Zucchini Tortillas

TheRoadDog

Found this great recipe while watching "The Kitchen" on the Food Network. Wife was just diagnosed with Diabetes, so we are tweaking our diets to try and control her Carbs. Been very open to trying some alternatives to keep her carb intake down. This recipe was, by far, the best one we have come across. Gave the recipe to her boss, who tried it and loved it too.
By the way, this is very inexpensive. When I looked up buying "Vegetable Wraps" on line, they were about $7.99 for 6 to eight Wraps. Yikes.


Ingredients
4 medium zucchini (about 1/2 pound each)
Nonstick cooking spray, for spraying the parchment
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs

Directions
For the zucchini taco shells: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Grate the zucchini with a box grater or the shredder attachment on a food processor; after doing so, you should have about 4 cups. Place the zucchini in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high, stirring after 3 1/2 minutes, until tender and liquid has collected in the bottom of the bowl, about 7 minutes. Set the zucchini aside until it is cool enough to handle.
Once cool, use a slotted spoon (or your hands) to transfer it to a kitchen towel or piece of cheesecloth; roll up the cloth and twist and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Squeeze hard to get out all the excess water; this is crucial to getting good taco shells. You should end up with about 2 cups of shredded cooked zucchini.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with cooking oil to help prevent sticking. Add the zucchini, Parmesan, scallions, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and eggs to a medium bowl; stir until blended into a dough. Scoop this mixture into 1/4-cup-size balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Use your hand to flatten each ball into a very thin 5-inch diameter round, about 1/8 inch thick. Bake the shells until they are brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Let them cool and then remove them from the parchment.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nikki-dinki/zucchini-taco-shells-with-beef-and-zucchini-tomato-salsa.html?oc=linkback

BridgetHarrington

I eat a lot of traditional Mexican and have had to forego tortillas because I'm cutting carbs as well. Fortunately, I can still make calabacitas and other veggie dishes. Do you (or anyone) have a calorie count on this?

sparklyglitterbomb

BridgetHarrington wrote: »

I eat a lot of traditional Mexican and have had to forego tortillas because I'm cutting carbs as well. Fortunately, I can still make calabacitas and other veggie dishes. Do you (or anyone) have a calorie count on this?

you can put the ingredients into the recipe builder on MFP and it will give you the nutritional info

shinycrazy

Interesting recipe! I think it would be nice and fresh for fish tacos or something like that.

I do this with cauliflower "rice". I have vegan recipe that I like because it cuts down on all the cheese that is usually in those recipes, though this zucchini recipe isn't too bad fat wise. I imagine this recipe would work if subbing zucchini. http://detoxinista.com/2014/02/vegan-cauliflower-pizza-crust/

This is for the whole recipe, it usually makes 2 6 inch round crusts for me one for me and one for my 4 year old! You could use smaller portions to make taco shells.

BridgetHarrington wrote: »

I eat a lot of traditional Mexican and have had to forego tortillas because I'm cutting carbs as well. Fortunately, I can still make calabacitas and other veggie dishes. Do you (or anyone) have a calorie count on this?

When I tossed this into the recipe builder it came out to about 140 calories and 24 grams of carbs. Not bad, but there are flour tortillas out there for that calorie/carb count.

Cauliflower "rice" makes a great mexican rice substitute! I just defrost a bag of steamable cauliflower, pulse in a food processor to get the rice texture and then you can do anything with it that you would do with rice. Fried rice, mexican rice, rice and beans, jambalaya, stuffed peppers, the list goes on!

Spliner1969

Really cool recipe! Thanks for sharing!

CathyFullan150

Thank you for sharing. I'm betting the same recipe could be used to make tortilla chips for dipping with guacamole, hummus, salsa... Going to try that!

PoundChaser2

Oh this could work, thanks

chocolate_owl

shinycrazy wrote: »

Interesting recipe! I think it would be nice and fresh for fish tacos or something like that.

I do this with cauliflower "rice". I have vegan recipe that I like because it cuts down on all the cheese that is usually in those recipes, though this zucchini recipe isn't too bad fat wise. I imagine this recipe would work if subbing zucchini. http://detoxinista.com/2014/02/vegan-cauliflower-pizza-crust/

This is for the whole recipe, it usually makes 2 6 inch round crusts for me one for me and one for my 4 year old! You could use smaller portions to make taco shells.

BridgetHarrington wrote: »

I eat a lot of traditional Mexican and have had to forego tortillas because I'm cutting carbs as well. Fortunately, I can still make calabacitas and other veggie dishes. Do you (or anyone) have a calorie count on this?

When I tossed this into the recipe builder it came out to about 140 calories and 24 grams of carbs. Not bad, but there are flour tortillas out there for that calorie/carb count.

