Vegan Naan Bread

These vegan naans are delicious yeasted flatbreads cooked in a cast-iron pan and brushed with garlic and herb butter.

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 15

Resting Time: 1

Total Time: 1 30

Servings: naan

Ingredients

Naan Bread

3 cups (375 g) plain or all purpose flour
2 tsp dried yeast fast action or instant
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup (240 ml) soy milk
2 tbsp (30 ml) oil neutral - vegetable, coconut
1 tsp lemon juice

Garlic Coriander Butter

2 tbsp (30 g) vegan butter
1 pinch salt
2 cloves garlic pressed or minced
¼ cup fresh coriander / cilantro finely chopped

Instructions

Naan dough

In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, dried yeast, sugar and salt.
Add soy milk, oil and lemon juice to the mixing bowl and stir to mix, using a spatula or wooden spoon.
Knead the dough for a few minutes until all the flour is well incorporated. Scrape or rub off any bits of dough from your hands, and shape the dough into a ball.
Rest the dough in the mixing bowl, covered with a damp tea towel, in a warm place until doubled in size - about 1 hour, or longer as needed if cooler.

Shaping

Tip the rested dough out onto a floured work surface or wooden board, and without knocking back use a knife or dough scraper to divide it into 8 equal portions (see notes).
Roll out the dough pieces about 4 mm (⅙ inch) thick, keeping the surface and rolling pin lightly dusted with flour. Flip them over a couple of times for easy rolling.
Before cooking, allow the naans to rest and relax for about 5-10 minutes for the best texture after cooking. (see notes)

Cooking

Heat up a cast iron pan on high heat. Wait for it to get properly hot before cooking the first naan.
Place a naan in the hot cast iron pan and cook it for 30 - 60 seconds. Big bubbles should form on the top. Flip over and cook for 30-60 more seconds.
Adjust the heat level if the naan get dark too quickly or not enough.
If no bubbles form, the naans either haven't had enough time to rest before cooking or the pan isn't hot enough.
When done take the cooked naan out of the pan and immediately brush it with melted vegan butter or oil, or use the instructions below to make garlic and coriander naan.
Served best fresh and still warm.

Garlic and coriander butter

Melt and briefly heat the vegan butter together with the salt, pressed or minced garlic and washed and finely chopped coriander / cilantro, to infuse it with the flavours.
Microwave: Place the ingredients in cup or a small bowl, and microwave for 30 seconds (or longer if necessary).
Stove/hob: Place the ingredients in a small saucepan or skillet on medium heat, until the butter is melted and hot.
Stir to combine.
Brush the top of the naan breads with the garlic and coriander butter when they are fresh out of the pan.

Notes

Step by step pictures and more helpful tips in the post above!

Naan size

The number of pieces is for naans that are on the small side. They fit neatly into a small cast iron skillet and are perfect as one portion.

You can make bigger naans and divide the dough into fewer portions. The critical point is that they need to still fit in your cast iron pan for cooking after rolling out.

Rest before cooking

Allow the individual naans to rest for at least 5 minutes before they go into the hot pan. When the dough can relax and puff up a little bit again, then you get the beautiful bubbles and a fluffy inside texture.

In the meantime, you can heat up the pan. We roll out at least half the pieces before heating up the pan.

If you don't like coriander leaves/cilantro, feel free to swap it out for parsley.

Nutrition

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