A few weeks back my sister-in-law, Liz, told me about these sweet potato tortillas she’d been making. How if I just mixed equal parts sweet potatoes and all-purpose flour, I’d get a dough I could roll into tortillas. She said they were like Mexican tortilla meets Norwegian lefse meets Indian roti.
She said they were super-fast and “very healthy and amazing tasting,” but that someone needed to perfect the recipe. In her experience, “the dough gets sticky and then you have flour everywhere trying to keep them from sticking to things.” To ensure the sweet potatoes were easy to peel and mash, she had been instant potting them.
I was intrigued and excited to give them a try, but I got busy with other work. Still, those sweet potato tortillas kept surfacing in my mind. Finally last week I had a window of time to try them.
Getting the Sweet Potato Tortillas Just Right
First question… how to cook the sweet potato? I don’t have an instant pot, and I didn’t want to spend an hour roasting them traditionally. And even our hybrid microwave/roast sweet potato method which shaves off thirty minutes, I still thought it took too long. I decided to try microwaving the sweet potato to a fully cooked state, which only took five minutes on high power for one sweet potato.
The recipes I researched said the sweet potatoes needed to be hot for making and rolling the dough, so I started peeling it as soon as it came out of the microwave. It’s a little tricky, but if you cut the tip ends off the sweet potato and use a paring knife to assist you, the skin slips off relatively easily. With this method, you may lose a tiny bit of sweet potato flesh, but the time savings makes it worth it.
I first tried making the tortillas with equal parts flour and sweet potato. They rolled well, griddled well, and tasted great, but they were a little tough. I thought cutting back on the flour and adding a little fat would help. I also threw in a little salt to bring out the sweet potato’s flavor. One more try with 1 cup of puree, 3/4 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon of fat, and a 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and they were perfect. Microwaving the sweet potato was key to producing a dry dough, which rolled and griddled easily.
Making it Gluten Free?
Yes! These tortillas even work gluten free! Our GF recipe tester used Cup4Cup flour. You may need to use a little extra flour to get them to roll out without being sticky- as much as equal parts flour and sweet potato. They come out best if you are careful to not mix the dough anymore than is necessary and work quickly before the thickeners have time to make the dough gummy.
Make it Double and Store some in the Freezer!
To double the recipe, simple double the ingredients AND the microwave time. Ten minutes for two sweet potatoes should be just right.
I ate a few and stashed the rest in the freezer. We came home from a little trip last night, and there was leftover Coconut Curry with Chickpeas and Spinach in the fridge. I pulled a couple of my sweet potato roti from the freezer and microwaved them a few seconds. As I was using one to scoop up some of the stew, I thought, “What a perfect accompaniment.”
Oh and…Attention lefse makers. Unless you enjoy culinary torture, here’s your new recipe. Give it a try. We’ve got our money on Twenty-Minute Sweet Potato Tortillas.
Twenty-Minute Sweet Potato Tortillas
Recipe Notes
Ingredients
- 1 medium sweet potato, pricked with a paring knife or fork
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil or plant butter
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup all-purpose flour*
Instructions
- Heat a medium skillet over low heat. Microwave sweet potato on high power until tender, 5 to 6 minutes. As soon as you are able, peel the hot potato, being careful not to burn yourself. Transfer hot potato to a plate and mash. Measure 1 cup and transfer it to a medium bowl; add butter and salt and continue to mash with a fork until smooth. Add flour and continue to mix to make a smooth dough. Cut dough into 6 pieces, pressing each into a small disk.
- Working one disk at a time on a floured work surface, roll each piece of dough into an 8-inch round. (If you’re near the stove, you may want to start cooking the tortillas while you finish rolling the dough.)
- Increase heat to medium-high. Working one at a time, cook tortilla until spotty brown, 30 seconds to a minute. Flip the tortilla and cook until spotty brown on the remaining side, about 30 seconds longer. Serve warm. (Can be stored in a zipper-lock freezer bag and refrigerated for a couple of weeks or frozen for a couple of months.)
