Plastic-Free Tortillas
I love tacos. Growing up in San Diego, I was exposed to lots of great Mexican food. Now, living in the San Francisco Bay area I really miss good tacos. It’s just not the same up here.
I make tacos at home once a week, breakfast tacos occasionally and my kids snack on tortillas. So, that means a lot of tortillas are being eaten in my house.
Before going plastic-free, flour tortillas were continually on my grocery list. I never understood why they would only put six tortillas in a bag. If you have a family of four, you would need at least eight. So, I’d always have to buy at least two packs.
After going plastic-free, I stopped buying tortillas at the grocery store and will probably never buy them again because it’s just not as good. It doesn’t taste fresh, because it’s not. And because it has to sit on the shelf, it usually has preservatives.
So, how do I get my tortillas, plastic-free? Two ways: 1) buy them at a restaurant or 2) make my own.
Restaurant Bought Tortillas
As I talked about in this post, I sometimes get fresh-made tortillas at a local Mexican restaurant. I bring my own container but even when I forget, they are usually wrapped in aluminum foil which I ball up and put in the recycling bin.
I prefer flour tortillas but most authentic restaurants will have corn tortillas as well. I’m usually charged between $0.10 – $0.30 per tortilla which is cheaper than store-bought versions! Cheaper, fresh, and tastes better? Yes, please!
If you don’t have an authentic Mexican food restaurant near you, you can also try Taco Bell, Del Taco, Chipotle or any other Mexican-ish chain that’s nearby. They are less likely to have corn tortillas but more likely to have crispy taco shells.
As an added bonus, you can also pick up fresh tortilla chips while you’re at it! Restaurant tortilla chips are usually sold in a paper bag so you can avoid a plastic lined bag bought at the grocery store. And again, it tastes so much better because it’s fresh and lacks preservatives!
Homemade Tortillas
If you’re like me and like to make food from scratch, tortillas are really easy and taste so good when they’re fresh off the pan. My kids and I love eating warm fresh-made tortillas.
Recipe for 12 taco-sized tortillas:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (you can also use 1 cup flour, 1 cup whole-wheat flour)
- 2/3 cups water
- 2 tablespoons fat (e.g. olive oil, unsalted butter, or lard)
- 1 teaspoon salt
Mix ingredients and knead for a minute until the dough is smooth. Form into a ball and let rest for 15 – 20 minutes. I usually wrap the dough in a silicone mat while it’s resting.
Separate into 12 balls of dough or less depending on the size of tortilla you like. Start heating the pan to medium heat. Roll into thin circles.
Cook tortillas for about 30 – 60 seconds per side.
I store the tortillas in a half-gallon size Stashers bag. They will last 3 – 4 days in the Stasher bag on the counter and up to a week in the refrigerator.
The best part about making your own tortillas is that there are only four ingredients and you can pronounce them all!
Here are the ingredients from a common tortilla brand found in big box stores:
- Enriched Bleached Flour (Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid)
- Water
- Vegetable Shortening (Interesterified and Hydrogenated Soybean Oils)
- Salt
- Sugar
- Baking Soda
- Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate
- Distilled Monoglycerides
- Enzymes
- Fumaric Acid
- Calcium Propionate
- Sorbic Acid (to Maintain Freshness)
Enzymes and calcium proprionate do not sound appetizing to me.
What do you think? For the next Taco Tuesday at your house, can you get some plastic-free tortillas?
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