by Caitlin
A quick search on Food Lush reveals that we love our quinoa around here. Despite this, it seems there hasn't been much experimentation with quinoa flour in the ranks. Until now! I'm here to help, friends. I'm wearing a cape with a giant Q on it and everything. I mentioned last week that I'm doing an Allergy Elimination Diet (for many reasons, that feels like it should be in all caps). It's forced some culinary adventure in my house, so my temporary inability to eat most foods is your gain!
Last week the Pumpkin Quinoa Pancakes were a hit, and this week there was further experimentation with quinoa flour tortillas.
Photo from carascravings.com
Specifically, this recipe from Cara's Cravings.
I can't have wheat right now and these were a treat. My husband whipped up some regular flour tortillas as well, and while I drooled over them, I ended up being very, very happy with these instead. I expected them to have the cardboard taste and texture that so often comes with whole grain substitutes for perfectly good white flour products, but that wasn't the case. They came out nicely shaped, didn't break or crack, weren't dry, and had a great nutty texture that not only went well with the filling (pork carnitas, cilantro, fresh lime juice, and shredded cabbage dressed with olive oil & lemon juice), but actually made the dish something new altogether - in a good way. They do have a bit of that distinctive, hard-to-place quinoa taste, but it quickly faded against all the other bright flavors.
There's no fat or oil in the recipe, just quinoa flour, water, salt, and psyllium husks. My very loose understanding is that the psyllium husk (which is the main ingredient in Metamucil!) keeps the dough from getting too tough, keeps it tender. My husband found a big canister of plain psyllium husks in the supplements/vitamin aisle of my Whole Foods for about $6. I don't know how many tortillas we'll be making with them, but they can always be thrown into smoothies as well. Any ideas for psyllium?
Have you worked with quinoa flour or psyllium husks before? Have you made a non-traditional, non-white flour tortilla?
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