Experimenting with Grain Free Wraps

A popular staple of hiker diets is the tortilla or wrap. Searching the internet, you will find many recipes and suggested meal plans that include this round, flat bread staple as a way to hold other foods but also to add calories. But what do you do if you are not eating bread or grains?

Spotted in the Mazama General Store, they were at least 14″ in diameter…

First, I will state that life does exist without something like a tortilla to hold your taco meat or sandwich fixings. It is totally okay to eat those things without the tortilla or bread. This is what I normally do.

Added the mayo and capers right to the salmon packet…

That said, there have been times over the years that I have experimented with different types of grain or gluten free tortillas or wraps. Mostly for fun because let’s be real, they cost two to three times what you pay for wheat based tortillas. You can add calories with whole foods like nuts or oils at a fraction of the cost.

Jicama Wraps

At home, the Trader Joe’s jicama wrap are the best. They are crunchy and flexible with the bonus of being as close to a whole food as you can get in a wrap. I think because they are not trying to pretend to be a wheat tortilla, they offer the most satisfaction.

But they need to be refrigerated, last just a few days and don’t dehydrate. These would work best for a shorter day hike.

Coconut Flour Wraps

I have picked up several packs of coconut wraps from The Real Coconut, I talked about them in my latest recipe post, Lamb Kofta Jerky And Coleslaw Wraps.

I found they were best at home or when travel offered a microwave where I could heat them up, like in these quesadillas I made when staying in a bed and breakfast on Whidbey Island (a little writer’s retreat I gifted myself in 2021). I used some kind of dairy-free cheese, spinach and green onion I bought at the local farmer’s market.

Being able to heat them up makes them more flexible. I like them but you do have to like the flavor of coconut and they are better with more moist foods as they can have a dry mouth feel. When enjoying them out in the wild, I either make sure I use food that makes the mouth come alive, like tangy, salty or spicy flavors. Oils help, too. Or lots of water!

This was on my Timberline backpacking trip in 2021…

Coconut Meat Wraps

The coconut wrap with the most flexibility that I have tried were these ones by Thrive Market. They are copycats (or repackaging) of the Julian Bakery brand and based on coconut meat rather than flour so they are not as dry.

Here was the time I took them on our Ozette Triangle backpacking trip and tried them with nut butter and dehydrated raspberries. Luckily, no sand made it into the wrap.

Cassava Flour Wraps

I have tried several cassava based wraps from Mikey’s in the last few years but I can’t seem to find my own pictures. I also don’t see them available online so it is possible they are not available anymore even though their website says they will be “back soon”. I liked these for their flexibility and I could put them in the freezer but they did have have more ingredients like sunflower oil and often with coconut or other flours in addition to the cassava. They also would use foods like carrots or broccoli to make them fun colors.

My friend Sarah had the ones by Siete Foods on a hike to Hex Mountain a few years ago and she let me try a piece of one. It wasn’t too bad…

There are are plenty of other non-grain wraps out there that I have not tried, like almond or chickpea. My only advice would be to check the ingredients (like most things) because the wraps can contain other flours besides the one they market on the front, like potato or rice. Oils and preservatives are common. Also, just like wheat based tortillas or wraps, grain free versions will go moldy or become hard if not refrigerated or eaten after a few weeks.

Some day I may try to make ones like this that use apple as the primary ingredient. It seems kind of like a fruit-vegetable leather?