I’ve always loved naan bread. I remember we used to go to our local Indian Restaurant (in Australia) and my favourite part would be the hot naan straight from the oven.
Unfortunately, I never tried to make it myself because I always thought that it would require a proper tandoori oven. But after teaching myself to make decent enough pizza in a normal oven, I thought “Why should naan bread be any different?” In fact, really, you can quite easily make proper naan bread even if you are vegan, and even if you don’t have a tandoori oven… The only catch: You have to cook it about 3 minutes longer. I think I can live with that! In this recipe I have replaced milk with almond milk and natural yoghurt with coconut cream. The naans are coated with garlic-infused olive oil, parsley and chilli. A traditional Indian restaurant would use something like ghee, which is clarified butter. The advantage of our approach is that not only is it 100% vegan, but a LOT healthier. In fact, ghee is so fattening that you put on a pound of weight just by looking at it. Fact! This vegan naan bread recipe is best enjoyed straight of the oven with a nice curry (coming soon), some good friends and some cold lager.
3 tbsp olive oil 2 cloves garlic, finely diced handful of parsley, finely chopped 2 tsp of mild chilli flakes sprinkle of sea salt
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title: “Vegan Naan Bread” ShowToc: true date: “2024-11-21” author: “Michelle Wilson”
Happy Weekend everyone! Where did this week go? As my last recipe was a vegan saag paneer curry recipe featuring homemade naan and I remembered that one of my readers asked me to publish a vegan naan recipe ages ago and I failed to deliver one then, I rush to correct this oversight straight away. The trouble, you see, is that I have more recipe ideas than I know what to do with, my food obsessed brain hardly ever stops thinking about what to eat next…
While a traditional naan – made in a proper Tandoori oven – is hard to beat, it is not difficult to make a good enough vegan naan at home at all. I have tried buying vegan naan a few times and while it often looks the part, it hardly ever tastes it. I guess it’s bread after all so it’s one of these things that doesn’t keep. The good news is that making a vegan naan from scratch is really easy and not that labour intensive either. All you need is a few common ingredients, a few minutes of kneading and 20 minutes of frying while your curry reheats.
MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS
FLOUR: A regular all purpose (also known as plain) flour is used to make this vegan naan soft and pliable. SUGAR: a small amount of sugar is used to give the yeast a helping hand and a touch of flavour but I don’t think it’s necessary – your naan will still work well without it. YEAST: yeast is what gives naan its puffiness and softness. I used instant yeast, which does not require any activation – it is directly added to the dry ingredients. The other two types of yeast – active dry yeast (which looks very much like instant yeast, but needs a different treatment altogether) and fresh yeast (which comes in a block) require activation in liquid first. Follow instructions on the packet and use a portion of liquid allocated for the recipe. SALT: salt is used to give naan flavour and the amount can be ajusted to taste of course! I feel that just under a teaspoon of it for this amount of flour is perfect and I also sprinkle my naan with some salt flakes after glazing – what can I say, I am a salt fiend! OIL: oil is what gives naan its flexible texture. I use mild olive oil, but any neutral flavoured vegetable oil or even melted vegan butter will work just as well. VEGAN YOGHURT: yoghurt is what gives naan dough its softness. Use any neutral vegan youghurt you enjoy or simply have in your fridge already. We only use a small amount of it here so its flavour doesn’t come through very strongly. I used thick coconut yoghurt as that’s the type I enjoy to eat with my granola yet coconut flavour is not detectable in the end product.
Mix all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl – be sure to use the correct type of yeast if you don’t want the hassle of activation. Instant yeast is the only type that can be added directly to the dry ingredients. The other two types – active dry yeast (which looks the same as instant yeast) and fresh yeast need to be activated in liquid first. Make a well in the centre and add all of the wet ingredients.
Use a spoon first and then your hands to mix all of the ingredients together. You want a soft and quite sticky dough – high hydration of naan dough means that the naan will come out soft and chewy, rather than dry and crispy.
Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes, use as little extra flour as possible. Once your dough is smooth, form it into a ball and place in a warm place to proof – double in size. Proofing usually takes between 1-2 hours but it depends on ambient temperature.
Once the dough has proofed, punch the air out of it with your hand and divide into 6 or 5 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball and then roll out into a naan shape on a lightly floured surface.
Cook your naan on a pre-heated skillet (cast iron is best) for about 1-2 minutes on each side. You want the first side lightly browned and once the naan becomes puffy, flip it and allow the air pockets to char gently (or a lot!). If you like a very chewy naan, cook it until the hotspost are only just light-medium brown.
Brush warm naans with garlic-infused vegan butter or oil, sprinkle with salt, chopped coriander/cilantro and fine chilli flakes if you like. Curries that you could make to accompany this vegan naan:
30 ml / 2 tbsp vegan butter or mild olive oil (I used 1 tbsp each) 2 garlic cloves, minced salt, for sprinkling corinader / cilantro (or parsley), finely chopped fine chilli flakes (optional)
