Quick Gluten Free Naan Bread Recipe

Since making our vegan take on traditional Indian naan bread a while back, I’ve significantly decreased my consumption of gluten, so naan was off the table for a while. Moment of silence as we grieve.

The gluten-free alternatives I’d tried up to this point were admittedly lackluster. I missed the pillowy, stretchy naan bread infused with garlic alongside my beloved curries, so I got to work. And the results were incredible.

Easy

Friends, behold, gluten-free vegan naan made in 1 bowl, in 20 minutes, with simple ingredients! It’s the gluten-free naan of my dreams, pairs well with SO many dishes, and is freezer friendly! Let us show you how it’s done.

Gluten Free Quick Naan Bread Recipe

Naan is believed to date as far back as 1300 AD when it was mentioned in the notes of an Indo-Persian poet. Then, around 1526, it became popular among royals of the Mughal era in India. Because naan contained yeast (which was very expensive), it was reserved for royalty. (source)

How much times can change! Once yeast became more readily available, naan’s popularity spread throughout India and to other parts of the world.

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. But friends, we’ve done the trial and error so you don’t have to!

Easy Gluten Free Naan Bread

We’ve found that the key is to use a perfect combination of gluten-free flours that achieves the right taste and texture. You can read more about different gluten-free flours here.

For this recipe, we used coconut flour for its dense, wholesome texture then lightened it up with potato starch for fluffiness and arrowroot starch for a stretchy, pliable element.

And for quicker weeknight preparation, you can freeze the cooked naan and reheat in a skillet or in the microwave. So easy!

Ingredient Naan Bread (no Yeast)

If you try this recipe, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it, and don’t forget to tag a photo#on Instagram. Cheers, friends!

Fluffy vegan, gluten-free naan made in just 20 minutes and 1 bowl without yeast! The result is a pillowy, stretchy naan that’s almost undetectably gluten-free. Perfect for pairing with curries, dips, and more. And it’s freezer friendly!

Serving: 1 small naan Calories: 182 Carbohydrates: 32.2 g Protein: 1.8 g Fat: 5.5 g Saturated Fat: 4.3 g Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.13 g Monounsaturated Fat: 0.59 g Trans Fat: 0 g Cholesterol: 0 mg Sodium: 480 mg Potassium: 89 mg Fiber: 4 g Sugar: 0.8 g Vitamin A: 9.16 IU Vitamin C: 0.31 mg Calcium: 97.35 mg Iron: 0.51 mgEat this yummy gluten free naan on its own or with a big bowl of curry. This gluten free naan bread recipe is easy to follow and doesn't take long at all.

Ingredient Dough Naan (no Yeast!)

This gluten free naan bread is made extra soft and tender with yogurt, eggs and a bit of butter or ghee in the dough. Make the dough ahead of time, and then fry it up in a pan in minutes!

Made with plain yogurt for extra tenderness, this smooth, pliable and rich gluten free naan bread makes any meal feel special. Like all naan, it's great for sopping up every last delicious bit of your favorite saucy gluten free dinners.

I'm no expert on Indian cuisine, but I've had tender, pillowy naan bread in an authentic Indian restaurant. I've never seen it made without gluten in a restaurant, though.

Homemade Naan Bread

I haven't tried it, but I bet you could even use this very gf naan bread recipe to make this in the shaped clay oven called a tandoor. Here, we make ours in a hot skillet, and we're able to get all the browning you need for an authentic-tasting Indian flatbread.

Naan is a flatbread that very similar to pita bread, but it's a pretty highly enriched bread.In bread-baking, enrichments just refer to things like fat (ghee and butter here in this recipe), yogurt or milk, and eggs.

These enrichments, especially the yogurt in this recipe, make this bread dough quite easy to handle—and the resulting naan bread tender, fragrant and delicious.

Brilliant

Best Gluten Free Vegan Flatbread Recipe

The dough can be made up to 2 days ahead of time (3 if you're good with some serious yeasted flavor development) and then shaped, rolled, and fried in the few minutes before mealtime. It's a lovely way to complete a simple meal and make it feel really special. ✨

Of gluten free yeast bread baking.I've developed plenty of gluten free bread recipes like that, and they work, taste great and are a lovely starting-point.

