Quick Sourdough Naan Bread
A gluten-free, vegan naan bread recipe—finally! My allergen-friendly naan recipe includes GF sourdough starter, also known as wild yeast.
Naan bread recipes often include yogurt in the mixture. I did try it, and it wasn’t my preferred version because I don’t always love all the ingredients in store-bought yogurt. The ingredients I chose, I felt, created the best texture for quick to make gluten-free naan bread.
Once baked, enjoy them fresh! They are best while still warm! Even my non-gluten-free family ate some with dinner one night without really knowing it didn’t contain wheat/gluten!
If you don’t have your GF starter ready yet, I recommend these two recipes: the Easiest GF Sourdough Starter or the original Gluten-Free Sourdough Sourdough recipe.
Tools
You don’t need too much to bake fresh naan bread. If trying the stove-top method, you will need a large cast-iron skillet.
If baking the naan in the oven, a pizza/baking stone or steel can be very helpful. When preheated, the stone/steel gets nice and hot, making it easier and faster to bake the naan in just a few minutes.
A mixing bowl, unbleached parchment paper and a soft spatula are pretty much the only other tools you will need.
Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
To make this naan recipe, I would say that the most important ingredient is the GF sourdough (wild yeast) starter. A well established, fed and active starter is exactly what you want to use!
Ingredients & Process
You only need 8 ingredients to make the quick sourdough naan bread recipe.
- 1 cup fed (active) GF sourdough starter (265g)*
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (60g)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (30g)
- 1/4 cup potato starch (36g)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (36g)
- 1 tablespoon GF baking powder**
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup homemade GF oat milk***(58g)
And I know someone will ask about substitutions so I’ve included some alternatives in the recipe card below.
Depending on the brands of ingredients you use, it’s possible that the texture of your dough might vary. If you can handle the dough with your hands, great!
If your dough is too soft to handle with your hands, place one-quarter of the dough on some parchment paper and flatten the dough to an ovalish naan shape with a soft spatula or your fingers.
BAKING TIPS:
Quick Sourdough Naan Bread Recipe
If baking the naan in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop, make sure it’s well-seasoned meaning add a little olive or coconut oil to prevent sticking.
When you flip the parchment paper with the naan dough, leave the paper on. After a few minutes of baking, the paper will easily off. See the process photo above (top left) for example.
For the oven method, you won’t need to flip it over, simply leave the dough on the parchment paper and bake for about 5 minutes, then another 5 minutes directly onto the baking stone without the paper. See the process photo above (top right) for example.
Baking in a Skillet or Oven?
You can bake the naan on the stovetop in a cast-iron skillet or in the oven. I love baking them in the skillet because it’s faster than turning on the oven and waiting for it to preheat.
But if your oven is already on, by all means, try it that way too! I find that getting those nice golden spots is easier to do on the stovetop in a skillet.
You can find the baking details for both methods in the recipe card below.
More Sourdough Bread Recipes
All these bread recipes are GF, vegan and nut-free:
Buckwheat Sourdough Loaf
Simple Sorghum Sourdough
Wild Yeast Bread
BBQ Sourdough
Sourdough Without Psyllium
GF Sourdough Starter Recipes & Videos
Recipe Post: Original Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter
How-To YouTube Video Tutorial:
Easy Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter Guide – Part 1
Maintaining a Gluten-Free Sourdough Starter – Part 2
Recipe Post: Easiest GF Sourdough Starter
How-To YouTube Video Tutorial:
Easiest GF Sourdough Starter
Recipe Post: Sorghum Sourdough Starter
Previously on Fresh is Real
The last post on the blog was the beautiful Easy GF Vegan Lemon Madeleines. If you don’t have a madeleine pan, I’m sure you could bake the batter in a mini or regular size muffin tin, just don’t fill the cavities to the top.
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Questions Before You Start?
The best way to ask your recipe questions is in the comments of this post (scroll to the bottom) or the Facebook group.
The group is a great place to ask allergen-friendly baking questions, get tips, inspiration and share recipes! Join our amazing and friendly Gluten-Free Vegan Baking by Fresh is Real Facebook Group!
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Quick Sourdough Naan Bread (GF/V)
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Bread, Sourdough
- Method: Stovetop, Oven
- Cuisine: Plant-Based, Gluten-Free, Vegan, Nut-Free, Allergen-Friendly
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This gluten-free vegan sourdough naan bread recipe is great to make when you want fresh bread and don’t want to wait. As an alternative, you can leave out the GF baking powder and let the dough rest for a few hours or overnight.
Ingredients
- 1 cup fed (active) GF sourdough starter (265g)*
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour (60g)
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (30g)
- 1/4 cup potato starch (36g)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil (36g)
- 1 tablespoon GF baking powder**
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/4 cup homemade GF oat milk***(58g)
Instructions
Step 1:
In a medium bowl combine all the ingredients and mix well. Then you have 3 options to choose from, the first option is the quick method. **NOTE: You can omit the GF baking powder if you choose to continue with option 2 or 3.
