I had never tried making homemade vegan naan before I found this recipe on Connoisseurus Veg. This week, I made Vegan Potato Curry and wanted a nice bread to go along with it. After a fail with a not-so-hot onion roll recipe, I wanted to try something different. I love making this naan! The recipe makes a lot of bread. So if you’re having a craving for some serious carbs, you’ll be able to satisfy it. You can cut the dough to make either 8 pieces of naan measuring about 10″ x 5″, or you can make 16 pieces around 5″ x 5″. If you want to use the dough later for Vegan Naan Pizza, you can make medium pizzas or mini-pizzas.
This dough is very soft and also very sticky. After I added the required flour called for in the original recipe, there was no way this would turn out onto the counter without becoming one giant flat pancake. Kneading would have been impossible. I kept adding flour until I was comfortable with having something to knead. In all, I added at least an additional cup of flour to be able to knead it. While kneading, I continued to add from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of additional flour. I was worried that all the flour would ruin the taste, but it didn’t. The bread was delicious in the end!
Another thing I changed from the original recipe was the high heat for the skillet the entire time. I used an iron skillet. I do not recommend using a non-stick coated skillet, due to the length of time you have it on the stove with parts of the pan not filled and possible off-gassing that can occur. With the iron skillet, once it heated up it was very hot, so I turned the burner down to low or very low, alternating as needed. I didn’t have a lid for my 12-inch iron skillet, so before starting, I fashioned one out of aluminum foil. To do this just, fold the foil over the edges of your pan before starting. Remove foil, then heat the skillet. The “lid” doesn’t have to be tight – mine was mostly for containing smoke from the oil. I cooked the naan for one minute on each side initially, covering it each time. After the initial 2 minutes of cooking, I would cook each naan on both sides until I was satisfied with the brownness.
You’ll probably want to cut your first piece of cooked naan down the center crosswise, to check for doneness. Take a bite of it, too, to insure that you’ve got your cooking times right. This will give you the confidence to carry on with the remaining pieces like the pro you know you are!
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5" x 5" pieces
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- 1/2 cup soy milk warm, unflavored
- 1 teaspoon sugar granulated
- 1/4 ounce active dry yeast 1 packet, or 2-1/4 teaspoons
- 1/2 cup soy milk at room temp, unflavored
- 1 teaspoon white vinegar
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 to 4 cups all purpose flour
- vegetable oil or vegan butter for grilling I used oil
Ingredients
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- In a small bowl or cup, whisk together the warm soy milk, yeast and sugar. Let it sit for 10 minutes, until the mixture becomes foamy.
- While the first soy milk mixture is sitting, mix together the room temperature soy milk and the vinegar in a cup or bowl. Let sit for 5 minutes. The mixture should start to curdle.
- Pour both milk mixtures into a medium mixing bowl. Stir in the oil, salt and 2 cups of the flour, mixing well. Then add additional flour (I reached 4 cups total) until the dough is unsticky enough and has enough stability to knead.
- Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes, adding additional flour as necessary while kneading. (I ended up using an additional 1/2 cup of flour and losing about 1/2 cup of dough by it sticking to my hands and the counter.) After kneading for 10 minutes (don't give up - it's worth it!), rub the dough lightly with oil and place in a clean, large mixing bowl.
- Cover the dough with a damp kitchen towel or loosely placed plastic wrap. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free location and let rise for 1 hour or until the dough has doubled in size.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces for naan that rolls out to about 10" x 5", or divide it into 16 pieces for naan that is about 5" x 5". (Or do 4 large and 8 small pieces, like I did.) Using a rolling pin, roll each piece out until the dough is 1/4" thick.
- Oil the bottom of a well-seasoned iron skillet. Once the skillet has become hot, reduce the heat to low or very low. Place one large or two small pieces of naan into the skillet and cover with a lid. Cook for 1 minute or until large bubbles form on top. Check the bottom of the naan for brownness, then flip the bread to cook the bubbly side. Continue flipping the naan to cook both sides until it reaches your desired brownness.
- Continue cooking the other pieces of dough, adding oil or butter to the skillet between pieces. Remove the cooked naan to cooling racks while finishing the cooking. The cooling racks will keep the bottoms of the naan from becoming moist, as they would on a plate or platter. Serve warm.
- To store, place in the refrigerator or freezer. I recommend placing a sheet of wax paper between each naan before placing in a freezer bag.
I hope you enjoy this recipe! Leave any feedback in comments below. Also, share your comments on Instagram: @key_lime_coconut or on Twitter: @keylime_coconut.
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