A soft, versatile gluten-free flatbread made with only 5 ingredients. No gums or oil needed in this vegan dough thanks to one key ingredient: potato!
Do you know what happens if you put boiled potatoes in a blender? Goopy potato paste, that’s what. It’s terrible if you are trying to make mashed potatoes. Possibly good if you need to spackle a wall. And great if you are making Vegan Gluten-Free Flatbread.
There is a recipe far far back in the savory archives for Gluten-Free Brown Rice Flour Tortillas. It was in dire need of a makeover. So many questions, concerns, and can I substitute _____ queries? But it was also one of my most viewed videos. The demand for gluten-free flatbread exists, but the recipe needed to be more foolproof.
I’ve probably tried about 20 different combinations, and I’ve finally found one that works. This gluten-free flatbread is soft and wonderful thanks to that potato puree! The dough is incredibly easy to work with. It’s gluten and oil free. And it only requires 5 ingredients.
The starchy sticky-ness of blended potatoes is a perfect stand-in for gluten. If you have any experience with gluten-free bread making (or at least attempting to make) then you know how hard it is to get a soft easy to work with dough that isn’t constantly trying to crumble apart. But you will be amazed by the texture of this one. Closest thing to glutinous dough I’ve ever felt, and it rolls out easily without even trying to crack or tear.
Making this Gluten-Free Flatbread
The flours. I used a combination of gluten-free all purpose flour and tapioca flour in this recipe. Why tapioca? Well even though the potato puree makes for a really sticky soft dough, tapioca flour is still necessary to keep that soft gluten-like texture after the flatbread is cooked.
How to cook. The method in which you cook the flatbread is really important for keeping it soft as well. If you cook it low and slow like most, then it will just dry out and be stiff. But if you cook it over medium-high heat (about 7-8 on my stove) then the outside will brown quickly and it won’t have time to dry out.
When cooking over high heat, be careful not to burn it though. It only need about 1 to 1.5 minutes per side. When you see bubbles forming, it’s time to flip!
Storing and reheating. This gluten-free flatbread is best fresh, of course, but you can store it in the fridge for up to 4 days. You have a few options for reheating…
1) Wrap the flatbread in a wet paper towel and microwave until warm. The paper towel almost acts as a steamer so the flatbread doesn’t dry out. It will never be as soft as it was when fresh though.
2) Toast it! It obviously won’t be soft anymore, but it’s delicious as a crunchy toasty bread too. Think: pita chip.
Flatbread or Tortilla?
I am calling this a flatbread, not a tortilla on purpose. It’s not a humongous, thin, wrap-up-a-big-burrito sort of bread. It’s a small, soft, slightly thicker, can roll-and-do-some-wrapping sort of bread. It’s not pretending to be something that it’s not. So let’s just love it for what it is.
Wait, are we still talking about bread? That just got deep for a moment, back to flatbread!
Ideas for eating!
-Toasting and dipping
-Making flatbread pizzas
-Spreading some PB&J for an open-faced sandwich
-Having alongside a bowl of soup
-Topping with hummus + veggies + lemon + a little S&P
-Just tearing up and eating (that’s my favorite!)
Since bread of any kind can be slightly tricky, hopefully this video will help…
A soft, versatile #vegan gluten-free flatbread made with only 5 ingredients! Easy to make with a secret ingredient...Click To Tweet Print
Vegan Gluten-Free Flatbread
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 3 minutes
- Total Time: 33 minutes
- Yield: 5 flatbreads 1x
Ingredients
Potato Puree
- 2 medium gold potatoes
- 1 1/4 cup water
Dough
- 1 cup gluten-free flour
- 1 cup potato puree (above)
- 3/4 cup tapioca flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
Instructions
- Potato puree: Roughly chop the potatoes. Put them in a saucepan, add the water, cover, boil until tender.
- Transfer to a blender. Blend till smooth. If it won’t blend, add 1/4 cup more water.
