan to make use of them. The rest of the recipe is truly a snap.
If you begin with raw cauliflower, you must first rice it, and then cook it a bit as instructed in the recipe. There is more than one way to rice it, though.
In a food processor
If you can’t find frozen, riced cauliflower, it’s very easy to make your own. The easiest way to rice whole, raw cauliflower.
Simply chop the raw vegetable into relatively fine grains. The easiest way is to pulse the florets in a food processor.
With a box grater
If you don’t have a food processor, ricing can also be done with a handheld box grater. Be careful not to end up with any big chunks, though.
In a blender
A reader named Jennifer Swenson shared her favorite raw to rice cauliflower. Others have tried it with success, so it’s worth sharing here.
Simply cut apart a head of cauliflower into florets and place the florets in a blender. Fill the blender with cold water, blend for about four seconds, and then drain the now-riced cauliflower.
You must remove all the moisture
However you rice the cauliflower, once you’ve riced, you have to wring out all of the moisture in it. If you’ve never done this before, you’ll be amazed by how much moisture there is in lightly cooked cauliflower.
If you don’t squeeze out all the moisture, your cauliflower tortillas won’t dry in the oven during baking. That means that they will be limp, and not pleasantly flexible.
Ingredients and substitutions
These are a really, really nice healthy, low-carb alternative to tortillas. They’re not only grain-free; they don’t have a grain substitute.
But they’re not true tortillas in every sense, as they can’t be made much larger or any thinner. You may prefer our recipe for Soft Paleo Flour Tortillas. Or one of the other 9 recipes for gluten free flatbread that I swear by.
Dairy
The finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese gives these tons of flavor, but also dairy. If you’d like to make these dairy-free and by definition Paleo, you can substitute the cheese with 1 ounce (28 grams) nutritional yeast flakes.
I’ve also tried replacing the dairy cheese with Daiya grated cheese alternative. It makes the tortillas kind of puffy, and I really prefer nutritional yeast.
Eggs
The eggs are what is largely responsible for the structure of these tortillas, so replacing them is risky. I’m afraid I can’t promise success.
You can try replacing each with a “chia egg” (1 tablespoon ground white chia seeds + 1 tablespoon lukewarm water, mixed and allowed to gel). If you do that, I highly recommend using the optional tapioca starch/flour.
Tapioca starch/flour
If you can’t have tapioca or you don’t want to add any more carbs to this recipe, leave out the tapioca starch/flour. It helps keep them soft and flexible even when completely cool, but it’s not an essential ingredient.
HELLO! I’m Nicole! I make gluten-free food enjoyable & affordable. If they can make it with gluten, we can make it without. That’s a promise!
Comments are closed.
I loved them! First I thawed the TJ frozen cauliflower, then just cooked the desired amount for about 4 minutes. Then followed your recipe adding almond mozzarella cheese and nutritional yeast. They were amazing! I topped them with corn, tomato, kale avocado salad. Hmmmm yummmy!
You are actually tempting me to buy your book so that I can have all this homemade goodness at my fingertips!
?for this site.
I’m so glad the almond mozzarella worked well for you! Thank you so much for the kind note and letting me know.
Hi, what are the measurements when using frozen riced cauliflower? 12oz is 1 cup. Do I use 12oz or 48 Oz?
Thank you :)
When I make this using frozen riced cauliflower, I just use 12 ounces. It works great, Patricia. Sorry if that wasn’t completely clear from the instructions. I’ve attempted to clarify in the text of the post.
Thank you so much for your recipes Nicole. Living in France I have to convert pints, inches and onces in grams and centimeters, :-) I’m used to do so by now.
Thank you for this recipe, I did a good job with a cauliflower pizza crust, and I was looking for other ways of using riced culiflower. Tell me if you have other ideas and what you suggest to eat with them.
Please use the search function, Carleen, for more recipes using riced cauliflower. Just search “cauliflower”
These really were GREAT! Worked so well with my Sheet Pan Pork Fajitas! Reheating after freezing went so quickly and the pliability and texture were like fresh. I’ve tried both with and without tapioca flour and they both worked well:) So great for my Keto lifestyle! THANK YOU!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Lenora. They don’t seem like they’ll work, but then they do!
Here in Canada I found Via Emilia brand organic frozen riced cauliflower at Costco at a very reasonable price (in comparison to buying organic and doing all the work yourself), 3 lbs for $8.39. It is packaged in four 12 oz. separate packages. I have my 4 cups thawing now and am looking forward to “Keto” tortillas:) If this works as well as it looks I may become a riced cauliflower hoarder (just kidding):) Thank you for all your work and using your ingenuity to provide us with all these great recipes. I have a celiac daughter-in-law and grands with various food issues and love using your recipes and ideas.
