Easy Indian Naan Bread Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the ingredient in naan? ›

Flour, yeast, milk, and butter make a tender dough that's simply seasoned with garlic and salt, but there is a wide array of naan bread flavors. You'll find everything from coconut and raisin-stuffed bread to saucy lamb-topped naan in restaurants and home kitchens around the world.

My favorite homemade naan recipe is made with basic bread ingredients (flour, water and yeast) plus a generous dollop of yogurt, egg and baking powder to make the bread extra soft and chewy.

The recipe also works with standard active / dry yeast, but we've found the naan is slightly fluffier and softer using instant yeast. Unusually, we dissolve the instant yeast in warm water then leave it to become foamy – a step usually bypassed with instant yeast, which is typically mixed straight into dough.

About Naan

In the modern days, yeast & other leavening agents have replaced the bread starter. So most restaurants either use yeast or another leavening agent like baking powder & baking soda. If you order naan in Indian restaurants you may not find the texture & flavor to be the same in every place.

While it may contain more carbs and sugars, it earns its reputation as a healthy alternative with its relatively generous amounts of protein and fiber. Despite its high carb content, naan can be considered a more nutrient-dense alternative to white bread and pita.

Naan is traditionally cooked on a hot Tawa (griddle) until it has golden spots on one side and the other side is very light in color. The naan bread is then quickly flipped using tongs, brushed with butter or ghee, and cooked for about 20 seconds on the other side.

One of the most familiar South Asian flatbreads are naan, which are leavened and typically made of maida, a refined wheat flour.

Yogurt: Plain Greek yogurt holds the naan dough together and ensures a tender texture. Make sure you get authentic Greek yogurt and not Greek-style yogurt.

ˈnän ˈnan. variants or less commonly nan. : a round flat leavened bread especially of the Indian subcontinent.

Egg – Helps bind your dough. Garlic – Mince it to give your garlic naan recipe a yummy and savory taste. Salted butter – Adds more flavor and richness.

Is yeast or baking powder better for naan? ›

The baking powder-yeast dough compared to the yeast-only dough were nearly identical — similar air bubbles in the pan, similar dough texture, similar flavor — so, in the end, I stuck with yeast alone as a leaven.

If you don't see the dough puffing up, you should turn up the heat under the griddle. Take the naan with thongs and turn on an adjacent gas burner. Flip the naan on top of this gas burner and leave until it's nicely charred.

From health perspective, flat breads made of whole wheat flour (roti/paratha/chapati/phulka) are better than the ones made with all-purpose flour (naan & kulcha).

Now that we know about flatbreads, we can explain why Roti and Naan are so different. Roti (also known as Chapati) is arguably India's most popular flatbread. This unleavened flatbread is one of the most common sides in Northern India and appears in all of India's regions.

One of the most familiar South Asian flatbreads are naan, which are leavened and typically made of maida, a refined wheat flour.

Naan is traditionally made with all-purpose (wheat) flour, which is not gluten-free. But the gluten provides a stretchy element that can be tricky to replicate with gluten-free alternatives.

Unfortunately, most naan you'll get at Indian restaurants is not vegan, as the dough often contains yogurt (or milk) and it's brushed with melted butter. While there are a handful of store-bought vegan naan options, they are pretty lackluster and taste more like store-bought pita bread.

Unfortunately, the majority of naan isn't suitable for vegans as they often contain ghee (clarified butter), yoghurt, milk or even eggs. However, it's not impossible to find vegan-friendly naan in supermarkets, it's just worth double-checking ingredients lists.