Naans
How can I describe my love for this rich piece of Indian bread? The dough is enriched with vegan yogurt and oil to make it soft and fluffy, which means it goes beautifully with any curry (especially the saucy types), and melts in your mouth.
Recipe inspired from Vegan Richa's Indian Kitchen Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 500g white flour
- 1.5 tsp salt
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1 tbsp instant yeast
- 180g soy yogurt
- 50g canola oil
- 120g warm water
Instructions
- Mix together the sugar, water, and yogurt, and heat it up briefly in the microwave if needed to reach a temperature of ~35°C
- Dilute the yeast in the mix and let it sit for ~ 10 min to get bubbly.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add oil to the yeast mix and pour everything in the large bowl.
- Knead the dough until it is nice and smooth.
- Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let it double in size at room temperature (~3h).
- Punch the dough down to let the air out, and divide the dough into 8 balls.
- Flatten each ball on a floured surface with your hands or with a rolling pin, making sure not to overstretch the dough (it shouldn't be too thin or else it will dry out).
- Heat up a pan on the stove over medium/high heat.
- Cook naans in the pan for a few minutes on each side, without adding any oil/grease to it. The dough is fatty enough that it won't stick to the pan. I usually cook one side of the naan over high heat for ~ 1 min, then flip it over, reduce to medium heat and cover the pan with a lid. This ensures the naan is cooked through, and maintains a decent amount of moisture.
- Let the naans cool down on a rack very briefly. Enjoy with any Indian curry, preferably lean ones such as a brown chickpea curry, a red lentil dal tadka, a brown lentil stew, or a brown lentil dal with green beans.