Spinach & Herb Tortillas

April 11, 2021

Whether you are trying to sneak spinach into your kids (or your own) diet, are looking for a unique scratch made tortilla recipe or just love colorful food, these spinach herb tortillas will give you what you are looking for. An entire bag of fresh spinach and an entire bunch of your favorite fresh herbs are incorporated into these beautifully colorful and delicious soft flour tortillas….

…. and once you make your dough, you can easily transform it into big, thin burrito style tortillas, smaller street taco size tortillas or thicker, more fluffy tortillas. I usually make a little of each, because I am a lover of variety, but you can shape your tortillas however you want…. they are your tortillas after all.

Let’s get them started….

To make 8 large tortillas or 16 smaller ones, you will need a 10 ounce bag of fresh spinach, 1 small bunch of fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, flat leaf parsley or dill), about 3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour, 1/2 cup of salted butter at room temperature, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 cup of warm water.

Start by placing all of the spinach in a large skillet. Cover the skillet and place it over medium to medium low heat. Cook for 3-4 minutes or until the spinach has wilted.

While the spinach is wilting, combine 2 cups of all purpose flour with 1 tablespoon of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt in a large bowl. Next, add 1/2 cup of room temperature butter into the flour mixture…

Work the softened butter into the flour mixture using a pastry cutter or a stiff fork. This step is a bit like making biscuit dough, but if you are unfamiliar with that process, our goal is simply to distribute the butter evenly throughout the flour mixture and break it down into small pieces. Perfection is not necessary here…

This is the consistency that we are looking for (photo above).

Once the spinach has wilted, transfer it into a blender or food processor along with a small bunch of fresh herbs and 1/2 cup of warm water. Today, I am using cilantro, but many herbs with work here. Also, the temperature of the water is not super important, regular warm tap water will work fine.

Blend the spinach, herbs and warm water until you have a smooth, bright green puree. This beautiful puree will give our tortillas not only a gorgeous color, but loads of vitamins, nutrients and a nice mild fresh flavor.

Pour the puree into the flour mixture and mix until everything is fully incorporated. The mixture will be very loose and sticky at this point, but remember, you still have a cup and a half of flour left over that still needs to be incorporated, so don’t worry….

Gradually begin adding additional flour, until a soft kneadable dough is developed.

Once the dough is no longer super sticky, transfer it onto a floured surface and knead until smooth (1-2 minutes) and no longer sticky. You may need to add additional flour during the kneading process. I usually need a total of 3 1/2 cups of flour, but you may need more or less depending on how much liquid was in your spinach and herb puree. You are looking for a texture that will not stick to your hands as you knead, but don’t add so much flour that the dough feels super dry or your tortillas will be too stiff.

Once the dough is smooth, form it into a round ball and transfer it into a greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rest for about 15 minutes.

Once the dough has rested, transfer it back onto a flat surface and divide it into 8-16 portions. You can do this with a sharp knife by cutting the round in half, then each half in half and working your way down from there. Eight portions with give you large burrito sized tortillas and 16 portions will give you smaller taco sized tortillas.

Once the dough is divided up, form each portion into a round ball, cover them with a sheet of plastic wrap and let them rest for another 15 minutes or so.

They are now ready to shape! Place a flat griddle or wide skillet over medium to medium high heat so it can get nice and warm while you shape your first tortilla.

If you have a tortilla press, line it in plastic and press out your tortillas. If you do not have a tortilla press, just grab a long sheet of non-stick parchment or wax paper and a rolling pin…

Grab one portion of dough and keep the rest under plastic, so they don’t dry out.

Set the dough onto one half of your sheet of non stick parchment or wax paper and then fold the other half over top of the dough, leaving enough room for the dough to expand in all directions.

You can start rolling with a rolling pin at this point or you can use a heavy flat bottomed skillet to start the process for you. Just set it over the dough and push down hard. This should give you a flat disk to start rolling out. Be gentle and work evenly with your rolling pin in all directions to make it as round as possible.

Perfection is not necessary at this stage either. A uniquely shaped tortilla tastes just as good as a perfectly round one does. Trust me.

Once your first tortilla is rolled out and your dry griddle is warm, transfer the tortilla onto the griddle. I have given up attempting to carry my tortilla over to the griddle, so I just pull off the top half of the parchment paper and then invert the tortilla onto the griddle and peel the other portion of paper off the top.

Cook your tortillas for about 60 seconds per side. I like to shake the griddle a little bit and as soon as the tortilla slides around freely, I know it’s ready to flip over. I cook these beautiful green tortillas over medium heat and then lower the heat if they start to brown. I love their color, so I keep the heat low to help prevent browning, but this is purely cosmetic.

Once your first tortilla is finished, wrap it in a clean kitchen towel to stay warm while you repeat the process with the remaining dough. The order that you roll and cook is not too important, so if you feel more confident rolling all of the dough out first and then cooking them all, you can do that too. I like the rhythm of rolling one out while one is cooking, shifting everyone ahead one spot and repeating the process, but as long as you keep some plastic over the dough (rolled out or not yet rolled), it won’t matter if they sit around a bit while they wait their turn.

Now that your spinach and herb tortillas are all cooked up, the fun part is deciding how you want to use them! I made some caesar chicken and bacon wraps with my large tortillas and then some chicken tacos with the smaller ones, how are you going to use your beautiful bright green tortillas?

If you are a fan of colorful tortillas, check out my hot pink dragonfruit tortillas. I think you’ll like them too…

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