Do you know the difference between a roll and a pinwheel? Neither do I, but these taco pinwheels will make you forget about all the minutiae in life.
They’re cheesy, beefy, spicy but not too spicy, and rolled up in a crispy crust.
Each pinwheel has just 260 calories, making them perfect appetizers or doubled up for main courses. And thanks to the 22 grams of protein in each, you’ll have to bring a serious appetite to finish more than than two.
How to Make These Taco Pinwheels
These pinwheels use a variation of 2-ingredient dough. My obsession with this Greek yogurt and all purpose flour dough started with low calorie pizza crust and buffalo chicken empanadas, and it’s evolved into biscuit pizza and skillet monkey bread.
It’s super easy to make, and I doughn’t think you’ll have many questions.
The recipe calls for a food processor to quickly mix the dough, but you’re more than welcome to mix by hand. I use a fork to mix the dough in my air fryer pepperoni pizza.
A quick tip I’ll give on rolling the dough is to use a mini rolling pin so you can use your other hand to stretch the opposite end of the dough while rolling. You can find the mini roller I use on my Amazon tools list.
Once you have your dough situation rectangled away, it’s on to the beef mixture. If you’re familiar with my recipes, you know my love for southwest flavors runs strong. That said, I’ve turned down the heat a bit for these taco pinwheels.
If you wanted a spicier version, check out the chipotle beef from my sweet potato nachos or my Instant Pot ground turkey taco meat.
One difference you might notice in this recipe is the addition of cheddar powder to the seasoning blend. It’s only two tablespoons, so you’re more than welcome to skip it and replace with a bit more shredded cheese. And if you have no clue what cheddar powder is, it’s essentially dehydrated cheese (think: powdered peanut butter). I’ve used to make everything from cheeseburger soup to air fryer cheese bread.
And that’s it for the dough and filling. Time to get your roll and slice on.
This dough is on the sturdier side. So you shouldn’t have any issues cutting it. However, you can spray your knife with a bit of cooking spray to prevent sticking and tearing while slicing.
Oh, one important note: make sure your taco filling isn’t piping hot or it will make the dough more susceptible to tearing when rolled.
Once sliced, your taco pinwheels are ready to bake! Well done, chef.
Final Recipe Notes
In case you’re wondering about ingredient substitutions, the addition of refried beans and Greek yogurt to the taco mixture is entirely optional. If you omit one or the other, however, you may find your crust to taco filling ratio is a bit lackluster. That’s just a guess, though!
If you run into this, you might be able to cut the dough in half and make smaller taco pinwheels.
Okie doke, that’s it! When you make these taco pinwheels, I want to see them! Take a photo of your creation and tag me on Instagram @mason_woodruff. Or you can join my free Facebook group and share it with the Proton Party.
Taco Pinwheels
Ingredients
Taco Pinwheel Crust
- 1 3/4 C 210g All Purpose Flour
- 1 C 227g Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 Tbsp 8g Olive Oil
Taco Filling
- 1 lb Ground Beef, nutrition facts with 96/4
- 1 C 248g Fat Free Refried Beans
- 1/2 C 113g Fat Free Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 C 56g Shredded Cheddar , or your choice of cheese
Beef Seasoning (can sub for taco seasoning)
- 2 Tbsp Cheddar Powder, optional
- 2 Tbsp Paprika
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tsp Cumin
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F.
- Cook the ground beef over medium-high heat until no pink remains. Add the seasoning blend 3/4 way through cooking.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the Greek yogurt and beans, stirring well. Heat until warm throughout before allowing the mixture to cool while you prepare the crust.
- Add the flour and 1 C yogurt to a food processor (you can also mix by hand). Pulse until a rough dough forms.
- Place the dough on a large piece of parchment paper or baking mat and use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a large rectangle (about 15x10). You may want to spray the surface with nonstick spray or lightly flour to prevent sticking.
- Add the beef mixture on top of the rolled dough and top with the shredded cheese. Leave about an inch on the sides to prevent overflow when rolling. (Make sure the beef mixture isn't too warm before adding to the dough.)
- Roll the dough, tucking the sides in once rolled.
- Use a knife to slice the roll into 8 pieces, placing each slice on its side. Brush the olive oil around the edges of each slice.
- Slice the parchment paper or baking mat onto a large baking sheet and bake for 28-32 minutes. The outer crust should be crisp and golden brown and the inner layers should be cooked through. (If the outside starts to burn before the inner layers bake, cover them with aluminum foil to finish baking.)
Notes
- Each serving has 6 Smart Points.
- Feel free to add fillings like onion, fresh garlic, jalapeño peppers, etc.
Nutrition
More Taco Recipes You Might Like
My easy taco pasta bake is one of the most re-created recipes on the blog. It’s too easy not to try!
And since part of the greatness of tacos are their handheld nature, I’d highly recommend my low carb taco bites or oven baked beef tacos.
I cheated and used the Pillsbury dough sheet instead of from scratch but still a fun new take on taco Tuesday
The taste of this recipe was on point 👌🏻 But I think I added the meat mixture too soon after cooking and the dough did not work out at all! I ended up just throwing it all in a casserole dish and cooking it in the oven that way. So make sure you let the meat cool before putting it on the dough and you’ll be golden!
I was a little skeptical because I’m not usually a fan of refried beans but I think any time you make a recipe you should do it completely the first time before making adjustments so that’s what I did. And boy am I glad! The whole thing was perfection. It was a little hard to portion out for single servings to package up and save for meals that week so make sure you weigh throughout the process to know the weight of one serving since it won’t be exactly uniform in shape when you roll. The second time I made this I substituted Carbquik for the all purpose flour 1:1 and it was tasty but a little tougher.
Love love loveeeee these! My husband is a very picky eater and he loves these too! One suggestion I have is to make sure the dough is thick enough. My first try was a disaster because I rolled my dough too thin, still tasted great though!
The taste of this recipe was on point 👌🏻 But I think I added the meat mixture too soon after cooking and the dough did not work out at all! I ended up just throwing it all in a casserole dish and cooking it in the oven that way. So make sure you let the meat cool before putting it on the dough and you’ll be golden!
I was a little skeptical because I’m not usually a fan of refried beans but I think any time you make a recipe you should do it completely the first time before making adjustments so that’s what I did. And boy am I glad! The whole thing was perfection. It was a little hard to portion out for single servings to package up and save for meals that week so make sure you weigh throughout the process to know the weight of one serving since it won’t be exactly uniform in shape when you roll. The second time I made this I substituted Carbquik for the all purpose flour 1:1 and it was tasty but a little tougher.
Love love loveeeee these! My husband is a very picky eater and he loves these too! One suggestion I have is to make sure the dough is thick enough. My first try was a disaster because I rolled my dough too thin, still tasted great though!
I love two ingredient dough, so you can imagine how happy I was when I found this recipe! It was a great alternative to taco night and inexpensive to make.
I love two ingredient dough, so you can imagine how happy I was when I found this recipe! It was a great alternative to taco night and inexpensive to make.
Have made this for dinner as well as for football game parties and is always a hit! Everyone is shocked when I tell them the crust is home made and it’s lower in calories!