Gluten free flatbreads made with cassava flour – this recipe is easy to make with only six ingredients and one bowl needed to make these soft & chewy wraps that are perfect for folding, rolling, filling and dipping! Vegan + Grain Free
I’ve been meaning to play around with cassava flour for awhile now and now that I’ve made these gluten free flatbreads I’m kicking myself for not trying it out sooner.
Since cassava flour is supposed to be the most similar gluten free flour to wheat flour I decided to just take an already tried and true gluten flatbread recipe and see what happens. These did not disappoint.
These wraps are soft on the inside, slightly crispy on the outside and perfect for rolling, filling, ripping and dipping. They are somewhere between a chapati and a naan and made with only six essential ingredients.
Altogether these flatbread aren’t difficult to make at all, but the process of rolling and cooking can feel a little tedious at times. That being said, the end result of a warm and toasty, soft gluten free flatbread makes it all worth it in the end.
How to Make Gluten Free Flatbreads with Cassava Flour
Start out by whisking together all of your dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl. Once whisked, add the wet ingredients: yoghurt, milk & oil.
I used coconut yoghurt and almond milk in this recipe which kept it both paleo and vegan friendly, but feel free to use a dairy filled greek yoghurt and dairy milk if you’d prefer.
Stir in the wet ingredients with a spoon until a soft dough forms and then combine your dough into one big ball. Cut the dough in half and then cut each half into four pieces so that you end up with eight total pieces of dough.
One at a time, roll out the dough onto a lightly floured surface. I always like rolling out my dough on a large piece of baking paper because it makes transferring dough much easier to peel off.
Don’t be afraid to add more flour to the dough as needed to keep it from sticking to your rolling pin.
As you’re rolling your dough, begin warming a large skillet over a medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, carefully transfer your rolled out dough to the pan and let cool for about 4-5 minutes. The flatbread will puff up in areas as it cools. Gently brush the top side of the dough with oil and then flip over and cook the other side for another 3-4 minutes until lightly browned and blistered.
Remove from the heat and repeat this process with the remaining dough balls until complete.
Cassava Flour F.A.Q.s
What is cassava flour?
- Cassava, also known as yuca, is a starchy root vegetable. Cassava flour is made when this tuber is dried out and finely ground down into a powdery flour.
- By the way: tapioca flour is cassava flour that has been processed even further. While they are made from the same source they are not interchangeable because tapioca flour doesn’t have the same amount of fibre that adds structure to recipes.
What’s so great about cassava flour?
- Cassava flour is naturally gluten, grain and nut free making it a paleo friendly flour.
- Cassava flour is the most similar gluten free flour to wheat flour. In many recipes you can replace it with wheat flour 1:1 – though it’s important to note that that is not always the case.
Where to buy Cassava Flour?
- You can often find it stocked in many health food stores like Sprouts & Whole Foods but for the sake of ease I recommend buying from Amazon.
- The brand you choose matters! I often see Otto’s brand mentioned as a reliable product and I have personally had success using Tiana Fair Trade Organics flour. I once purchased a few bags of Tropical Sun and I couldn’t get over the funky, cheesy smell and flavour.
What can I use in place of Cassava Flour in this recipe?
- Your best bet would be to use a gluten free all purpose flour blend with xanthan gum added if the blend doesn’t already contain any.
- You can also try using 1 cup tapioca flour + 1 cup chickpea flour like in my other gluten free flatbread recipe if you want a grain free option.
These gluten free flatbreads would go great along side saucy dishes like this Chicken Korma, Dairy Free Butter Chicken or in dips like this basil avocado dip. It makes a great flatbread wrap to enjoy with this Greek Marinated Chicken.
They are also sturdy enough to fill and enjoy as wraps which is what I’ll be working on for a recipe next week!
So – have you tried cooking with cassava yet? Thoughts?
Gluten Free Flatbread
Gluten free flatbreads made with cassava flour - this recipe is easy to make with only six ingredients and one bowl needed to make these soft & chewy wraps that are perfect for folding, rolling, filling and dipping!
Ingredients
- 2 cups cassava flour (280 g)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional)
- 1/2 teaspoon oregano (optional)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons dairy free coconut yoghurt** (150 ml)
- 1 cup dairy free milk* (240 ml)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil (30 ml)
Instructions
- Whisk together the cassava flour, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Add the garlic powder and oregano to the dry ingredients if using at this time.
- Add the yoghurt, milk and olive oil and mix until a soft dough forms. Set aside and allow the dough to rest at least 10 minutes to allow the flour time to soak up some of the moisture.
- Lightly flour a large sheet of baking paper. Place the dough on to the floured surface and cut in half. Divide each half into four pieces so that you have 8 total portions of dough.
- One at a time roll the dough balls using a rolling pin out on the lightly floured surface until flat and even and about 8 inches wide in diameter. Don't be afraid to add more flour to the dough as needed to keep it from sticking too much. Keep a small bowl of flour nearby to add more flour as you go if needed.
- After rolling the dough out warm a large non stick pan on a medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, carefully transfer the rolled out dough to the pan and let cook on each side for about 4-5 minutes. The flatbread should form small air pockets across the surface and turn lightly golden on one side.
- Brush the top side with a little bit of oil and then flip over and repeat on the the other side. Repeat this process with the remaining dough until complete.
Notes
- *You can sub the coconut yoghurt with regular full fat dairy yoghurt or unsweetened coconut cream
- **You can use regular dairy milk
- When rolling out the dough you can use move cassava flour here but I prefer using rice or regular all purpose flour because it's cheaper.
