Here's my recipe for an easy, authentic tasting vegan sourdough Irish soda bread. Like traditional soda bread this loaf is leavened only with baking soda but sourdough discard adds buttery flavor and keeps the crumb light but moist. St Patrick's Day is the perfect occasion to enjoy this classic Irish bread with a bowl of vegan Irish stew.
Delicious sourdough soda bread
I already have two versions of soda bread on the blog - a classic vegan Irish soda bread and a gluten-free Irish soda bread. But I love this quick bread so, I simply had to try mating it with my other love - sourdough. This vegan sourdough Irish soda bread is a revelation: it has the perfect, dense but soft and moist crumb and a rustic crust that's lightly crispy. Just perfect to soak up a bowl of soup or stew or eat with a dab of vegan butter.
This is not a true sourdough bread because we won't depend on the yeast in the sourdough starter or discard to leaven it. Soda bread doesn't contain yeast - it is a quick bread and the Irish always leaven it with baking soda, hence soda bread. But the sourdough does add a few benefits besides amazing flavor: it improves the texture of the loaf, improves "oven spring" (the rising of bread during the first few minutes of baking as the gases in the sourdough release), and it also makes the crumb softer and more tender.
Traditional soda bread uses buttermilk and just like with my other soda bread recipes I make my own vegan buttermilk by mixing vegan yogurt and plant milk for this recipe. For ease, I also mix the sourdough discard into this plant "buttermilk" before adding it to the flour.
The vegan sourdough soda bread is just as easy to make as a classic soda bread, and as the cook you'll love that it goes from scratch to the table in about 45 minutes. I also mix in some whole wheat flour for its nutty flavor and the side-effect of improved nutrition. You need just five ingredients and you don't even need to bring out your loaf pans - a well-seasoned cast iron griddle (or baking sheet) works perfectly to bake this rustic bread.
Recipe card
Vegan Sourdough Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough discard (fed within a week of making the bread)
- ½ cup vegan yogurt
- ½ cup non-dairy milk (I used soy milk. Use any plant milk of your choice)
Dry ingredients
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/235 degrees Celsius.
- In a bowl, whisk together all the wet ingredients - sourdough starter, vegan yogurt and non-dairy milk. Set aside.
- Place the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour in a large bowl along with the baking soda and salt. Whisk to mix.
- Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the sourdough mixture, in three batches. Use a wooden spoon or your hand to mix after each addition, but don't knead the dough - make a claw-like shape with your hand and use a circular motion to mix the wet ingredients into the dry until all of the dough is evenly moistened and holds together in a shaggy ball. If there is still dry flour in the bowl after you've added all the liquid mixture, add non-dairy milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough comes together.
- Turn out the dough on a floured surface and shape it into a ball without kneading it. This doesn't have to be perfect - soda bread is a rustic bread and it needs to look rustic for authenticity.
- Flatten the ball slightly into a disc, then place it in a cast iron pan. Use a knife to cut a cross in the bread, going almost all the way down, but not cutting through.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes before you slice it.
Notes
Ingredient notes:
Sourdough discard: You can use sourdough discard in this recipe, or an active starter. If using sourdough discard, try and use one that was fed within a week of making the bread for better flavor. Flour: I use a mix of all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour for nutrition and health. You can skip the whole wheat flour if you want to and make this bread with 3 cups all-purpose flour. Vegan yogurt: I used my homemade cultured cashew yogurt for this recipe. If nut-free, use any unsweetened nut-free yogurt. Plant milk: The protein in soy milk gives this bread a delicious, tender texture. But you won't see a big difference if you use another plant milk, like almond milk or cashew milk. ÂNutrition Information
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How to make vegan sourdough Irish soda bread
Make the vegan "buttermilk"
- Whisk the vegan yogurt, plant milk and sourdough discard in a bowl.
Mix the flours and leavening
- In a large bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, whole wheat flour, baking soda and salt.
Add the wet ingredients to dry ingredients
- Make a well in the center of the flour. Pour in one third of the vegan buttermilk mixture. Shape your hand into a claw or use a wooden spoon and move the flour and liquid mixture in a circular motion to mix. The reason you don't want to knead the dough but mix it gently, as you would pie dough, is because you don't want too much gluten to form. Soda bread is much like a scone or pie crust in texture: light and slightly crumbly.
- Add the remaining buttermilk mixture in two batches, again mixing with a wooden spoon or hand. In the end you should have a shaggy dough that holds together with no dry flour remaining in the bowl. If you do see dry flour, add plant milk, a teaspoon at a time, until the dough comes together. The dough, again, should resemble a scone or biscuit dough rather than a smooth yeasted bread dough.
Shape the loaf
- Place the dough on a well-floured surface and form it into a ball as best as you can.
- Place the ball of dough in a cast iron skillet or on a baking sheet. Use a knife to cut a cross in the loaf, going almost all the way down through the loaf but not making a clean cut. The Irish will tell you this is to let the fairies out. But what the cross does, in fact, is allow the gases formed by the reaction of the baking soda and buttermilk to escape, helping the loaf to expand and rise.
Bake the sourdough soda bread
- Bake the soda bread in an oven preheated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/235 degrees Celsius for 30 minutes. The baked bread will have a lovely golden crust. You can spray some oil over the loaf before putting it in the oven for even more color.
- Cool the baked bread 15-20 minutes on a wire rack before slicing.
Recipe FAQs
Absolutely. Use 3 cups of whole wheat flour and skip the all-purpose flour.
You can make the soda bread using my vegan gluten-free Irish soda bread recipe. You will need to substitute the flour with gluten-free all purpose flour and use a gluten-free sourdough starter like this one.
Serve with any vegan stew or soup - I love pairing it with this flavorful vegan Irish "lamb" stew or vegan Irish chili.
Irish soda bread has the best texture the day it is baked. But you can store it in an airtight bag in the freezer for four days, and freeze it for up to three months. It toasts beautifully.
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