The first generation of gluten free bread recipes was in the “batter-style, ” with dough made with a paddle attachment in a stand mixer that had to be much wetter and more fragile than conventional yeast-bread baking.

Vegan Naan Bread (no Yeast, No Oil)

Plus, they all require enrichments to compensate for any real replacement for the gluten that is so essential to conventional yeast-bread baking.

The one drawback of the preparation of these “old-style” bread recipes is that they call for using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. A handheld mixer won't work.

A bowl with a spoon and a lot of elbow grease might work, but I find that it's quite difficult to get the proper consistency that way. The newer style can be made using a handheld mixer with the dough hook attachments.

Mark's Gluten Free Naan Bread Bord Bia

), I set out to break the mold on gluten free bread. I added some special ingredients that really substitute for gluten in the newer yeast bread recipes, and I adore them.

It requires that you hunt down two new ingredients, Expandex modified tapioca starch and whey protein isolate, both of which thankfully have become much more readily available since the publication of that book in 2013.

Fluffy

Plus, that sort of traditional yeast-bread baking is enough art-plus-science that I created an online course called Gluten Free Yeast Bread Basics for those of you who wanted a deep dive. The beauty of those recipes is that the dough is much more what you'd expect from gluten-containing bread dough, and the bread can be made into any artisan style at all.

Gluten Free Naan Bread

Since the gluten free bread flour blend behaves so much more like conventional flour, it's actually much easier for bakers who can have dairy, but can't have eggs. There are a lot of “lean” recipes in the book that don't require butter, yogurt, milk or eggs.

The simpler-style gluten free yeast bread recipes like this one are still really valuable, even in my house where I have all the ingredients to make the “newer” style of gluten free yeast bread. There's a recipe for gluten free naan using the “new” ingredients in

This type of recipe just really calls for dumping all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, cream of tartar, sugar, yeast) in the mixing bowl, and then whisking them. The wet ingredients (yogurt, butter, eggs, and water) are next, and then the mixer does all the work.

Easy Gluten Free Naan Bread / Authentic, With Yeast

At first, the dough will really look like fluffy batter, but when you scrape down the mixing bowl with a spatula, it should come away clean. The dough will still be tacky to the touch, but hold together really well when you set it to rise.

Since the dough itself is quite wet, you can use a fair amount of extra flour to shape it, but work with it using a very light touch, so you don't incorporate too much flour. Yeast bread that is too dry simply won't come out fluffy no matter what else you do.

Shape a piece of dough loosely into a round, and then roll it into an elongated oval. While you're shaping the dough, heat a heavy-bottom skillet (preferably cast iron) with a bit of ghee or virgin coconut oil. Place each piece of shaped dough in the hot skillet right away.

Easy Gluten Free Naan Bread (no Yeast)

If the pan isn't hot enough, or the dough is rolled too thick, it won't bubble. If you're concerned, cover the skillet. But don't make the skillet screaming hot, or it'll just burn the bread. Once it bubbles, flip it to the other side.

Best

To make sure that all the dough comes into contact with the hot skillet, I'll occasionally press down on the dough with my spatula. It should puff right back up.

Flip and cook a few times until the dough seems puffy at least in spots and cooked through. Serve it right away!

Gluten Free Flatbread (1 Bowl, 20 Minutes!)

Please remember, as always, that the more substitutions you make, the further you are straying from the original recipe and the more unpredictable your result will be.

The dairy in this recipe comes from the plain yogurt and the butter or ghee. I recommend replacing the butter/ghee in the dough with extra virgin olive oil.

I actually have made this recipe with olive oil in the dough in place of the butter or ghee, and I prefer it because it has some depth of flavor that many other butter substitutes I can imagine.

Easy Gluten Free Naan Bread!

Since olive oil is pure fat and a liquid even at cold room temperature, the dough will be a bit softer and less pleasant to shape, though.

Try replacing the plain yogurt with a nondairy plain yogurt. My favorite nondairy plain yogurt is made by So Delicious. Silk is fine, too. I really don't