Learn how to make sourdough tortillas with five basic ingredients: sourdough starter, flour, water, oil, and salt. They are perfect for a quick summer wrap or your favorite tacos.
After sharing “What We Eat in a Week” videos with healthy meal ideas for breakfast and dinner, I had soooo many requests for healthy lunch ideas.
Truth is, since we are all together as a family for lunch, I usually just make more of the same. It’s something along the lines of meat and veggies, eggs, salmon, avocados, and sauerkraut.
Last week was a craaazy week, with the magazine crew here for four out of five days. I sent my husband and kids out of the house a lot, and had to think of something to send with them to eat on-the-go.
It made me think of the sourdough tortillas I used to make all the time. After whipping up a couple batches, I wondered why I ever forgot about them.
They are so easy and convenient!
We had cilantro chicken wraps with purple cabbage and honey mustard for lunch today, and I just got some more dough going tonight.
I already have a bunch of leftover chicken in the fridge, so tomorrow’s lunch is going to be as simple as rolling out a couple tortillas and packing them with meat, veggies, and herbs.
Sourdough tortillas may be vying for the top spot in my favorite sourdough creations. Right next to English muffins…or pancakes, maybe pizza crusts.
Ok, I really love all things sourdough, but these tortillas are going to be a staple in lunches this summer. Quick. Easy. Not hot. They make the best sourdough wraps.
Who wants hot meals on a 90 degree summer day?!
Why I Love This Recipe:
These can be made with any wheat flour: all purpose, whole grain, or freshly milled. I often use hard white wheat berries that I grind fresh in my Mockmill.
Long fermentation is the traditional way to prepare grains. The bacteria present in the sourdough starter pre-digest the grains and make them easier for the body to process.
Many people who are very sensitive to gluten have told me that they can actually tolerate it when fermented for 24 hours or more!
Isn’t that amazing?!
It makes sense why so many people can’t have gluten today. Grains are no longer prepared traditionally. Also, many species of wheat have been hybridized and modified, so that they are no longer in a form that our body is prepared to handle.
If you are super sensitive to wheat, I suggest letting your sourdough goodies ferment for at least 24 hours before cooking/baking. Also, it’s better to use ancient einkorn wheat flour, which hasn’t been hybridized. You can find my einkorn tortillas recipe here.
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Tips For Making Sourdough Tortillas:
- To make cooking super fast and easy, I love getting four cast iron skillets going at one time. This makes this process so much easier. A serious game changer rather than sitting in front of one skillet flipping tortillas one at a time.
- All-purpose and whole wheat flour will work well for this recipe. For lighter and fluffier tortillas, use unbleached all-purpose.
- You can use active sourdough starter or discard.
- No need for a tortilla press, you can easily just roll these out with a rolling pin.
Tools you may need:
Measuring cups and spoons
Rolling pin
I use the professional Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, because it has dough hooks that do the kneading for me. If you plan to make a lot of sourdough bread and tortillas, this thing just makes life so much easier.
You can turn on the kneading hooks and walk away to tend to the children who are pulling blueberries out of the freezer and dumping your good Castile soap down the drain. Anyone else have a two year old?
I also like that it holds a higher quantity than the original KitchenAid. It can knead more loaves of bread at one time. #largefamilymom
Ingredients
- Unbleached all-purpose flour or whole grain – Both will work, but all-purpose flour makes these tortillas lighter.
- Sourdough starter – You will want to use sourdough starter that is active. It should be fed 4-12 hours before starting the recipe, and be nice and bubbly.
- Water
- Extra virgin olive oil – you can also substitute another healthy oil like avocado oil or melted coconut oil.
- Salt – I love Himalayan salt.
How To Make Sourdough Tortillas
Add the sourdough starter, water, oil, salt, and flour to a mixer with a dough hook.
Knead for 2-3 minutes in a mixer, or 5 minutes by hand. The ingredients should be fully incorporated, and the dough slightly elastic.
Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a tea towel, and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. (If you are gluten intolerant, 24 hours is better.)
The next day, divide the dough into 12 equal parts.
On a lightly floured work surface, roll each ball of dough out to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Get them as thin as you can, without them falling apart.
Cook them in a preheated cast iron skillet in a little coconut oil. One minute on each side is sufficient.
FAQ:
Is sourdough bread better for you?
For sure. Due to the fermentation process, not only is sourdough easier to digest, but also the nutrients that are naturally occurring in the grains are more bioavailable for your body to absorb; thus sourdough is a better choice than typical grain products.
How do you heat up sourdough tortillas?
If you want to heat up a bunch at one time you can set your oven to 350 degrees. While the oven is heating up add your tortillas for about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and they should be perfectly heated up without being hard.
Microwave: place them on a microwave safe dish, and add a damp towel. Heat for 30 seconds to one minute until warm.
Can you freeze sourdough tortillas?
Yes! Freeze the tortillas on a cookie sheet without overlapping the tortillas. Once frozen, you can stack them and then place them in an air-tight container. Or freeze with parchment paper between each tortilla so they don’t stick together, and place in an air-tight container.
