Whole Wheat Naan (2024)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon sugar. I used coconut sugar. Any sugar, or maple syrup, is fine.
• 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 ¾ cups lukewarm water. Use distilled water or filtered water for best results.
• 3 ½ cups whole wheat flour. Preferably use white whole wheat flour or the Indian whole wheat atta flour (sold at Indian grocery stores and online -- I'll leave an affiliate link in the recipe card to the one I use). Atta is especially preferable beause it is more finely ground than the regular whole wheat flour we eat here in the United States and creates a more authentic texture in the naan. You can use regular whole wheat flour at a pinch but it's worth finding and buying atta flour to make delicious and healthy naans and rotis.
• 1 tablespoon vital wheat gluten (optional but highly recommended).
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup vegan yogurt. I use my homemade cashew yogurt, but any storebought or homemade yogurt is fine. If nut-free make sure you use a nut-free yogurt.
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons salt

For the optional garlic-cilantro butter topping

• 4 tablespoon vegan butter. You can use vegetable oil, including olive oil, instead.
• 2 tablespoon cilantro
• 4 cloves garlic
• ½ teaspoon salt

Top tips

• Aim at getting the texture of the naan right: Because we are making the naan with whole wheat, it helps to understand the texture and mouth feel you are aiming for. A well-made naan should be slightly crisp on the outside, soft and easy to tear into. It can be slightly chewy, but not so chewy that you end up struggling with the bread at the dinner table. A naan also has to be thick--thicker than a roti -- but it should not be too thick.
• Use vital wheat gluten for a fluffy naan: The wheat gluten is an optional ingredient but I strongly, strongly recommend you use it for the best whole wheat naan. Here's why: wheat flour has less gluten than bread flour or white all purpose flour, which are typically used for making naan. But it's the gluten that helps make naan dough pliable and soft and the naan slightly chewy after cooking. If you leave out the gluten the naan will still taste good but the texture won't feel as authentic.
• Keep the dough loose and pliable: Make sure your dough is not too stiff. If you've ever handled pizza dough, store-bought or homemade, that is the texture you are looking for: slightly loose yet not too sticky or tacky.
• Knead the dough a little longer: This will help build up the gluten. The dough will also need an hour or so to rise in a warm kitchen, and 10 more minutes to rest after you've divided the dough.
• Shape the naan: This is quite likely the easiest part. A naan can look rustic, in fact, the more rustic the better. While a chef at a restaurant might shape a naan with their hands, you can just use a rolling pin and use your hands at the very end to create a more traditional naan shape. But you don't have to feel the pressure of making this perfect. The thickness of the rolled naan should be somewhat even, it can have some thick and some thin spots.
• "Dock" the naan: Once you've shaped the naan, dock it with your fingertips. To do this press into the naan gently with your fingertips to create indentations all over. What this will do is prevent the naan from forming one big air pocket after it hits the high heat. Instead you will get many lovely big and small bubbles all over the naan, which is exactly what you want.
• Roast the naan over a very hot griddle: Rule number one for roasting the naan is to have your griddle screaming hot before you place the naan on it. This will give you those beautiful char spots and it will also help the naan bubble up and quick quickly, as it would in a tandoor oven. Once the naan is on the griddle it will need no more than a minute or two on each side to cook up. Brush on some oil on the naan as you finish roasting it (a cilantro-garlic butter is awesome, I'll tell you how to make it to get a yummy whole wheat garlic naan).

Is the whole wheat naan healthy?

Absolutely, it has all the benefits of a wholegrain food. It is higher in fiber than a regular naan made with white flour, and you can make it oil-free by using a cooking spray at the end instead of using the herb-butter oil. A regular white flour naan would have six grams of protein and two grams of dietary fiber. Each of these whole wheat naans has nine grams of protein and six grams of dietary fiber.

I don't have vital wheat gluten. Can I still make a good whole wheat naan?

You can skip the vital wheat gluten but it really helps create a more authentic texture in the naan, and it has the added benefit of upping the amount of protein in the recipe. If you skip it make sure you knead the dough a little longer to help the gluten develop.

Can I bake this naan in an oven?

You can. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit/235 degrees Celsius. If you have a pizza stone place it inside the oven before you begin to heat it. Otherwise place a baking sheet in the oven. Once the oven has preheated place a naan --or two depending on how many your baking sheet will hold without overlapping -- on the hot pizza stone or baking sheet. Once the naan puffs up and bubbles and forms char spots flip and bake the other side for a couple minutes more. Oil after removing from the oven.

What other toppings can I use?

You can add sesame seeds, white or black, poppy seeds or nigella seeds to a vegan naan. To do this, sprinkle the seeds on the surface of the uncooked naan and run the rolling pin lightly over it so the seeds adhere. Proceed with baking or roasting the naan.

Can I make the naan without yogurt?

I recommend using yogurt for the best texture. That said, if you skip it, use ½ cup nondairy milk mixed with 2 teaspoon apple cider vinegar instead.