Cauliflower "rice" makes a great mexican rice substitute! I just defrost a bag of steamable cauliflower, pulse in a food processor to get the rice texture and then you can do anything with it that you would do with rice. Fried rice, mexican rice, rice and beans, jambalaya, stuffed peppers, the list goes on!

Given that the cheese was in fluid oz, I suspected something wasn't right - I just built it and it came out to 82 calories and 12 carbs per tortilla assuming the recipe makes 8. I guess if you're going to make and log these, triple check your database entries. I initially got 2000 calories in spices alone, the recipe builder is completely effed.

Spliner1969

CathyFullan150 wrote: »

Thank you for sharing. I'm betting the same recipe could be used to make tortilla chips for dipping with guacamole, hummus, salsa... Going to try that!

This is officially my favorite thread now. I can see the purchase of a crapload of Zucchini in my near future. Been looking for a way to help my wife with her chips cravings this might be it!

TheRoadDog

By the way. Parchment paper is a MUST. On my first attempt, I didn't have any so I didn't use it. Didn't scrape off the sheet pan so easily.

mom23mangos

I am in love with Jicama tortillas. 8 cal per tortilla. You can make your own with a mandolin slicer or you can buy them pre-cut in some grocery stores.

goldthistime

TheRoadDog wrote: »

Found this great recipe while watching "The Kitchen" on the Food Network. Wife was just diagnosed with Diabetes, so we are tweaking our diets to try and control her Carbs. Been very open to trying some alternatives to keep her carb intake down. This recipe was, by far, the best one we have come across. Gave the recipe to her boss, who tried it and loved it too.
By the way, this is very inexpensive. When I looked up buying "Vegetable Wraps" on line, they were about $7.99 for 6 to eight Wraps. Yikes.


Ingredients
4 medium zucchini (about 1/2 pound each)
Nonstick cooking spray, for spraying the parchment
2/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese (about 2 ounces)
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 eggs

Directions
For the zucchini taco shells: Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
Grate the zucchini with a box grater or the shredder attachment on a food processor; after doing so, you should have about 4 cups. Place the zucchini in a large microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high, stirring after 3 1/2 minutes, until tender and liquid has collected in the bottom of the bowl, about 7 minutes. Set the zucchini aside until it is cool enough to handle.
Once cool, use a slotted spoon (or your hands) to transfer it to a kitchen towel or piece of cheesecloth; roll up the cloth and twist and squeeze out as much liquid as you can. Squeeze hard to get out all the excess water; this is crucial to getting good taco shells. You should end up with about 2 cups of shredded cooked zucchini.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spray it with cooking oil to help prevent sticking. Add the zucchini, Parmesan, scallions, chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, salt and eggs to a medium bowl; stir until blended into a dough. Scoop this mixture into 1/4-cup-size balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet. Use your hand to flatten each ball into a very thin 5-inch diameter round, about 1/8 inch thick. Bake the shells until they are brown around the edges, about 15 minutes. Let them cool and then remove them from the parchment.

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nikki-dinki/zucchini-taco-shells-with-beef-and-zucchini-tomato-salsa.html?oc=linkback

My daughter made these for us tonight and they were a huge success!

Rabbitsocksgardener

Thanks for sharing! I take home at least 5 large zucchini from the farm every few days and sometimes it's a pain figuring out new things to do with them!

gingerbee33

Ree Drummond is introducing a few low-carb dishes on her show. The cauliflower crust is rather good.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/cauliflower-crust-pizza.html

neohdiver

chocolate_owl wrote: »

Given that the cheese was in fluid oz, I suspected something wasn't right - I just built it and it came out to 82 calories and 12 carbs per tortilla assuming the recipe makes 8. I guess if you're going to make and log these, triple check your database entries. I initially got 2000 calories in spices alone, the recipe builder is completely effed.

I think that's still high on the carb side. I come out to about 3 carbs per serving (at 60 calories). Both the scallions and zucchini were way high on carbs and calories - both as matched, and looking at the replacement options. I couldn't find a match for shredded zucchini - but the sliced is probably closer to correct than any other options, since the slices will fill in gaps better than chunked. (32 oz is likely a weight measurement, rather than the volume measurement called for in the recipe - and 32 oz (weight) would be be considerably more than 4 cups shredded, since zucchina is not a dense vegetable.)

If I was actually making these, I'd weigh the scallions and zucchini actually used. But based on the ingredients (and carb counting for nearly a year now), I'm pretty confident my numbers are close.

HollyReubens

That looks really delicious and I can't wait to try it.

Sabine_Stroehm

mom23mangos wrote: »

I am in love with Jicama tortillas. 8 cal per tortilla. You can make your own with a mandolin slicer or you can buy them pre-cut in some grocery stores.

I had duck tacos in jicama at a restaurant recently. LOVED them. LOVED them. And I'm a mexican food snob.