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Want to make homemade tortillas for your tacos? This corn tortilla recipe is easy to make and tastes so fresh, you’ll be a convert in no time.
Tacos are quite the in thing these days, gracing the menus at upscale restaurants and food trucks alike. Alex and I are huge taco lovers (who isn’t, really?), because they’re such an easy way to make a creative, plant based dinner. From our crispy cauliflower tacos to our tacos rancheros, we have dozens of ways to make dinner out of a tortilla. But before you can think about filling, you need a tortilla! Most of our tacos we use storebought tortillas, but we thought we’d try our hand at making a corn tortilla recipe for you too!
Related: 10 Best Vegan & Vegetarian Tacos
How to make this corn tortilla recipe
Though you’ll have to devote a bit of time and practice to the process, this corn tortilla recipe is actually not too hard to make, once you get the hang of it! We ended up purchasing this tortilla press, and it was incredibly helpful–and fairly inexpensive. However, if you’re not sure you’re ready for the investment, a pie plate works well too.
Why go to the trouble of making this corn tortilla recipe? It’s a good “food project” — a fun activity to try with friends or with kids. Plus they taste great, and you can have the satisfaction of making them with your own two hands! We try to set aside about 30 minutes to make the tortillas from start to finish.
Here’s the basic process for how to make corn tortillas:
- Mix up the dough. Mix together the masa harina, salt, water, and olive oil into a dough that resembles the texture of play dough. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Heat a skillet.
- Cover your tortilla press with plastic. You’ll need to cover it in plastic so the tortillas don’t stick. Cut apart a plastic bag: you can wash it and reuse it.
- Press the dough into 6-inch diameter circles. Make two to three at a time.
- Cook the tortillas on the heated skillet. Cook 30 seconds to 1 minute until fully cooked and lightly charred, then flip and cook until cooked through. Place the tortillas on a plate and cover with a dish towel, then repeat steps 4 and 5 for the remaining tortillas.
Looking for a tortilla press?
Here’s the tortilla press we use: it’s heavy duty and works great! But if you’re not ready to invest, you can use a pie plate too.
How to store homemade tortillas
If you’ve made tortillas but aren’t going to eat them right away, place the still warm tortillas into a plastic bag and seal it. The steam trapped inside will help to keep the tortillas most. You can store them at room temperature and they will stay fresh for 2 to 3 days.
When you’re ready to eat the tortillas in a taco, you’ll need to re-warm them prior to eating. Here’s how to do it: How to Warm Tortillas. You may also want to invest in a tortilla warmer, which helps to keep the tortillas warm after you warm them. Here’s our favorite tortilla warmer!
Looking for taco recipes?
Now that you’ve made this corn tortilla recipe, here are some taco recipes to use it:
- Loaded Quinoa Tacos
- Instant Pot Tacos
- Grilled Mango Tacos
- “Verde” Lentil Vegan Tacos
- Spiced Chickpea Tacos with Avocado Cream
- Refried Bean Tacos
- BBQ Bean Tacos with Pineapple Salsa
- Chickpea & Veggie Tacos
- Easy Tofu Tacos
- Loaded Huevos Rancheros Tacos
- Vegetarian Lentil Tacos
This corn tortilla recipe is…
Vegetarian, gluten-free, vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free.
Corn Tortilla Recipe
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Want to make homemade tortillas for your tacos? This corn tortilla recipe is easy to make and tastes so fresh, you’ll be a convert in no time.
Ingredients
- 2 cups yellow masa harina
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups warm water
- ½ tablespoon olive oil
- Skillet (cast-iron, if possible)
- Tortilla press or a pie plate*
- Plastic bag or wax paper
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk 2 cups masa harina and ½ teaspoon kosher salt. Stir in 1 ½ cups water and ½ tablespoon olive oil. Knead in a bowl until a dough forms (the consistency of playdough). If the dough seems too crumbly and does not come together, add a bit more water. (As you make tortillas more often, you’ll learn the consistency of the dough.) Let sit for about 5 minutes.
- Heat a skillet (cast iron, if possible) over high heat.
- Get out a tortilla press. Cut down the sides of a plastic bag, and place it on both sides of the press. Pull off a golf-ball sized piece of the dough. Place the ball in the middle of the tortilla press, place the top over the ball, and squeeze down the handle.
- If you do not have a press, place the dough ball in the middle of the plastic bag and fold the other edge over the top. Place a pie plate on top, and press down firmly, using your entire weight over the plate.
- The flattened tortilla should be about 6 inches in diameter. Peel the tortilla off of the plastic. Make 2 to 3 in this fashion; then cook them, following the instructions in Step 4. (Don’t worry if you lose one or two when you get started, especially from sticking to the plastic. You can easily remove the tortilla, reshape it into a ball, and try again.)
- When the skillet is hot, place a tortilla on the skillet and cook about 30 seconds to 1 minute, until fully cooked and a bit charred in places. Using a spatula, flip, then press down on the middle of the tortilla while you cook the second side (this helps the middle to become cooked). Transfer the tortilla to a plate and cover with a dish towel. Repeat for all tortillas. When you run out of flattened tortillas, pull off a few more balls and continue in this fashion (making a few at at time helps to keep the remaining dough hydrated and keeps flattened tortillas from sticking to the work surface).
Notes
Adapted from Bon Appetit *We recommend using a tortilla press, since it makes the process quite easy! Presses are inexpensive on Amazon, or you can also find them at Mexican markets. The cooking technique may take a few tries to get down, so give yourself the benefit of a few failed attempts before you get the hang of it. Many recipes do not call for oil in the dough, but we found adding a bit helped the overall consistency.
- Category: Bread
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: Mexican
I took down this recipe and can’t wait to try it. I love Mexican food and already cook up some recipes. I too prefer to make my own tortillas since in Italy, where I live, I cannot find the corn ones.
But I also have the problem of not finding Masa Harina; with what can I substitute it ?
Thanks!
We don’t know of many substitutes for masa harina – sorry! We did some research online and didn’t find much (one source said you could grind cornmeal in a food processor, but others didn’t recommend it). Do you think you’d be able to order masa harina online?
These are perfect and so easy! Thanks for the recipe.