naan recipe without yeast, how to make naan without yeast on stove top

By on December 15th, 2014 56 Comments

naan

naan recipe without yeast – an easy naan recipe which was in drafts for many months. was not updating as the pics were not that good. made naan many times after that, but was just was not able to click. so decided to update this naan without yeast recipe as i have many requests for this one.

whenever we go to a restaurant then most of the time we end up ordering naan with a curry dish. knowing very well that it will be probably made with all purpose flour (maida) and not good for health. but what to do…. naan tastes so well with curry dishes that you end up loosening your guard about eating healthy food. once in a while we all like to relax our guard and relish fried food or other supposed to be unhealthy food.

naan is one such yummy dish that make you forget about all purpose flour :-).  i do make whole wheat naan, but sometimes the family wants soft textured naans made with all purpose flour, the way they serve in restaurants. so the trick for me it to combine both whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. in this recipe, i have used 2: 1 proportion of whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. but you can use 1:1 or even 3:1.

if you are very conscious about eating whole wheat flour only, then you can check my recipe of whole wheat naan made with yeast and the butter naan recipe made with yeast. i have one more naan recipe with yeast where the naans have really puffed up like pita breads.

preferably naan should be eaten hot. as once it cools down then it becomes dense, hard and loses its taste. atleast the restaurant ones become like that. not this recipe. the naan remain soft even when they become warm or cool down. there are many versions of naan like garlic naan, cheese naan… each having their own flavors and admirers.

naan goes very well with curry dishes like dal makhani, paneer butter masala, shahi paneer, punjabi chole etc.

this naan recipe has been adpated from the cookbook 1000 great indian recipes (India | US). i usually make naan with yeast, but wanted to try without yeast and this recipe was a success. after that made a few times too.

lets start the step by step naan recipe without yeast:

1. add water, milk and yogurt in a bowl. add sugar.

2. mix till smooth.

3. sieve the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

mix the naan flour

4. mix the sieved flour with the milk + yogurt + water mixture. knead to a smooth dough.

5. cover with a wet cloth and keep aside for 10 minutes.

6. after 10 minutes, add oil to the dough……

7. and knead the dough again.

cover the naan dough

8. cover with the same moist cloth and keep aside for 2 hours, till the dough leavens.

knead the naan dough

9. make medium sized balls of the dough. roll a small circle.

10. sprinkle some onion seeds or kalonji on the rolled dough.

11. roll into a four or five inches round circle.

12. naan bread ready to be placed on a hot tava or griddle.

13. place the naan on a hot tava or griddle. partly cook both the sides of the naan on the tava.

naan placed on tava

14. then place the naan with the help of tongs on fire and cook both the sides till they get browned and slightly charred. you can also cook them on the pan itself with or with out oil/ghee/butter.

15. when the naan gets slightly charred and browned, remove the naan and apply some butter, ghee or oil on the naan. you can have them plain also.

serve the naan hot or warm with your favorite curry dish like malai kofta, palak paneer or dals like dal tadka, dry fry. in the pics, the naans are served with methi chole (chickpea fenugreek curry).

naan recipe without yeast

if you are looking for similar recipes then do check garlic naan, naan recipe with yeast, matar kulcha, chole bhature, aloo poori and aloo paratha.

naan recipe without yeast on stovetop below:

4.6 from 11 reviews
naan recipe without yeast
 
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easy naan recipe made without yeast
AUTHOR:
RECIPE TYPE: main
CUISINE: indian
SERVES: 3-4
INGREDIENTS (measuring cup used, 1 cup = 250 ml)
dry ingredients to be sieved:
  • 3 cups flour (2 cups whole wheat flour + 1 cup maida/all purpose flour or half-half of both or just all purpose flour)
  • 1.5 tsp baking powder
  • a pinch or ¼ tsp baking soda
  • salt as required
wet ingredients to be mixed:
  • 3 tbsp yogurt (dairy or vegan) i used cashew yogurt
  • 2 tbsp milk (dairy or vegan) i used soy milk. can use cashew or almond milk too
  • ¾ or ⅔ cup water or as required
  • 2 tsp sugar or organic unrefined cane sugar
additional ingredients:
  • 3 tbsp oil for kneading in the dough
  • 1 tbsp mix of onion seeds (kalonji) and melon seeds (magaz) or sesame seeds
  • oil, ghee or butter as required for applying on the naan (optional)
INSTRUCTIONS
  1. mix water, milk and yogurt.
  2. stir in the sugar in the above mixture.
  3. sieve the flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
  4. mix the flour with the wet ingredients that we made first.
  5. knead to make a smooth dough.
  6. if the dough looks dry then add some water and knead again.
  7. the dough should be smooth and soft.
  8. cover with a wet cloth and keep aside for 10 minutes.
  9. after 10 minutes, add oil and knead the dough again.
  10. cover with the same wet cloth and keep aside for 2 hours, till the dough leavens and rises.
  11. make medium sized balls of the dough.
  12. roll in a small circle and sprinkle some onion seeds on the dough.
  13. roll into a four or five inches round circle.
  14. if you want you can stretch the dough to one side to give a tear shape to the naan.
  15. on a hot tava or griddle, place the naan
  16. partly cook both the sides of the naan on the tava
  17. then place the naan with the help of tongs on fire
  18. and cook both the sides till they get browned and slightly charred.
  19. when done then remove the naan and apply some butter, ghee or oil on the naan. you can have them plain also.
  20. alternatively, you can also cook the naan in a tandoor or bake them.
  21. place the naan for baking on a greased hot tray or stone and bake in a preheated oven at your ovens highest temperature.
  22. serve the naan hot or warm with any paneer or vegetable curry or even with dal.




