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Colored Tortillas

published on , modified on

stack of mini colored burritos

These vegan colored tortillas are so quick and easy to make, and they’re way cuter than plain white flour tortillas. You can make them healthier by substituting wheat flour, and you can make them even faster by making them all one color instead of lots of colors. This recipe only requires 4 common ingredients (not counting the colours), so anyone can make them.

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♫ Listening to ♫

Lately by Metronomy

I’m about 3 weeks into house arrest (physical distancing). At the 2 week mark, I was craving burritos, but I didn’t have any tortillas. All grocery delivery services in the bay area had stopped, and I was trying to put off going to the store until I ran out of something essential. (Okay, I guess the essentialness of tortillas is debatable, but I love a good kitchen challenge.)

Ever since I had mini burritos from vegan alien, I’ve been wanting to make my own. And the only thing cuter than baby burritos is colored baby burritos! These tortillas are naturally colored with superfood powders, but you can also use vegan food coloring if you don’t care about the nutrition aspect as much. I also used organic ingredients to make these, but they’re still vegan if you don’t have organic ingredients.

This recipe makes 8 tortillas.

Vegan Tortilla Ingredients

  • 2 ½ cups (325g) all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon (6g) salt
  • ½ teaspoon (2g) of each color of superfood powder you want to use (I used beetroot and blue and green spirulina powders)
  • ¾ cup (175g) water
  • just under 3 tablespoons (40mL/36g) sunflower or safflower oil

How to Make Vegan Tortillas

Dollhouse Shortcut

If you make all your tortillas one color, you can combine all the ingredients in one mixing bowl and use a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook to save time.

Divide 2 ½ cups (325g) flour into 4 bowls. If you use measuring cups and measuring spoons, this is a half a cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour into each bowl. If you use a kitchen scale, this is 81 grams in each bowl.

Whisk ¼ teaspoon (1-2g) salt into each bowl of flour.

Measure ½ teaspoon (2g) of beetroot powder into bowl 1. Whisk.

Measure ½ teaspoon (2g) of blue spirulina into bowl 2. Whisk.

Measure ½ teaspoon (2g) of green spirulina into bowl 3. Whisk.

Leave bowl 4 white, or you can color it if you have other superfood colors. Check out my list of vegan food coloring for other options.

Add 2 teaspoons (10mL/9g) of sunflower or safflower oil to each bowl.

Add 3 tablespoons (1.5oz/43g) of water to each bowl.

Mix the dough in each bowl by hand until it forms a ball. Return each dough ball to each bowl and cover bowls to keep the dough from drying out while you heat the pan, get out your rolling pin, and flour your rolling surface.

naturally colored tortilla dough

Heat a cast iron pan over medium-low heat. If you don’t have a cast iron pan, use any frying pan you have.

Uncover one of your bowls, and remove half of the dough from the bowl.

Roll the dough on a floured surface with your rolling pin until it looks like a tortilla (don’t worry if it’s not round; mine were all kinds of amoeba shaped). If the dough is sticking to your rolling surface or to your rolling pin, sprinkle some more flour.

rolling out a pink beetroot-colored tortilla

Cook your coloured tortillas for about a minute on each side. If your pan isn’t hot enough, you might need to recook your first tortilla at the end. You’ll be able to tell if it’s not cooked because it will look slightly see-through, while the other ones will look more like store-bought tortillas. While they cook, they should have bubbles forming and will start to brown a bit. If the browning is getting closer to black than brown, you may have the heat too high on your stove.

cooking vegan colored tortillas

Repeat with all your dough until you have 8 tortillas.

stack of vegan colored tortillas

Roll burritos or save your tortillas in a ziplock bag until you’re ready to use them.

stack of vegan coloured burritos

Questions and Answers

Are tortillas vegan?

Sometimes. Sometimes not. Corn tortillas are usually vegan, but then you have to make sure you’re buying organic or non-GMO corn tortillas, because GMO corn isn’t vegan. Flour tortillas, on the other hand, are less often safe for vegans. Always read the ingredients when you buy flour tortillas. You want to look for any fat that’s used. Sometimes, authentic tortillas will have animal lard in them.

Can you make this tortilla recipe without coloring them?

I guesssss so. Haha. Kidding, of course. When I’m in a hurry and care more about eating faster and not how cute my food looks, I can just mix the flour, salt, water, and oil together all in one big bowl to save time. This also saves time on dishes.

What recipes can I use these tortillas for?

If making mini burritos isn’t your thing, you can use these tortillas to make a few of my recipes. Or maybe you like burritos, but you’re making a double batch of tortillas to have for another recipe. Here are some ideas.

Ingredient Substitutions for Vegan Colored Tortillas

  • Oil: I recommend using safflower or sunflower oil because those oils are made for high heat, which helps you avoid transfats. They also don’t really have a flavor. However, you can use any other oils such as vegetable oil, canola oil, grapeseed oil, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, etc.
  • Flour: To make these tortillas gluten-free, just replace the all-purpose flour with a gluten-free flour blend.
  • Food Coloring: I used superfood powders to color these tortillas, but you can omit the colors altogether and just mix 2 ¼ cups (292g) all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon (6g) salt, ¾ cup (175g) water, and just under 3 tablespoons (40mL/36g) oil together in one bowl if you just want plain white tortillas. Another option is to blend raw spinach leaves with the ¾ cup (175g) water to make all green tortillas. For other coloring options, check out my list of vegan food coloring.

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* I use mostly organic ingredients when I cook. I realize that not everyone has the disposable income to buy only organic ingredients. So, I only specify organic on the ingredients that matter: when buying the organic (or non-GMO) version is the only way to ensure that an item is vegan.

This post links to items I used when I made this recipe. If you click on the purple Buy Now button on a product page, you will go to a website (like Amazon) where you can buy the same product I used. Sometimes, the store you purchase from (Amazon, Etsy, etc.) will pay me for referring you. This costs you nothing extra, and I would never recommend a product that I don’t use. These affiliate programs help me buy the ingredients to create these recipes for you. Read more about this in my privacy policy.

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Rating:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Your website/recipes are so well done! I can't wait to try some out. Thank you!
HeavyDoseOfLavender -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I can always immediately tell when a recipe is yours, I love your style! Thanks for all the recipes, I've made a few and they've all been great!
Consistent_Pea -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is adorable! I've seen your recipes a couple of times before and they're always so pretty and creative!
pepperohni -⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