What can I make with tortillas?

Best uses for tortillas, fresh or stale

1. 1Fresh: toast hard, rub with a raw garlic clove, and finish with good oil and salt.
2. 2A day old: cube, toss with oil and season, and bake at 400F for croutons or a panzanella base.
3. 3Properly stale: blitz into breadcrumbs and freeze them - they last months and rescue any weeknight dinner.
4. 4Soaked in an egg-and-milk custard it becomes French toast or a savoury bake with almost nothing else.

What goes well with tortillas

Tortillas is at its best with butter, garlic, olive oil, cheese, eggs and herbs. Any two or three of those, plus tortillas, is already a dinner rather than an ingredient list.

Storing tortillas

Keep tortillas at room temperature in paper or a bread box for 2-3 days - the fridge makes it stale faster. For anything longer, slice and freeze it, then toast straight from frozen.

Substituting tortillas

If you are out of tortillas, look for something that behaves the same way in the pan rather than something that tastes the same. Match the moisture level, the cooking time, and the richness, and adjust the liquid slightly if your substitute releases more water. When in doubt, describe what you actually have in the chat and Mr. Chef will rewrite the recipe around it.

Tortillas recipes: common questions

What can I make with tortillas and not much else?

Plenty. With tortillas plus an onion, garlic, oil, and salt you already have the base of a skillet dinner, a soup, or a simple sauce. Add a starch - rice, pasta, bread, or potatoes - and it becomes a full meal. The recipes above are ordered so the ones needing the fewest extra items come first.

What is the quickest tortillas recipe?

Look for the entries above marked 20 minutes or less. As a rule, anything cut small and cooked in a hot pan beats anything roasted whole, and one-pan recipes save more time in cleanup than in cooking.

Can I substitute tortillas?

In most recipes yes, as long as the replacement plays a similar role - similar moisture, similar cooking time, similar richness. Swapping across roles (a watery vegetable for a starchy one, for instance) usually needs a change in liquid or cooking time too.

How do I use up leftover tortillas?

Fried rice, a frittata, a grain bowl, a soup, or a quesadilla will absorb almost any leftover tortillas without a recipe. If you want something specific, tell Mr. Chef exactly what is in the fridge and it will build a recipe around it.

Other ingredients to browse