Vegan Naan Recipe (Indian Flatbread)

Naan is an Indian flatbread made from a fermented dough of all-purpose flour. This vegan naan is a dairy-free version of an authentic naan recipe and a few other versions, like butter, garlic naan, and bullet naan.

Naan is an Indian flatbread and a popular restaurant-style flatbread. We use whole wheat flour in India for everyday flatbread (roti), different from tortillas made with refined flour.

Similarly, this naan is made with refined flour. You can also make naan with wheat flour or a flour mix. But the softest and fluffy naan comes from refined flour or all-purpose flour because of the gluten content in the refined flour.

However, I won't recommend this for an everyday menu because of the high gluten-content flour. These homemade spongy, pillowy naans are no less than any Indian restaurant-made naan.

Read 12 different types of Indian Flatbread recipes here.

What is Naan?

Naan is an easy Indian flatbread. It can be vegetarian or vegan easily by replacing one or two ingredients only. Similarly, by changing a few toppings, the recipe name also changes. e.g., garlic naan, butter naan, bullet naan, lacchha naan, pudina naan, chili cheese naan, Peshawari naan/ Kashmiri naan, chur-chur naan, and many more.

Naan is charred in direct flame or fire, just like tandoori roti. Special clay fire (Bhatti) is used to make naan or roti, which gives that authentic flavor to the flatbreads. However, you can provide the charred flavor at home, too. This vegan naan is just a dairy-free version. The rest of the process is the same as the original recipe.

Other Indian Flatbreads to read:

1. Lacchha Paratha
2. Aloo Paratha
3. Gobi Paratha
4. Paneer Paratha
5. Tandoori Roti
6. Veg Mughlai Paratha
7. Dal Paratha
8. Bhature

How to make vegan naan from scratch?

This vegan naan is similar to traditional butter naan, the tandoori naan we get in restaurants. But we will be using dairy-free products for this recipe. In place of regular milk, we will be using dairy-free milk, and in place of butter/ ghee, we will be using vegan butter refined vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or rice bran oil.

Ingredients for Vegan Butter Naan with Yeast

Flour: - Refined flour. You can also make with half of refined and half of the wheat flour. But it won't be fluffy like refined flour because refined flour has the highest amount of gluten, making the bread fluffy like bread.

Leavening Agent:- Dry yeast or instant yeast + sugar + water. Sugar helps to activate the yeast. Be sure to use fresh yeast since it loses its leavening properties when stored for a long time. So try not to store them for long. For some extra spongy, you can also add ½ tsp baking powder. But adding baking powder is optional if you add yeast to make the naan bread.

Milk / Yogurt:- Non-dairy milk, non-dairy yogurt. Milk or cream makes the naan bread softer, too.

Vegan butter/ olive oil:- For vegans, use vegan butter or olive oil—otherwise, regular butter or ghee.

Toppings: nigella seeds/ kalonji, sesame seeds (black/ white), minced garlic, cilantro leaves.

Instructions:

In a bowl, take lukewarm water. Add instant yeast and sugar and leave it for 10 minutes till it's a bit foamy on top. Once activated, add non-dairy milk, a pinch of salt, baking powder, and Flour.

Knead well to a dough. Cover with a damp cloth and leave it for 30 - 60 minutes so that the flour will ferment and rise. Brush it with a bit of oil. You can also use an instant pot to quicken the fermentation process.

After 30 minutes, knead again for 2 minutes. Divide the dough into equal portions.

Take the roundels and pat them on small discs. Stick some finely chopped cilantro leaves and nigella seeds/ sesame seeds on top. Then, roll it to a circle or oval shape.

Method - 1

Heat a skillet (preferably cast-iron skillet). Place the rolled naan on the tawa. Once you see bubbles on the surface, flip to the other side. Cook for a minute or two. Remove from heat. Brush with vegan butter. (for nonvegans or vegetarians, brush with ghee or butter. (However, this will not give that authentic charred flavor of Tandoor (grill))

Method - 2

Heat the skillet. Now brush the backside of the naan with water. Place the wet side of naan on the skillet so that the side will stick to the skillet. Now when you see bubbles on the surface, flip the skillet. This method will give a charred flavor as the naan will be cooked in a direct flame (like tandoori roti). Once cooked, brush some butter or ghee on top.

Can I make the naan using an instant pot?

Yes, we can use the instant pot for fermentation. When you knead the dough using yeast, you must keep it for 2 hrs for fermentation. But with instant pot, this can be reduced to 1 hr. So, the process can speed up in an instant pot.

Can I make vegan naan using a microwave oven?

Yes. Naan is similar to flatbreads in other ways besides fermentation. Fermentation is the central part of the recipe. This takes a few hours. So, you can quicken the process by placing it in the oven for some time to proof the dough and to ferment. Also, you can bake the rolled naan in the oven.

Is traditional naan not vegan?

No. Authentic Indian naan is not vegan because of Greek yogurt, curd, and milk. Also, the recipe calls for butter, which is a dairy product. So, to make this a vegan flatbread, we need to replace dairy products with non-dairy butter and dairy milk.

Recipe Card for Vegan Naan (Indian Flatbread)

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