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Easy Vegan Naan

This vegan naan is very simple and easy to make. The inspiration was the naan from my favourite Indian restaurant in Vancouver from my pre-vegan days. It was puffy and soft, stretchy as you pulled it apart, with some charring on the outside so there were crispy bits as well. This naan is made to be the same. Perfect with Vegan Butter Chicken.
Click here for the printable recipe.

Video Tutorial for Easy Naan Bread Recipe

Ingredients for the EASIEST Vegan Naan

The ingredients are simple:

  • water,
  • yeast,
  • flour and
  • salt.

Optional Ingredients

You can add all sorts of things to your naan but I’ll address two very common additives: oil and yogurt.

The optional oil changes the texture; makes it chewier, gives the crust more crisp.

And optional yogurt can add a bit of fat and/or protein and a hint of flavor. But most days when I make this, I don’t have vegan yogurt handy. And because I love to save my good cooking oils for recipes that REALLY need them, I’ll generally omit the oil while still really enjoying the fluffy naan. So these two ingredients are optional.

Having trouble using yeast? Check out my Troubleshooting Yeast and Bread Dough guide.

How to make Easy Vegan Naan

First make the dough by mixing all the ingredients together to form a dough ball. Let the ball of dough proof (aka sit in a warm, draft-free location while covered), then divide the dough and hand-pull the pieces into shape.

easy vegan naan dough

You can roll them flat with a rolling pin but I prefer to hand pull the pieces to give them a rustic look.

Then you can cook them on a grill pan, a regular non-stick pan, or use a pizza stone in the oven. When I’m cooking dinner, I’ll just use any method that’s convenient at the time.

cooked easy vegan naan bread stack

After the naan is cooked, you can brush on some garlic infused oil or melted vegan butter. Or have them as is. They are delicious either way.

What to eat with this Easy Vegan Naan?

Have this easy vegan naan with curry like my Cheater Butter Chicken or Bean Vindaloo.

Or make a naanwich. This is your vegan naan bread and there are no rules!

This recipe originally appeared in WHAT I ATE #84.

Printable recipe for Easy Vegan Naan

Yield: 8 personal-sized naan

Easy Vegan Naan

Easy Vegan Naan

This easy to make vegan naan bread comes out soft, stretchy, chewy and delicious! A good recipe for first time bread bakers, this recipe can be used as a pizza base as well.

You can make them in an hour for quick results, an hour and a half for better results, or proof the dough overnight in the fridge for even more flavour development. It's up to you!

Have this vegan naan alongside dishes like Vegan Vindaloo, Easy "Cheater" Vegan Butter "Chicken", or Coconut Curry Chickpeas!

Active Time 10 minutes
Proofing Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 24 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 4 minutes

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup water (300ml)
  • 4 cups all purpose flour* (480g), plus more for kneading
  • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Optional: 1 - 2 tablespoon oil or vegan yogurt

Instructions

Make the dough

  1. Combine water, yeast, flour and salt (plus optional oil or yogurt) and mix until dough ball forms. Process for one minute or knead by hand for 5 - 10 minutes, dusting work surface and hands with flour when necessary. If you added oil and/or yogurt, you will need to add a bit of additional flour. Just add it a tablespoon at a time until the dough is manageable.

  2. Cover dough and let rise for at least half hour. You may let it rise for an hour or until doubled in size for better results. Or you may store it in the fridge to slowly ferment overnight for more flavour development.

  3. Punch down the dough and divide it into 8 - 10 pieces, depending on the size you want.
    Shape the dough into flat pieces, gently pulling along the whole pieces to stretch out for a rustic look. Or you can roll them flat with a rolling pin. I usually make them about a quarter inch thick. When all of your pieces have been shaped, either cook the naan on the stove OR in your oven.

Cook on the stove

  1. Heat a nonstick pan over medium high heat. When the pan is hot, add once piece of dough. Cook for 30 seconds on one side, then flip and cook 30 seconds on the other side. Then flip again and repeat a few times until both sides have nice char marks. Each piece of naan may take a total of 3 to 5 minutes to cook. The first piece usually takes longest, and each piece afterwards gets done faster so adjust your heat as necessary.

Cook in the oven

  1. To cook in the oven, preheat with a pizza stone or baking sheet to 450°F. Then, use a cutting board or pizza peel to place a couple pieces of naan on the stone/sheet. Watch the naan puff up through the oven window if you can! It should only take a 2-3 minutes for it to puff up. Flip the naan; the bottom should have some light browning. Continue to cook for about 2-3 minutes or until the other side is browned too. Remove the naan. Let it cool and sacrifice one of the pieces to check for doneness. Continue with the rest, adjusting the cook time as needed.
    During cooking, your dough may puff up like a balloon. That's good so the naan will have a pocket like pita bread. But it might not happen either. Which is ok; the naan will still be cooked nicely.

Serving and storing

  1. Wrap the naan up in a clean kitchen cloth to keep in the heat and moisture. Serve them right away.
  2. To store at room temperature, let them cool to room temperature and store in an air tight container for up to 3 days.
  3. To freeze, let them cool, place in a freezer bag, press out the air and seal. The naan can be stored this way in the freezer for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature or microwave using 15 second intervals until warmed.