What can you use sourdough starter for?
Sourdough starter can be used to make so many recipes. From pizza, to muffins, to biscuits, pancakes and so much more. Check out my sourdough page to see all my favorite recipes.
What is the best flour for sourdough?
Really any flour will work for sourdough since the starter needs a starch to feed on. All-purpose, einkorn, spelt, whole wheat will all work.
I have multiple times changed up the flour I’ve used to feed my starter.
If you are gluten free, you can create a gluten free sourdough starter. Find the recipe here.
Check out my other sourdough recipes:
- Sourdough English Muffins
- How to Make a Sourdough Starter from Scratch
- Sourdough Pizza Crust
- Our Favorite Sourdough Pancake Recipe
- Healthy One Pot Meal- Sourdough Skillet
- Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls
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Sourdough Tortillas
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 3/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose or whole wheat
Instructions
- Add the sourdough starter, water, oil, salt, and flour to a mixer with a dough hook.
- Knead for 2-3 minutes in a mixer, or 5 minutes by hand. The ingredients should be fully incorporated, and the dough slightly elastic.
- Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap, and allow to sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. (If you are gluten intolerant, 24 hours is better.)
- The next day, divide the dough into 12 equal parts.
- On a lightly floured work surface, roll each ball of dough out to about a 1/4 inch thickness. Get them as thin as you can, without them falling apart.
- Cook them in a preheated cast iron skillet in a little coconut oil. One minute on each side is sufficient.
Notes
- To make cooking super fast and easy, I love getting four cast iron skillets going at one time. This makes this process so much easier.
- All-purpose and whole wheat flour will work well for this recipe. For lighter and fluffier tortillas, use unbleached all-purpose.
- You can use active sourdough starter or discard.
- No need for a tortilla press, you can easily just roll these out with a rolling pin.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I downloaded Farmhouse Favorites and am enjoying trying out each recipe but Lisa says to keep using one recipe until you memorize it. This is the one for me! I have to start a new batch as soon as I finish cooking the previous one. Here in New Mexico we like our tortillas. These stay soft and just chewy enough. Great Recipe!
I’m new to sourdough, so still not ready to use my first starter. I hate to throw away the discard, so I tried these. We love them! Thanks for a great recipe and use for discard!
WE loved these tortillas! Soft and delicious and Easy.
I made these for the first time today and they definitely exceeded my expectations. The dough was so nice to work with, and they rolled out and fried beautifully. They’re soft, delicious, and rolled up without breaking. I’m going to be so much less intimidated by sourdough tortillas after this. I love them!
*I did use melted butter instead of olive oil – just a personal preference.
Yumm!
Turn out perfect every time. I even use milk instead of water. I let them sit on counter for 12 hours then put them in the fridge for 24 hours before rolling out. Great for tacos and fry bread (topped with butter, honey, and cinnamon).
I don’t know WHAT I am doing wrong, please help!
I let these ferment for 20hrs both times I tried the recipe. When it comes to rolling them out, they shrink back into tiny disks and end up being more like flat bread than a tortilla. They still taste amazing and work as a thicker tortilla/flat bread hybrid, but I’d like to actually get a tortilla out of it. What am I doing wrong??
I kneed the dough for 5min before letting it rest to ferment. The second time I made it I cut the dough into balls and then waited 5min before trying to roll them out. Maybe I kneed to aggressively? I don’t know!
They likely just need more time to rest! If you knead them too much it will make them shrink like that. I usually just give them ample resting time to allow the gluten to relax.
Try refrigerating before rolling.
Can you press them out and put wax paper between them and freeze than fry? How long do they stay in the fridge once prepared? Thank you
Yes, that should work!
I cook my tortillas and then freeze them. Then when we need them we can microwave them in a few seconds.
Hi Jessie, so in regards to your tortillas being difficult to roll out I have a suggestion. When you first roll them into the individual balls let them rest covered with a damp towel or plastic wrap for ten minutes before trying to roll them, I find that is a nice amount of time to let the gluten relax after shaping so that the tension doesn’t pull them back as much. Lisa also says to roll them to 1/4″ thickness and that is way too thick in my experience, like you said more similar to a flat bread. Roll them out very thin, 1/16″ or so, I try to get mine slightly thinner than a cooked tortilla would be. I know your comment was last month, but I hope this is helpful for future tortilla making for you!
This recipe for tortilla shells was linked from your article titled 35 discard recipes. In top of recipe it states discard or active starter can be used but the recipe and procedures only uses active stater. This is very confusing. Is there a discard method or not?
Thank you
Yes, it doesn’t require any rise time so discard is fine.
I’m so glad a couple people commented about this because the last time I tried making tortillas this happened to me too!
I look forward to trying everyone’s suggestions hopefully tomorrow.
Love the flavor of these.
I’m not sure what I did wrong but the minute I’d pick one up to move it to the pan that nice thin 8″ tortilla would shrink up to about 4″. Used a rolling pin and even a tortilla press. Not so good for tortillas but made great pita pockets!