Best Ever Gluten Free Naan Bread - with a Cheesy Garlic Naan option!
Updated: Feb 29
This is without a doubt the best Gluten Free Naan Bread I have ever met. Soft, chewy and perfect for scooping, there's no need to feel left out on curry night anymore. Bonus - it's quick and easy to make, and it can easily be dairy free or vegan as well!
There are a number of gluten free naan recipes out there. So, what makes this one different? Well... it's soft. You can bend it and scoop up your curry with no cracking whatsoever. It's perfectly chewy with crisp edges and those oh-so-tempting golden blisters that you'll see on traditional restaurant naan. It tastes INCREDIBLE, and there's a cheesy garlic option. Need I say more?
Ingredients and Substitutions For Gluten Free Naan Bread
The ingredients in this recipe all have pretty important roles, but there are a few substitutions available if you need them:
White rice flour: white rice flour in combination with the other two flours in this recipe gives the best flavour and texture, but if you can't find any white rice flour you can substitute it with a plain gluten free flour blend. Just try to find the simplest blend with the fewest number of ingredients. My favourite is White Wings Gluten Free Plain flour, which contains cornstarch, rice flour and tapioca starch.
Sorghum flour: again, sorghum flour is in here for flavour; it's the closest in flavour to wheat flour that I've found. I buy mine either online or sometimes from my local Indian grocer, but if you can't find it brown rice flour is a good substitute. You may need more flour when rolling out if you use brown rice instead of sorghum.
Tapioca flour: this starch is great for adding a little bit of chewiness to gluten free bread. If you can't have tapioca try another starch such as cornflour or potato starch instead.
Greek style yoghurt: Yoghurt contributes to the flavour and the soft texture of this naan bread. It should work wonderfully with a dairy free yoghurt, just choose something thick and unsweetened.
Ghee: ghee is completely delicious and the perfect thing for cooking this naan because it won't burn in the pan like butter would. Having said that, if you only have butter that will work just fine, or a combination of butter and oil would help to reduce the smoking. If you need dairy free you can use either your favourite dairy free butter substitute or vegetable oil.
Shaping the Gluten Free Naan Bread
Rolling out thin naan bread might seem a bit intimidating - it certainly was for me the first time I did it. Fear not! As long as you haven't made loads of ingredient substitutions this bread dough is remarkably agreeable. I find it doesn't need a huge amount of flour to prevent sticking, I can lift it and move it around without it tearing, and - most importantly - I can fill it with finely chopped garlic and grated cheese and STILL roll it out thinly without trouble. Mind blowing!
If you're a bit nervous, roll your dough out on a sheet of floured baking paper, and make sure you lift and shift it around regularly, dusting with more flour as necessary. You can also use the baking paper to help transfer the naan bread to the frying pan.
Cheesy Garlic Gluten Free Naan Bread
The Cheesy Garlic version of this naan bread might not be particularly traditional (I'm certainly no expert), but it is most definitely one of the most incredible things I've eaten in a while. I use mozzarella cheese for the subtle cheese flavour and chewy texture, but you can use whatever cheese you like that melts well.
Because the Cheesy Garlic naan is shaped beginning with a rectangle for ease of filling and rolling I find it hard to get it into any other shape, but I'm happy to settle for a vaguely tear-drop shaped rectangle for something this delicious.
You'll find that the cheesy naan puffs up in the pan as the cheese melts. Don't worry, it'll deflate on it's own and won't look anywhere near that bonkers by the time you serve it!
Serving and Storage for Gluten Free Naan Bread
This Gluten Free Naan Bread is best served warm straight out of the pan, but you can cook it in advance. Once cooled completely you can store the naan in an airtight container in the fridge, or wrapped tightly in the freezer. Reheat straight from the fridge or from frozen in a hot pan over medium heat with a little extra ghee for a couple of minutes, or in the microwave between two pieces of damp paper towel for about 60 seconds.
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