Vegan Naan is the perfect accompaniment to a Vegan Curry. Making bread at home produces a wonderful result, and frankly dead cheap as well.
My absolutely biggest tip when making bread is to make sure your yeast is fresh and alive. If you’ve a carton of yeast make sure you store it in the fridge once open or the yeast will die. I’ve had several breads fail as I used ‘in date’ yeast that had been open in the cupboard too long.
The main issue with Naan is the cooking. I’ve tried the brush with oil and grill method with very mixed results. Somehow some of the Naan end up a bit burnt on the outside and a tad raw on the inside.
So I go for the frying method, with lots of dairy free butter in the pan. The Vegan Naan then gets beautifully brown and bubbly with a soft middle. Perfect to tear up and eat with curry. By adding yoghurt to the dough the Vegan Naan’s are wonderfully chewy.
As I fry the Naan in dairy free butter there is no need to brush them with dairy free butter after cooking. But if you want garlic Naan just melt a bit of dairy free butter, add in two crushed garlic cloves and brush the cooked bread when it comes out of the pan. Or if you prefer spread a bit of apple sauce on them, add a few toasted almond slices, sprinkle some desiccated coconut on top and you’ve a nice sweet Vegan Naan.
We find the Naan stays fresh for a day or two – you can always pop it in the microwave, or frying pan for a few moments if you want to freshen it up.
If you’re after a nice Vegan Lentil Curry recipe just check out our recipe here:
Vegan Naan Bread
Ingredients
- 3/4 Cup Warm Water (just tepid, if it's too hot the yeast will die)
- 1 1/2 tsp Active Yeast
- 1 tsp Sugar
- 3 Cups Bread Flour (you can use plain if you prefer)
- 1 tsp Fine Sea Salt (table salt also works)
- 3 tbsp Coconut Yoghurt
- 1 tbsp Melted Dairy-Free Butter (oil also works)
Instructions
- Measure the warm water and add in the sugar and the yeast. Put to one side for between 5-10 minutes until it's frothy.
- Sift the bread flour with the salt and make a well in the middle.
- Add the oil to the water and yeast mixture and pour into the well.
- Bring together into a dough with your hands and knead for 10 minutes on a floured surface.
- Place the ball of dough into a greased bowl, top with greased cling film, and then a tea towel.
- Put the bowl out of drafts and leave for 2 hours to rise.
- Once risen (it should be double in size) tip the dough onto a floured surface and cut it into 8 pieces.
- Roll them out into a teardrop shape (I cut them into triangles to start with) and poke repeatedly with a fork.
- Heat some dairy-free butter in a frying pan and fry on one side until the bread bubbles up and is brown on one side, then flip and finish cooking. I can get two Naan in my frying pan at a time. Once cooked pop it on a wire rack and keep cooking the rest.