I find that it’s really worth the minor extra cost to buy frozen riced cauliflower if you can find it, Lenora, so well done there. I think we’re all fighting the urge to hoard many things these days. Thank you so much for the kind words. They mean more than you may know!
Hi. I wonder two things. 1 can I use frozen cauliflower florets to rice? 2 what about juicing the frozen florets, thus remaining is simply cauliflower with presumably no liquid.
To use frozen florets, Tia, you’ll need to defrost them without cooking them any further before ricing them. Sometimes, that’s possible with cauliflower and sometimes not. If you defrost gently and it’s kind of sad-looking, I’m afraid I don’t think it would work to rice without its becoming essentially liquid. I don’t think you could rice it frozen. I wish I had better news, but of course I don’t know for sure since I haven’t tried it…
Cauliflower is a fortune here (Canada) right now, so I don’t know about these, BUT I made your low carb almond flour tortillas a couple days ago, for quesadillas and they were THE BEST gluten free (or any, really) tortillas I have ever had!
You are an angel for keeping us in these “use what you have in your pantry” recipes. Thank you. ?
I’ve heard it’s a fortune in Australia as well, Shelley, right now. No clue why! So glad you loved those low carb almond flour tortillas. You’re so welcome for the use-what-you-have recipes. We’re all in this together. ?
I have frozen riced cauliflower from Trader Joes. Would that work here? Ingredients are cauliflower and salt. It’s sold in the frozen veggy section. Thanks!
Good question, Mary. I have seen frozen riced cauliflower, and I have tried to think of how it could be used in this sort of recipe. My concern is that it won’t hold its shape once it’s thawed. You’d either have to experiment, or wait for me to get my hands on some of the frozen riced stuff, try it and report back. :)
I just made these, Nicole. FABULOUS! Seriously very yummy and my kids were fighting over the last one. I followed your directions to the letter (subbing nutritional yeast for the Parm as you suggested) and using another commenter’s suggestion to rice the cauliflower in the blender. Loved them. Thank you!
That’s so awesome, Mel! So great to have something new and simple in your repertoire. :)
Love your site, your recipes, photos and your attitude. So many good gluten-free recipes depend on eggs for binding and flavor. Now my darling guy has developed a major allergy to eggs. I suspect there will be some recipes that can’t be done without eggs, but can you recommend a substitute that works at least some of the time?
Hi, Muzzie,
My rule of thumb is that, if a recipe has 2 eggs or fewer, a “chia egg” usually works fine. More than 2 eggs and you’re best off finding another recipe. That being said, since this particular recipe is so incredibly simple, I don’t recommend trying it with an egg substitute. That’s the mixed-good news.
The 100% good news is that my gluten free recipes do not generally depend upon eggs any more than conventional recipes do. You shouldn’t have more trouble around here than you would with conventional recipes. :)
Happy New Year Nicole!
Can I throw in a suggestion? I stumbled across the EASIEST WAY TO RICE CAULIFLOWER EVER, no kidding! Cut apart a head of cauliflower into florets, hurl them into a blender, yes, you heard me, then fill the blender with cold water and pulse it or blend for about four seconds. Perfect riced cauliflower, just needs to drain well in a colander, no messy cleanup or cauliflower particles everywhere, and the blender is easily rinsed. Much less trouble than cleaning a food processor, in my opinion. Since discovering this, I have never looked back!
Jennifer that is total genius and I absolutely loathe using my food processor so this is particularly exciting for a whiner like me. Thank you so much for making that suggestion! I am 100% going to do that next time I make these tortillas or, say, cauliflower pizza (which my kids literally beg for). Thank you x 1 million!!
Can these be frozen, do you think? I’m only cooking for 2, and making more than that at one time is always problematic.
I think they would freeze very well, Erin. Just wrap them tightly—and if they get icy during freezing at all, just heat them briefly in a hot, dry skillet. They’ll be fine.
Thank you, you’re awesome! :)
Hi Nicole, and Happy New Year! These look so good!! Is there a substitute for the eggs?
In this recipe, I’m afraid not, Tiffany. It’s just too simple a recipe. So sorry! Happy New Year to you, too!
How do I love thee? How can I not love thee?!?!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! A grain free recipe I know I can trust!!!
This one’s for you, Mare!!
Had to chuckle with all your sidebar comments.Thank you for all your experiments :)
You bet, Yvonne! That’s why they call it “work,” right? ;)