Garlic Vegan Naan

A soft, fluffy, Indian-restaurant-style vegan naan with a delicious topping of garlicky, herbed vegan butter

Naan is perhaps one of the most popular Indian flatbreads on any restaurant menu, for good reason.

This soft, fluffy flatbread, typically baked in a clay oven called a tandoor, is not only smoky and uniquely delicious, but it makes for divine eats when dunked into spicy Indian stews and curries.

Naan recipes usually include milk or yogurt to create a softer, fluffier bread. But making a vegan naan that's just as delicious without the dairy is very possible.

Here I will show you how to make the perfect vegan naan that will rival any naan you ever ate at the finest Indian restaurant. And for those with specific dietary preferences, I have a whole wheat naan recipe and a vegan gluten-free naan recipe you might want to check out.

Table of Contents

• Why you'll love this vegan naan
• Featured comment
• Ingredients
• Expert tips
• Shaping the naan
• What do you serve with the vegan naan?
• Storage tips
• Garlic Vegan Naan Recipe

Why you'll love this vegan naan

• A homemade naan simply tastes better. It doesn't have all those preservatives that store-bought bread does and it also has a better texture. Plus, you made it, and that's something to celebrate!
• It's better for you. This vegan naan is free of artery-clogging butter and ghee. And although it's made with white flour, it's still healthier than anything you might buy at a store or restaurant.
• It's super simple to make and you don't need any fancy equipment. All you need is your hands -- you don't even need a rolling pin. And while a naan made in a traditional clay tandoor oven typically needs temperatures as high as 800 degrees to cook -- a range a humble home oven cannot achieve -- this naan recipe I am about to share with you today is made on a screaming-hot griddle on the stovetop. It's faster than any oven with results just as good as anything you'd get from the restaurant or store.

Ingredients

• All purpose flour. Don't substitute this with whole wheat flour if you want a truly authentic experience. You can make a naan with whole wheat but it just won't be as fluffy and soft.
• Yeast
• Sugar
• Non dairy milk. Use any nondairy milk of your choice, including almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk or oat milk. You can also just use an equal quantity of vegan yogurt instead with great results.
• Vegetable oil
• Salt

Ingredients for the vegan garlic butter topping

• Garlic
• Cilantro
• Vegan butter

Expert tips

• A naan, unlike most Indian flatbreads, is a leavened bread, with added yeast giving it that puffy, glorious texture. Make sure the yeast you use is active. Let the dry yeast "bloom" for five minutes in a warm (not hot) water-milk mixture with some sugar added to wake the yeast up and feed them. If your yeast doesn't become frothy after five or 10 minutes, you need new yeast. (Here's a tip for storing dry yeast for a long time and helping it stay alive: keep it in an airtight container in the freezer.)
• Use warm water to knead the dough, and make sure you don't add all of the water in the beginning. Rather, drizzle it in a little at a time until you get a dough that's still a little sticky but not wet. You don't need to continue kneading the dough once it's come together.
• Let your naan dough rise, like you would any bread dough. This step is important, because you want the yeast to go to work so your naan is puffy and soft, not flat and brittle. You may want to speed the process up, but don't. You just need an hour to 90 minutes in a warm environment (like the oven with just the light on). And good things come to those who wait.
• After the naan dough has risen, divide it into eight balls and coat them lightly with flour. Let them stand, covered, for about 15 minutes so the dough relaxes and is easier to shape.
• If you'd rather not use the vegan garlic butter topping, you can brush some water on the naan and sprinkle on a few sesame seeds or poppy seeds. Press them into the naan before placing on the griddle so they don't all fall off.
• To roast the naan, make sure that the griddle is screaming hot. If subsequent naans begin to brown too fast, just sprinkle some water on the skillet to bring down the temperature, then set to medium-high heat and continue roasting. When brown spots appear on the underside, flip the naan and cook until brown spots appear.
• Remove the naan to a plate lined with a kitchen towel and immediately brush on the herby garlic butter mixture. Keep cooked naans wrapped in the kitchen towel until ready to serve.

Shaping the naan

• The naan you'll find in restaurants and stores is usually teardrop shaped, but there really are no rules here. You can make your naan oval or round or you can just let it go free-form. Once your naan is baked up, and covered with the herby butter garlic mixture, it will look beautiful and incredibly appetizing no matter how you shaped it.
• I usually shape a naan the way I would pizza dough -- by hand. I just lift it by the edges and let the weight of the dough and gravity do the work. Let your fingers move around the edge of the dough, so you get an even shape. If there is a tear, patch it up by pressing the dough together. Once the naan is about five inches wide and seven inches long, rest it on a baking sheet and pull the long side a little more to give it that teardrop/oval shape. You can also just use a rolling pin and roll it into a teardrop shape.

What do you serve with the vegan naan?

Naan is best eaten by tearing off pieces of the soft, hot bread and dunking it a hot, spicy curry. Because a naan is a north Indian bread, it will go well with just about any north Indian curry. Here are some ideas for saucy, Indian dishes and curries to serve with naan:

• Tofu Palak Paneer
• Aloo Matar
• Tofu "Paneer" Kalimirch
• Vegan Butter Chicken
• Instant Pot Vegan Dal Makhani
• Chana Masala
• Mirchi ka Salan, Chili Peppers in a Peanut Sauce

Storage tips

• Store the vegan naan at room temperature for up to a day. Keep the naan loosely wrapped in a kitchen towel.
• You can place the naan in a fridge, still wrapped in a towel and placed in an airtight container, for up to four days.
• For longer storage, store the cooled naan in freezer-safe bags, preferably separated by parchment paper, or wrapped tightly in cling wrap.
• To reheat naan, thaw, if frozen, then place on a hot griddle and warm through on either side, about a minute per side.

Now let's make this vegan naan bread recipe!