- Option 1: Cover your bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. Then proceed to Step 2.
- Option 2: Cover your bowl and let the dough rest at room temperature for 2-6 hours (until it fluffs up and ferments a bit). Then proceed to Step 2.
- Option 3: Cover your bowl and rest/ferment the dough in the refrigerator overnight. Then proceed to Step 2.
Step 2:
Preheat a large cast-iron skillet on medium heat. You can grease the skillet with a little olive or coconut oil if it’s too dry, it needs to be well seasoned. Or if you decide to bake the naan in the oven you can preheat your oven to 450° F along with a baking stone or steel.
Step 3:
Divide the dough into four. Depending on the ingredients you used and the brands you worked with, the texture of your dough could vary. If you can roll each quarter with you your hands do so. If your mixture is too soft/wet, that’s ok. Transfer one-quarter of the dough onto a piece of unbleached parchment paper. You can use your fingers or a soft spatula to help flatten and shape your dough to an ovalish naan shape.
Step 4:
To bake the dough in the skillet, you will flip a piece of dough with the parchment paper onto the hot skillet. Leave the parchment paper until it’s easy to peel off (see process photos in post). Bake each side for a few minutes, until golden spots appear.
If baking the naan in the oven you can simply leave the dough on top of the parchment paper and bake for 5 minutes, then remove the parchment paper and place the naan directly onto the baking stone or steel for an additional 5 minutes or until baked to your preference.
Step 5:
Once ready, place each naan on a wire rack until all four are ready. Or wrap them in a clean tea towel to keep them warm until ready to serve. These are best fresh and warm. Enjoy!
Notes
If you don’t eat all the naan fresh, you can store the bread in a sealed bag on the counter at room temperature for a day or two. You can also keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days. Freezing them is a great option. Leftover naan bread makes fantastic pizza crust(s). You can also make the dough ahead of time and store it in the fridge for a couple of days until ready to bake. I’ve actually never tried to freeze fresh GF dough so I have no clue if it works well.
*GF brown rice or sorghum flour starter. Feed your starter and once it gets active and bubbly, use it in this naan bread recipe.
**GF baking powder ingredients: Cream of tartar, baking soda, tapioca starch.
***You can use any other type of homemade plant milk (rice, oat, almond, soy). Homemade plant milk is best because it’s basically the seed, grain or nut with water. No fillers, preservatives or gums.
SUBSTITUTIONS (Please note I haven’t tried all these alternatives)
Sub GF brown rice flour with sorghum flour.
Sub arrowroot starch with tapioca starch.
Sub potato starch with arrowroot, tapioca starch, cassava flour, or GF oat flour.
You can omit the GF baking powder if you rest your dough for longer. See recipe for details.
Sub GF oat milk with hemp, rice, soy, or nut milk if not allergic.
Sub olive oil with vegan butter. You could also experiment with vegan yogurt.
Although mine were quite hard is overall (more like thick crunchy-chewy flatbread), I loved the taste of it! It was my own mistake; i played around with the recipe and subbed sorghum for brown rice, and millet for arrowroot starch 🙊 was curious to see how it would go. Because I’m paranoid about raw dough (and because I made drastic changes to the recipe), I baked them much longer than instructed, flipping halfway through. Although they were not na’ans, I still really liked them! Hearty savory chewy goodness 😊 next time I will follow the recipe as is 😅
View CommentYes, I made this and it was delicious, it just didn’t act exactly like Naan that we are used to, but it was so good that we both ate 2 pieces right away. 🙂 It was crispy a bit on the outside and soft in the center. I didn’t flip it over so it was only browned on 1 side, but like I said, so delicious. I’m waiting to be allowed into the FB blog to get more info from others.
View CommentHi Dawne! I’m so happy you tried the Naan recipe! Thank you for sharing your feedback with us! Ps. I’m not sure if you use a different name on Facebook, but I just accepted a bunch of new members!
View CommentCan you keep dough in fridge & make as needed for meal? I always enjoy it more made fresh. Note i would be making froum sourdough starter.
View CommentGrateful for the recipe.
Hi Leda! You could definitely keep the dough in the fridge for up to 3 days and make a fresh naan as needed! I do that with my cassava flatbread dough all the time and it works well!
View CommentThis is a great recipe with step-by-step instructions and options for subs. Super easy to follow and make. Definitely a winner on our home
View CommentThank you, Maryam! I’m so happy you tried making them!
View CommentHi,
Did you make any substitutions for the potato starch? I really want to try cassava flour instead.
View CommentHi! For such a small amount (1/4 cup or 36g) you can use cassava flour as a substitute for potato starch. Let us know if you make the sourdough naan!
View Comment