Perfecting the Lentil-Tortilla Technique

As you may have gathered, I have a tendency to become temporarily obsessed with things that catch my interest, and my current obsession is the lentil tortilla.

The recipe for this humble little wrap is simple:

1 cup red lentils
2 cups water
a dash of salt

If you don’t have a high-powered blender such as a Vitamix, you need to soak the lentils for several hours and then blend. If you have a Vitamix, just blend like hell and you’ll soon have a lovely pink batter similar in consistency to pancake batter. It smells like grass initially, but this eventually dissipates.

Cooking them properly takes a little practice because they have to be super thin and cooked completely or they will taste weird. The knack is to spread them thinly with the back of a spoon once you’ve poured out your little tortilla:

The pan or grill should be non-stick and super hot, but you don’t need to oil it. Once the tortilla is dry on top, flip it. As you can see from the little video, you need to be careful when loosening the tortilla to flip it. If you’re impatient, it will tear.

As an aside, you can repair a smallish tear with a bit more of the batter!!

Once the other side is nicely browned, your tortilla is dunzo and ready to be filled with all kinds of deliciousness!!

Remember: if it’s not properly cooked, it will taste nasty–it’s better to overcook it a bit than undercook it!

Once the tortillas are done, place them in a tea towel until you prepare them, so they don’t get hard. I like to fill the tortilla on a tea towel, so the moist heat can dissipate a bit.

Here’s one with air-fried tofu….

And here’s one with vegan ribs….

And here’s the dessert version! Peanut-butter-walnuts-and-banana-with-a-teensy-drizzle-of-date-syrup….

As I mentioned in a previous post, these tortillas don’t save well and are best served warm, so I just keep the batter in a big jar in the fridge and pour them out as I need them.