Indian naan bread, how to make the traditional flatbread easy at home

Indian naan bread is the main accompaniment to Indian curry dishes. Its mild flavor contrasts with the spice of the sauces, so it cannot be missing as an accompaniment in this type of cuisine. It is a bread so appreciated that, today, it is common to find it in Asian restaurants and even in supermarkets, although there is nothing like a good homemade bread.

Indian naan bread is traditionally baked in a tandur oven, a deep pot made of clay or metal that reaches high temperatures. In this utensil, the bread sticks to the walls and cooks quickly. Of course, since it is not common to have this type of utensil at home, today we are going to use a decent substitute for this oven and We will cook the breads in a frying pan of iron.

The ingredients needed to make a homemade naan bread are common and the usual ones that we usually have at home: flour, yogurt, dry baker’s yeast, butter and a little salt. With this, we encourage you to make this recipe by following the step by step that we indicate below.

recipe information

• • Preparation time: 10 minutes

• • cooking time: 10 minutes

• • total time: 20 minutes (plus 1 hour rest)

• • rations: 6 loaves

• • Category: loaves

• • type of cuisine: India

• • Calories per serving (kcal):279

Ingredients for Indian naan bread for 6 people

• • 10 g dry baker’s yeast

• • 175 g of lukewarm water

• • 400 g of wheat flour

• • 130 g plain yogurt

• • ½ teaspoon salt

• • 20 g melted butter

• • parsley to taste

how to make indian naan bread

First of all, we are going to dissolve 10 g of dry baker’s yeast in a couple of tablespoons of warm water that we will have separated from the total 175 g of water that we will use to make this bread. Stir well and reserve this mixture.

In a bowl, we put 400 g of wheat flour together with 130 g of natural yogurt, ½ teaspoon of salt and the rest of the lukewarm water.

Add the yeast dissolved in water that we had reserved to the mixture in the bowl.

Mix the dough in the bowl before transferring it to a surface to work it.

Transfer the dough to a surface and work it between 3 and 4 minutes or until it is elastic.

Let the dough rest covered with a cloth for 1 hour or 1 hour and a half, until it doubles its volume. The time will depend on the temperature of the kitchen.

Once the dough has risen, we cut it into 6 or 7 portions and make a ball with each of them. We can make more or less large balls depending on the size we want the loaves to be.

We stretch each portion of dough slightly, so that we have chubby loaves. If you like breads with less crumbs, you will have to stretch the dough a little more.

Heat a thick-bottomed frying pan and, without adding any oil, cook the first bread. The fire must not be too hot so that the bread can have time to rise in the heat. We will turn the bread when we see bubbles appear in the dough, after about 2 minutes or so.

Cook the naan bread on the other side for approximately another 2 minutes and repeat this operation until all the breads are cooked. Once out of the heat, we paint the buns with 20 g of melted butter and some parsley.

This bread is the perfect accompaniment to curry dishes with a lot of sauce to dip them into. They should be served freshly made, although we can also leave them prepared in advance and give them a heat stroke in the oven just before eating them.

Easy preparation summary

1. 1. Dissolve the yeast in warm water

1. 1. Put the flour, yogurt, salt and water in a bowl

1. 1. Add the dissolved yeast

1. 1. Mix the dough in the bowl

1. 1. Work the dough until it is elastic

1. 1. Let the dough rest covered for 1 to 1 hour and a half.

1. 1. Cut the dough into 6 portions

1. 1. We stretch each portion

1. 1. Cook each portion for about 2 minutes on each side over medium heat.

1. 1. Outside the fire we paint the breads with butter

1. 1. We serve hot Indian naan bread