Fabulous Tortilla Bread

I’m a big fan of cooking everything from scratch. I know what we eat, and frankly it is cheaper to cook your own food. Of course It’s really nice to go out every once in a while, and I’ve had periods of my life when I’ve been eating out a lot. My daughter is a big fan of Mexican food, especially burritos in every imaginable way. Maybe it’s partly my fault that she is such a big fan of Mexican food, when she was little we use to visit this wonderful Mexican restaurant every weekend. It was our thing. We lived far out in the countryside, very rural. Once a week I gave myself a reason to dress up, and see other people. We lived in California then, and Mexican food is really good there, so close to Mexico. Since we don’t have that here in Sweden I’ve learned to make amazing tortilla bread myself, and my daughter is older and can create her own burritos with them. Burritos being her absolute favourite food. It is actually really simple to make fabulous tortilla bread, that said, I struggled a lot before coming up with the perfect recipe. I’ve been given so many recipes that other people swore were the best, but for some reason they did not work out for me. This one does! It’s the results of many hours of tweaking the recipe. My daughter is a picky eater, and she approves  🙂

Fabulous Tortilla Bread – 6 big tortilla breads, or 10-12 smaller ones 

3 cups of wheat flour (all purpose/whole wheat/bread – pick your favourite)

1/2 cup of olive oil

1,5 cup of boiling water

pinch of salt

Mix flour and salt in a big bowl. Add boiling water and olive oil (you can substitute for another oil if you don’t have olive oil at home.)

Mix the dough for about 5 minutes by hand with a wooden fork or spoon. Depending on what flour you use, you may have to add more boiling water, or more flour when you knead the dough. You finished mixing when the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl.

Cover the dough for ten minutes.

Divide the dough into six or more round balls. Roll them out using a rolling pin. Use a little bit of flour when you roll them out, if you need too. Bake them one by one, in a dry frying pan on a little more than medium heat, a couple minutes on each side. Place the finished tortillas inside a moist (not wet) towel, while baking the rest of your tortillas.

Enjoy the tortillas in your favourite fashion! We made these burritos yesterday, using the tortillas in this recipe. We filled them with beef, shredded cheddar cheese, hot tomato salsa, and a lot of fresh cilantro from our garden. Served with a salad they make a hearty and healthy meal.

I had kidney beans soaking over night last night, and was planning to serve a beans stew for lunch today. My daughter asked for burritos..I said yes and served the bean stew in a tortilla bread with sliced fresh fruit as a side. My picky eater took both seconds and thirds. Winner, winner..a few weeks ago I had fish on the menu, same thing happen. “Mom can we have Mexican food tonight?” I love saying yes, so I did, and served the fish and salad in tortilla breads. Do you have a picky eater at home? Any tips you’d like to share?

For us it makes sense to buy different types of beans, and flour in bulk. During corona I never had to worry all that much about not being able to get groceries. Did you know that if you store beans, lentils, and other dry good right they can literally last for decades? This homemade tortilla bread cost me less than 50 cent (US) to make. The bean stew that I served in the bread today was even less than that. All the ingredients were organic. It would have been more expensive if I didn’t buy it in bulk of course, but it would still be cheaper than buying the finished product, or eating out. For me as a single mom that matters.

Please let me know in a comment if you try this recipe and what you think about it!

Love,

Maria