- Immediately transfer to a bowl and clean your blender, otherwise it will just get harder and harder to clean.
- Dough: In a large mixing bowl, combine all the dry ingredients. Stir.
- Add 1 cup of the potato puree. Mix to form a soft, slightly sticky dough. Adjust the amount of flour and potato puree a little bit if necessary.
- Divide into 5 balls. Roll out each ball to about 1 cm thickness. You don’t want them too thin.
- Heat a non-stick skillet to medium-high heat.
- Place a flatbread in the pan and cook for 1 to 1.5 minutes or until bubbles start to show. Flip, then cook for another 1 to 1.5 minutes on the second side. There should be some brown spots on each side.
- Remove from heat and place in a bowl under a damp towel to keep them soft while you cook the others.
- Keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat as mentioned above.
- Update: After many reader questions about replacing the GF flour blend, I have tested a few other flours and found that brown rice flour works too! Just flip the ratio so it’s 1 cup tapioca to 3/4 cup brown rice flour.
Notes
UPDATE: After many reader questions about replacing the GF flour blend, I have tested a few other flours and found that brown rice flour works too! Just flip the ratio so it’s 1 cup tapioca to 3/4 cup brown rice flour.
This is soooo funny, I literally just wrote a sandwich bread recipe using potatoes, lol!! One of my favorite breads growing up was potato bread and was my inspiration. And you know I’m a huge tapioca fan, so glad to see you starting to use it in your recipes, it’s awesome stuff!
Anyways, these look awesome and so glad to hear they are soft, nothing worse than dry cardboard gluten-free breads or tortillas. I can think of a million things to use these on! P.S. Still haven’t made your snickerdoodles but WILL.
A potato sandwich bread?? That’s going to be awesome! Potato bread was always my favorite too, so much more flavor than regular bread. I am loving the tapioca, its essential in something like this, and great in almost everything. Although I can’t even tell you the number of people I’ve had ask me what they can substitute already haha! And after talking to you about how few date and banana free recipes I have, I realized that actually my most popular recipe, the flourless chocolate cake, is date and banana free! Funny that 😀
I can’t rate your recipe yet because I didn’t really follow it. First, I had no tapioca flour so I used a commercial GF blend which has some tapioca in it. Then my potato/water ratio was off. After running it through the blender first time, I could have drunk it. I didn’t. When I got a better mash and mixed it with the flour mixture, there just wasn’t enough to make a dough. So I added some of my original liquified potato until I could make a nice dough. Then it was so sticky I couldn’t get it off the paper without breaking. No problem. Into the pan it went, blob-like and I flattened as best I could. Had some chives handy and popped them into dough. The dough was a bit thick so I cooked it longer. Result? Excellent latkes! Some day I will buy tapioca and try again. Cheers. And my wife says I can’t cook. Ha!
Hahahaha well I wish I could rate your comment because it made me laugh so much more than most! I admire your self restraint for not drinking the potato water and the blob-like is my new favorite adjective😂😂 I am so happy the result was delicious, even if not exactly as the recipe was intended. I am always all for free styling it in the kitchen🤗 Cheers to you and enjoy!
Best damn flatbread soft fluffyness I’ve ever laid my eyes on! POTATOES!!!!! <3 The most glorious invention of nature. Y'all know that tapioca is a form of yucca? YUP! 😉 Goof starch!! All starches…they make the gluten-free world a better place! Now let's slather these SAVORY breads with some….ugh…something savory!
That’s true, so it’s pretty much just a starchy party in bread form!! What would we do without starches? Be sad and bread-less I suppose. Or we could slather them with something sweet like jam or nut butter or CHOCOLATE 🙂
YOU ARE SO CREATIVE!! I am a potato lover for sure but I never thought of using them to make flatbreads!!! Genius I say! Genius! LOL
Creative or just very very persistent haha 😀 It’s like mashed potatoes gone horribly wrong turned into flatbread gone wonderfully right! Thanks Kaila <3
Creative?? Lefse is a traditional flat bread based on potatoes. There are many recipes of lefse in english on the net.