Notes

*Fluff/sift flour before measuring or measure by weight for best results. When in doubt, use less flour at first. It's easy to add more flour if the dough is too sticky but if you add too much flour at once, your dough will be tough and more difficult to save.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8

Serving Size:

1 eighth of recipe

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 275Total Fat: 5gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 4gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 150mgCarbohydrates: 50gFiber: 2gSugar: 2gProtein: 8g

Nutritional Information automatically calculated by a plugin and may not be correct.

Did you make this recipe?

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Showing 27 comments
  • Susan Ponce
    Reply

    Hi Mary. I wonder if it would be possible to convert the recipe to Whole Wheat flour. The few times I have tried to bake with it the product came out super dense, not soft like store bought. Any suggestions?

    • Mary
      Reply

      Whole wheat absorbs more water so use about 25% less volume than you would with regular flour. The other thing some bakers do is sift the flour to separate some of the bran. Then make the dough, take it through one proofing stage, then knead the bran back in later. This allows the gluten to develop without the bran cutting into the strands. Personally, I just do 50% whole wheat and 50% regular all-purpose; 100% whole wheat just isn’t enjoyable enough for me.

  • Birjees
    Reply

    hi, how come there’s no sugar in this recipe. won’t that retard the yeast?

    • Mary
      Reply

      Flour is all the food the yeast needs 🙂 Sugar can help speed up the process in some recipes but it’s not necessary here.

  • John Kilbourne
    Reply

    Watching that bread tear in the video was very exciting :-).

    The right pillowy, stretchy texture of non-tandoori homemade naan has been out of reach for me so far; looking forward to trying this one.

    • Mary
      Reply

      haha I’m glad you enjoyed it! 🙂

  • kayla
    Reply

    I love this recipe! I tried it today and it was perfect. Thank you for such a great recipe!

    • Mary
      Reply

      Yay! I’m so glad to hear that, kayla 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing
      – Mary

      • Fran
        Reply

        Hi
        Looks delicious. Don’t suppose you’ve tried gluten free flours by any chance? Fluffy, soft bread is what I miss the most!!

        • Mary
          Reply

          I’m so sorry. Gluten-free flour will not work for this recipe. For successful gluten-free bread, you should seek out a recipe that is specifically formulated to be gluten free since straight substitutes never work in yeasted wheat-based bread recipes in my experience.

  • Umi
    Reply

    Ive tried it too ! It was really good even without yogurt because in my country yogurt is pretty expensive this is better

    • Mary
      Reply

      Yay thanks so much for the review, Umi! I really appreciate it.
      Cheers,
      Mary

  • Laura Lennuyeux-Comnene
    Reply

    Tried this today, and it was really good – and satisfying to make! I used soya yogurt (the brand was alpro, as that is all that is available near me), and added onion seeds to the mix (sometimes these are called Nigella seeds) – it was really delicious!
    Thanks about the tip re: wholemeal flour. I was thinking of making some with wholemeal – removing the ‘husks’ and adding them after makes sense. Thanks again for the recipe!

    • Mary
      Reply

      Thanks so much for your comment, Laura. I really appreciate the review and hearing about how the add-ins worked for you!
      Cheers,
      Mary

  • sharon
    Reply

    my hubby use to buy the large naan u can get from supermarket, the garlic and corriander ones, i found your recipe and he hasnt bought any since he actually said they were restraunt standard , so thank yoi for the recipe , im in the process of making more today for the freezer. My hubby now wants some for tea filled with salad mayo and a meat substitute lol. I only made 10 three weeks ago

    • Mary
      Reply

      aww what a lovely comment to read, Sharon. Thank you so much for sharing. I’m so happy that you (and your hubby) are finding this recipe so useful <3
      Stay well and safe,
      Mary

  • Cathleen M
    Reply

    This worked amazingly well! The naan came out fluffy and crispy with lots of bubbles. I added vegan butter and garlic at the end.

    • Mary
      Reply

      That’s wonderful to hear, Cathleen! Thanks so much for sharing your experience.
      Cheers,
      Mary

      • Teri
        Reply

        This recipe is great. It was very forgiving to my 5 and 7 year old rolling it out smooshing it back amd rolling it out again and again. Thanks.

        • Mary
          Reply

          aww sounds like they had fun <3 🙂 Thanks so much for sharing, Teri
          -Mary

  • Israel Arteaga
    Reply

    Can you use a regular blender for this?

    • Mary
      Reply

      I don’t recommend it. You can mix everything in a bowl by hand though.

  • Rowena Balint
    Reply

    Can You use a mixer with a dough hook instead of food processor?

    • Mary
      Reply

      Yes! You will have to adjust the timing but it should work. Generally, it takes longer in a stand mixer. Go by the look and feel rather than time.

      Cheers,
      Mary

      • Rowena Balint
        Reply

        Thank You. I made this today and its’s awesome. Thank You so much for the recipe!!!

  • Rossana Robles
    Reply

    I made this today with whole wheat. Used a bit less flour. It turned out great! Next time I’ll try 50/50 like you suggested. Thank you!

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