- Keep extras stored in an airtight container for up to 1 week. You can also store these in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Recipe adapted from Cafe Delites
- You can make your own grain free paleo baking powder by mixing: 1/2 teaspoon baking soda + 1/2 teaspoon arrowroot starch + 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Â
- Dough too Wet/Cassava Flour: If your dough is too sticky to handle after you've let it rest for 10 minutes, mix in another 1-2 tablespoons of cassava flour. Different brands of cassava flour do behave differently which can make it tricky when trying to replicate a recipe. I prefer using Otto's and Bob's Red Mill for cassava as I get the most consistent results with these. For best results I also recommend you use a scale to weigh your ingredients.
Ann says
Thought I’d try a new GF wrap recipe. The taste was great but the finished dough was difficult to handle, ie almost impossible to remove from tortilla press, floured board and parchment paper. Looking back at other recipes I’ve tried they all have xantham gum or psyllium ‘gel’. So much easier to work with a dough that doesn’t fall apart.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Ann! I can understand the difficulty with how ‘fussy’ the dough can be. I do love working with xanthan for how much easier it makes gluten free doughs, but I do get quite a lot of requests to share recipes without xanthan/guar gum because it can be a gut irritant for some gluten free people and psyllium can be tricky to find for a lot of people. It can be a tricky dough, but it makes for a nice and soft flatbread in the end!
Jack says
Followed this recipe and with my cassava it came out quite liquid, so instead of adding flour I just went into French crepe mode, poured a cup into my heated crepe pan, watched it bubble perfectly and this made beautiful soft Flatbread for a Jamaican Jerk shrimp recipe. Thanks so much.
Sarah Nevins says
Oooh, that’s interesting that it came out so thin! Do you mind me ask what brand of cassava flour you used? I’m finding that the brand used makes a huge difference when it comes to the amount of liquid needed. I’d like to get a good idea of which ones work best for people in general so I can give better recommendations.
At any rate – I’m so glad that you were able to make lemonade (or rather, crepes) out of the situation! Those so delicious and now I’m hungry!
Jay says
Good base recipe for flatbreads or wraps, with room for herb&spice embellishment whether savory or sweet and a nice chewy texture that’s hard to get when baking glutenfree.
I used Bob’s Red Mill cassava flour; every brand is slightly different and the amount of liquid needed can vary quite a bit from brand to brand. If you’re not used to working with cassava flour this can throw off the result. I’ve been baking with it for a few years (celiac 22+ years) and there’s a small learning curve to working with cassava that comes quickly if you do it often enough.
I always let cassava-based dough rest for 10 minutes after forming a ball, to allow the flour to fully absorb any liquids – too wet or too dry at first can change a lot with this step. I strongly recommend adding this step to this recipe; after the first mixing it seemed very crumbly and didn’t gather into a ball well, and others have said too wet.
I added another splash of cashew milk, mixed again briefly, and it bound up nicely, so at that point I let it rest for a timed 10 minutes before testing it again. Not too dry, not too sticky.
If it’s too wet to work with after 10 min, ‘knead in’ more flour in <1 tablespoon increments until it's workable.
Easy to decide how thick you want these breads/wraps to be – I used a tortilla press w/silicone liners, set to 3/8" thickness instead of rolling them out – easy to transfer to the pan, just let the flatbread peel off the silicone sheet into the pan, no fussing with spatulas. Floured parchment paper as you suggested for rolling them out works as well for this, especially if you use a top layer of it as well – keeps your rolling pin clean and makes the breads roll flat nicely, but a set of silicone baking sheets is worth picking up if you're doing a lot of cassava based (or any GF) baking – re-usable, less cost & waste than paper.
All in all this is a good recipe to hone your cassava baking skills as a beginner or experiment further with more experience; for the former, a bit more guidance as suggested is needed than is currently written.
I'm happy with the results I got, thank you!
Sarah Nevins says
Hi, Jay! Thank you so much for taking the time to share your experience and tips! I think you’re totally right about resting the dough for 10 minutes before pressing/rolling. I’ve added that step into the recipe instructions – thanks for the suggestions!
Mari says
Sloppy mess. I followed the recipe exactly. Very disappointed.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Mari – sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy this! Cassava flour dough can be quite sticky if it doesn’t have quite the right amount of flour.
PattyBoots says
Followed recipe precisely using Pamela’s cassava flour, including weighing the flour, and it was a sticky, expensive fail. Sorry, but no bueno.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Patty! It sounds like you might have need to add a bit more flour to your dough to make it less sticky. Sometimes this can be a tricky balance because it takes a bit of time for gluten free flours to fully absorb the moisture around it.
I also haven’t personally tried Pamela’s cassava flour as it’s not available where I live, but I have read reviews online from others who have and it seems like that brand in particular needs a bit more flour in baked goods than other cassava brands.
Kristina says
Loved this recipe, but the cook time is totally off which I didn’t realize until I was already cooking. 4-5 minutes each side x 8 is well over over an hour. I ended up taking out extra pans just to get done in time. My bad for not reading it through.
Sarah Nevins says
Hi Kristina! That’s a good note to know – I’ve got a massive pan that I use but I can definitely see this taking longer if your pan doesn’t fit multiple flatbreads! I’ll make a note in the recipe. So glad to hear you still enjoyed them!
Myrna Gibson says
I have been using cassava flour for all of my baking since my celiac disease diagnosis 2 yrs ago.There is no difference in the taste so I am very happy.It is readily available in Barbados.Thanks for the recipe.
Sarah Nevins says
I need to try using it more – the few times I have used it I’ve really enjoyed the way things came out! Do you have a favourite recipe?