As I have never heard of or had Lefse, flatbread made with potato was new to me, but I am not saying it has never been done before 🙂
Lefse is Norwegian bread, goes back forever. Very popular in the Midwest – Minnesotan’s grow up on it! It’s not, of course, gluten or dairy free and it also uses sugar in it’s recipe. I’m sure it could be gluten free-veganized though too!
★★★★★
I grew up in Minnesota and on Lefse😀Best flat bread ever invented…can’t wait to try these flatbread🥰
I’ve never tried Lefse, but I hope this hits the spot! Excited to hear what you think Juliane 🙂
Woah I love the fact that these are made with potato puree! I’ve never seen any flatbread like this. I totally want to slather all the spreads on this. Peanut butter or hummus? Hmmmmmm
Potatoes are so versatile, I was amazed at how well they worked in here! And I vote peanut butter…and jelly 😉
I am SO speechless right now!!!!! WOW! Natalie this recipe is amazing!!!! Such a great idea to use potato to make flat bread. You are so talented! The texture looks perfect!
★★★★★
Thanks girl! Potatoes are amazing aren’t they!? And the texture just blew me away, you should’ve seen my happy dance when I took the first bite haha 😀
Wow! Is there anything potatoes can’t do!?! Awesome recipe Natalie. I’m always looking for great homemade bread recipes. I can’t wait to these!!
Wow! Is there anything potatoes can’t do!?! Awesome recipe Natalie. I’m always looking for great homemade bread recipes. I can’t wait to try these!!
I think not. Your potato-based soup and my potato-based flatbread make for a very good match too! It might sound like too much potato, but we both know that’s not really possible 😀
“Possibly good if you need to spackle a wall.” Hehe, you’re so great!! And I LOVE This recipe!! I seriously can’t wait to try it! I just pinned it! Thanks for sharing girl!! 🙂
Hahahaha I really think it could double as glue! Home repair and flatbread–kill two birds with one stone 😀 Thanks Cailee, hope you try them!
These look so fluffy and delicious! Hard to believe they are gluten-free Natalie! I’m going to have to pass this recipe along to my brother who has celiac! BTW…I still don’t get your posts in my in-box! I’ll check to make sure the email isn’t somewhere else =)
I was so happy with how they turned out! Thanks for passing them along 🙂 And I don’t know if you ever saw my comment on IG, but I don’t know why the email sign up isn’t working for you, I tested it and didn’t seem to have an issue, but if you want me to add your email address to my list manually I can try that. Also do you use bloglovin?
These look delicious! I love a good flatbread and I seriously can’t believe these are made with potato! Amazing. They look perfect 🙂
Thanks Mel! I love flatbread too, it’s been the perfect accompaniment to my cozy soup bowls lately 🙂
These look amazing! I assume since you’re using the BRM 1:1 Baking Flour that the xanthan gum in there is essential for the texture and flexibility?? Have you tried using a gum-free GF mix when making these, and if so, how did they turn out? Thanks!
I’ve actually been wondering the same thing, is the xanthan gum necessary, but since I don’t mix my own flours and all the store-bought ones seem to have it added I haven’t experimented with that yet. I do want to try it though, I’m guessing it might require a higher tapioca to flour ratio without the xanthan gum.
I just tested some other flours to replace the GF blend, and found that brown rice flour works too! Just flip the ratio so it’s 1 cup tapioca to 3/4 cup brown rice flour. I tried sorghum flour too and it was not a fan of the texture with that one. Just thought I’d let you know 🙂
You rock, thank you! My Crohn’s gets angry with the gums, but so many recipes depend on xanthan gum for the recipe to work. I truly appreciate you trying out other GF flours and I am looking forward to making these now sans xanthan gum. Thanks again! 🙂
Of course!
I use powdered psyllium husk instead of xantham gum or guar gum. 1:1 substitution ratio. We like the texture better.