{ 56 Responses }

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  1. stephanie says

    I just tried making this for the first time, I’m curious, is the dough supposed to be stiff and difficult to knead? I’ve never made naan before so I have nothing to compare to, it just seemed odd. I don’t know what I did wrong.

    Reply

  2. Brooke says

    Looks great! Could I make the dough the day before, keep it in the refrigerator over night, and then cook it the next day? Thanks!

    Reply

  4. Louisa says

    I love it! I had volunteered to make naan for a (small) church meal, before realizing I didn’t have the appropriate yeast. I was so happy to come across this recipe! I mixed in fresh garlic when I kneaded with the oil, & sesame seeds when rolling out. I did multiply the recipe based off the 3-4 people, and have discovered that I am making (as I am in mid progress) near enough to feed a small army (no complaints here!). I did need to add quite a lot more liquid, but no problems with the final result! Thank you thank you thank you!!

    Reply

  5. pankti Shah says

    Happy dance””happy dance”””” yr recipe is awesome…. my daughter loved it..I love the way u explain and pic. R very good..keep do good recipes of us..

    Reply

  6. nikki says

    Made this recipe twice and both times it was a super hit. I even had relatives asking for the recipe :) Thank you for such amazing recipes.

    Reply

  7. Dona says

    I love your recipe, and my grandkids love it also, and I’m going to make it again. I have a question, though. Sometimes I’m forgetful and rather ignorant at the grocery store even when taking a list with me, and have to rely on others for my trips to the store due to a disability. If I should forget to buy the yogurt (as I have done a few times already), is there a substitute I could use?

    Reply

  8. Meenakshi says

    Awesome recipe can’t wait to try thanks for sharing your whole wheat Naan can give a healthy diet for my daughter who is crazy after naan

    Reply

  10. Shilpa says

    loved paneer makhanwala recipe, have been trying earlier for the perfect restaurant style your recipe completed my search thanks!

    Reply

  11. archana says

    Thank you for the amazing naan recipe.
    I tried it today and became successful.But I used a slightly modified method. I made the dough slightly soft and flattened the balls by palm instead of rolling stick and put a lid over the naan while cooking.
    Nice outcome and nice taste.

    Reply

  13. Sol says

    I’m going to try this recipe, but I wondered if there is a way or if you have a recipe to create naan breads that have no yeast & are wheat free too?

    Reply

  14. Pushpa says

    Hi Dassana, my naans puffed up like phulkas…. i wanted to have the texture as your pictures :(
    whr did i go wrong?

    Reply

    • says

      sometimes they do puff like phulkas. i have one recipe of naan posted on the blog, where most of the naans puffed like phulka. if you add garlic or sesame seeds or onion seeds on top, then they won’t puff like phulka. there is nothing to worry about. if the dough leavens well, most probably, the naans will puff up.

      Reply

  17. Vandana says

    I used whole wheat sharbati atta and result was amazing. My family loved it.
    Thanks for sharing this, I used to think Naan is not possible on tawa.

    Looking forward to more Indian Bread recipes.

    Reply

  18. Vibha says

    Hey dasana,
    Today I tried 3 recipes from ur blog . Naan, paneer makhani n aamkhand. All three turned out so well . Thank so much. My husband liked it a lot and today I recieved tons of compliments .all thanks to u.
    Keep up the good work.thanks again

    Reply

  19. says

    This is a wonderful recipe – thank you! I’m going to be using this as the base of an Indian pizza on my site with a big ‘ol h/t to you. make sure to check it out and please share with your pals if you’re so inclined. thanks again – the pics and detail are *much appreciated!

    Reply

  20. Shalini Menon says

    Hi!
    I want to know how to prepare rolls, is it all purpose flour used for making the sheet used for veg rolls , chicken rolls available in the market ?

    Reply

  21. Aruna says

    I have found this website recently and haven’t stopped browsing it , trying my hand at palak paneer and naan today , so far so good , loved your presentation and skill.

    Reply

  23. Ananta Gupta says

    what is the difference between baking powder and baking soda …. as you have used both in the ingredients

    Reply

    • says

      baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate – when moistened releases carbon dioxide which helps in rising of baked stuff.
      baking powder contains sodium bicarbonate, an acidifying agent (cream of tartar), and also a drying agent (usually starch). same function as baking soda. however baking soda is more strong.

      Reply

  24. Nuti says

    Hi Dassana,

    I tried your recipe naan and chole recipe. Brilliant outcome!
    I tried the tava method and in the toaster too. The toaster one turned out super crispy and yummmm……
    Thanks for the awesome recipes :)

    Reply

  25. sudeshna banerjee says

    Dear mam,
    In this recipe, you have taken 3 cups of flour. Please let me know the cup size.
    Thanks, sudeshna

    Reply

    • says

      hi sudeshna. the cups used here are the US measuring cups. these are standard measuring cups, that is easily available in most stores. in grams it would be 240 grams of whole wheat flour and 125 grams of all purpose flour. hope this helps.

      Reply