Paleo Sweet Potato Wraps (a.k.a Lefse!)

I'm a Canadian but most of my roots go back to Norway so every time there was a family get-together all the special Norwegian baking came out including - yup- wonderful, yummy lefse.  Who but crazy Norwegians would think of making a wrap out of potatoes and spreading it with butter, sugar and cinnamon before rolling it up and consuming it?  If you're not Norwegian, you probably don't think that sounds good at all but, trust me, it is.


Sadly though (sigh) I haven't been able to tolerate even a sniff of gluten or potatoes in years, so I've really been missing lefse.  To further complicate things, I've been following Sarah Ballantyne's Paleo Approach to heal my body of autoimmune disease as I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis 25 years ago, autoimmune hypothyroidism more recently and I don't think my pancreas is making enough insulin.  There are many foods that cause my body to break out in pain. So, besides not eating potatoes which are in the nightshade family and wheat (gluten), I am now off all grains due to the anti-nutrients they contain.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I want something more substantial than a lettuce leaf to wrap up the contents of a sandwich.  I get that bread isn't the most nutritious food, but it IS convenient!  So I started thinking that maybe I could make lefse out of sweet potatoes and use it as a wrap.  I found a great recipe on the net, but it uses coconut flour and coconut oil and I get severe and unrelenting pain from coconut, especially the oil, so I had to come up with my own recipe.

I was pleasantly surprised when my first attempt turned out so well.  I served some to my brother yesterday and he said he couldn't tell the difference between my version and the lefse he remembered from childhood.  So, yay!

I use white sweet potatoes as they are my favorite so I don't know how it would turn out if you used another kind.  If you boil them, as I do, it lowers the GI to about 47 from about 95 when they are baked.  The other key ingredient is cassava flour.  I had a little trouble finding it here in Calgary as I called all the health food stores and they hadn't heard of it.  I had to drive a long way to find it at an African store, but it was worth it.  It is made from the whole cassava root, the same root that tapioca is extracted from, but as it is the whole root it is more nutritious.  It does have the same stick-together properties as wheat so you can use it to replace wheat in your recipes.  The wraps are soft, not crumbly and dry as they would be if they were made with traditional GF flours.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds of white sweet potatoes (approximately)
3/4 cup cassava flour (approximately)
2 tsp tapioca flour
2 tbsp avocado oil (or whatever oil you like, but avocado doesn't have much taste)
More avocado oil for frying
1 tsp salt

Peel the potatoes, cut into large chunks and boil them.  Begin timing them when they come to a boil and only boil for between 5 - 10 minutes.  They should be a bit crispy yet when you take them off the heat.  Drain into a colander and allow to sit until cool.  If you aren't going to make the wraps right away you can put the potatoes in the fridge overnight once cooked and cool.  Rice the potatoes (if you don't have a ricer, I've also done this with a hand mixer, so don't worry).  Add the oil, salt, tapioca and half the cassava flour.  Mix well with a spoon until combined.  Alternately, mix these ingredients in with the hand mixer.  Separate into 2 inch balls.  The dough should have enough flour in it so that it isn't sticky, so you may need more than what's recommended above, depending on how moist the potatoes are.  Sweet potatoes have more moisture in them than do regular potatoes.

Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat with the avocado oil.  Flour the counter top and flatten a ball of dough, adding enough cassava flour until it doesn't stick to the counter.   Roll to about 1/8" thickness.  Lift with a metal pancake lifter and carefully transfer to the hot pan.  If it sticks to the counter and breaks up when you attempt to lift it, don't worry.  Just add more flour and do it again. cook on each side until brown spots appear.  You may have to adjust the heat as you go.  Wipe the pan and lightly coat it with a bit more avocado oil between wraps.

These store well in the fridge and freeze well too!  They actually are pliable when the come out of the freezer so no thawing time is needed.  Because they are time-consuming (but so worth it), I like to make up a batch when I have time and then they are ready when I need them.  For breakfast this morning I had one with mashed avocado, leftover chicken, grated carrot and zucchini wrapped up inside.  Use your imagination!

Love,
Joanie