Naan bread is a leavened Indian bread that is cooked on the stove. The uniqueness lies in the addition of yogurt to the dough, which makes it very soft and gives it a distinctive flavor. Typically, naan is cooked in a tandoor, which is a bell-shaped clay oven, where the dough discs are adhered to the hot interior walls and cooked on both sides. Obviously, not everyone has a tandoor oven at home, so an alternative is to cook naan bread on the stove, or in the oven. For oven-baked naan bread, there’s already a recipe on my blog, although I must admit that I prefer stove cooking, as it remains softer.
Once cooked, naan bread is brushed with ghee, but you can also use melted butter or extra virgin olive oil as a substitute.
Naan is often served with various curries, tikka masala, raita, chana masala, and different chutneys. In short, it is ubiquitous in Indian cuisine.
If you like Indian cuisine, here are some recipes:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 12
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp dry yeast
- 3.5 oz milk (lukewarm)
- 1/3 cup water (lukewarm)
- 3/4 cup plain yogurt
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsps extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp chopped parsley
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or substitute butter or ghee)
Steps
To prepare naan bread on the stove, put the flour, dry yeast, lukewarm milk, water, and yogurt into the bowl of a stand mixer. Turn on the mixer and add the salt. Knead everything until you get a uniform dough. Then add the extra virgin olive oil and knead until the dough is elastic and detaches from the sides and bottom of the bowl, wrapping around the hook.
Of course, you can also knead everything by hand, although it will take a bit more time to achieve a smooth dough.
Then form a ball with the dough, put it back in the bowl, and let it rise covered, in a warm place, until doubled in size. It will take about 1.5-2 hours.
When the dough has doubled in volume, mix the parsley with the extra virgin olive oil.
Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each piece out on a lightly floured surface until you get a disc of about 8 inches in diameter.
Heat a cast-iron skillet (alternatively, use a non-stick pan with a thick bottom) and when it is very hot, oil the bottom by simply pouring a drop of extra virgin olive oil into the pan and spreading it evenly with the help of a piece of kitchen paper. Insert the first dough disc and cook over medium-high heat until the dough puffs up and bubbles appear. Flip the dough disc and finish cooking on the second side, until it also has the typical dark spots on its surface. Cooking each naan bread will take only a few minutes.
When cooking is finished, remove the naan bread from the skillet and transfer it to a plate. Brush the surface with the parsley oil and keep warm. Proceed the same way with the remaining dough.
Cook the naan bread one at a time, then stack them on the plate, always brushing the surface with the parsley oil.
Serve your naan bread warm. Naan bread pairs perfectly with various Indian curries (such as cauliflower curry or vegetable curry), chana masala (for which you can find a recipe in my second book “Global Cooking”) and many other Indian dishes.
