With its chewy texture and a nutty, lightly tangy taste, Sourdough Naan Bread is an easy side dish to serve with any cuisine. This flatbread is also a great way to use your sourdough starter discard!
Why this recipe works
- Homemade naan is quick to make on the stovetop - no heating the oven required
- Sourdough discard lends its tangy flavor to this flatbread
- Naan bread is an easy side dish to serve alongside soups and stews with any cuisine
I love using my slow cooker for those chilly winter days. The smell of long-simmering food fills the house with anticipation. Indian cuisine lends itself to those fix-and-forget crock-pot dinners with its complex blend of spices and sauces. One such dish is Butter Chicken, something I had only found in Indian restaurants and the freezer section of Trader Joes. Little did I know how easy it was to make!
My friends over at Slow Cooker Club have a delicious recipe for Slow Cooker Butter Chicken, using ingredients I already have in my pantry.
But you need to serve naan bread with Indian cuisine. It’s in the rules. And since I maintain sourdough starter, I'm always looking for ways to use the sourdough starter discard. Enter Sourdough Discard Naan Bread!
Jump to:
What is naan bread?
Naan is type of flatbread, like a pocketless pita bread, that originated in the Indian subcontinent. Traditionally, homemade naan is cooked in a tandoor, but it can be cooked on a hot pan on the stove. Naan can be seasoned with garlic, herbs, and spices, and can be augmented with whole wheat flour.
And it’s very easy to make!
What you need
Homemade naan recipes are plentiful on the internet. The method for adapting those recipes to use unfed sourdough starter is the same one that I use for making sourdough pretzels, sourdough bagels, and the like. I just replace some of the flour and water with the sourdough discard.
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This sourdough naan recipe is adapted from a whole wheat naan recipe, where half the all-purpose flour is replaced with white whole wheat flour. This gives the naan a chewier, nuttier texture and flavor, but it also makes it a little more dense.
The rest of the ingredients are straightforward: greek yogurt, milk, and salt. Since this is a quick bread rather than a yeast bread, baking powder provides the lift (however, there's still a resting period needed).
How to make Sourdough Naan
Step 1: Make the naan dough
In a large bowl, mix together the sourdough starter, milk and yogurt until smooth using a dough whisk or wooden spoon, then add the baking powder, and salt (photo 1).
Mix in the flours, then whisk to combine to a shaggy, sticky dough (photo 2). Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours (an oven with the just the light turned on works well).
Step 2: Portion the naan
Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two, until the dough is smooth. Try to add in only enough extra flour so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands. Divide the dough into 8 pieces with a bench scraper or a knife. (photo 3).
Shape each piece into a disk, then roll the disk into a flat circle, about ⅛- to ¼-inch thick (photo 4). Don't worry if it's not a perfect circle - naan can be irregular.
Step 3: Cook the naan
Preheat a 10¼-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Be ready to adjust the heat of your pan so the dough doesn't burn before the inside is cooked or is too slow to brown.
Brush one side of the naan with water. Place the naan, water-side down, on the hot skillet. Cover the skillet to trap the steam. Sprinkle on the chopped garlic, if using.
Cook for about a minute, or until the dough starts to bubble and isn't sticking to the skillet. Brush the other side with water before flipping it over. Cook the naan for another minute or so (photo 5).
Transfer the naan to a cooling rack for later use, or wrap it in a dish towel to keep warm if you're serving it immediately. Repeat with remaining dough disks.
Step 4: Garnish & serve
If desired, brush the naan with the melted butter and sprinkle on some chopped herbs (photo 6). Serve and enjoy!
Questions asked and answered
Here are some questions you might have...
Like most basic bread recipes, traditional naan is made from flour, water, yeast, and salt. Substituting milk or yogurt for the water tenderizes the dough, leading to a softer flatbread.
Here baking powder is substituted for the yeast to shorten the rising time. With yeast, the rising time can be up to 8 hours or overnight.
Naan dough can be made up to 3 days in advance. After rising, gently knead the dough, shape into a disk, then tightly wrap in plastic and place in an airtight bag. Refrigerate the dough until you're ready to cook the dough.
Cooled completely to avoid condensation, naan can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Rewarm on a skillet or in a toaster oven before serving.
In the freezer, naan will last for up to 2 months. Defrost on the counter before rewarming.
Pro Tip: Get the skillet temperature right
I find the trickiest part of making a naan flatbread recipe is finding the correct temperature for the pan. It’s a “Goldilocks moment," meaning you have to find the right level for your stove so the pan isn’t too hot or too cool.
Be ready to adjust the heat so the dough doesn’t burn before the inside is cooked, or is slow to bubble and brown. The first naan might be like cooking a pancake (that is, it's a tester).
After you get the temperature right, cooking up the pieces is a piece of…uhm…naan. It’ll go fairly quickly, so have dinner standing by.
Naan is a versatile side dish
Eating sourdough discard naan with homemade butter chicken is so satisfying! This is a meal that’s meant to be shared.
You don't have to limit serving naan with just Indian food. It's a great accompaniment to any soup or stew, or it can be topped with spreads or fillings and folded, taco-style. Naan can also be served as an appetizer with dips or as a pizza base. Get creative with it!
So set up your soup or stew in the slow cooker in the morning, use your sourdough starter discard to make up some sourdough naan dough in the afternoon, and cook the naan before serving. You're ready for dinner!
Slainté! L’chaim! Cheers!
Tammy
Related Recipes
When you maintain a sourdough starter, you have a dilemma. What do you do with your unfed sourdough starter discard? I've got lots of suggestions for sweet and savory ways to use your fed sourdough starter and the sourdough starter discard.
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Recipe
Sourdough Discard Naan Bread
Equipment
- pastry brush
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter discard, unfed
- ½ cup milk, warmed to 100 to 110°F
- ¼ cup Greek yogurt, plain, or sour cream
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour, see Recipe Notes
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, see Recipe Notes
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- garlic cloves, chopped (optional)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted (optional)
- herbs, chopped, like cilantro or parsley, for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the sourdough starter discard, milk and yogurt until smooth using a dough whisk or wooden spoon.
- Add the baking powder, salt, and the whole wheat and all-purpose flours. Whisk to combine to a shaggy, sticky dough.
- Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let the dough rise in a warm place for 2 to 3 hours (an oven with the just the light turned on works well).
- Transfer the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for a minute or two, until the dough is smooth. Try to add in only enough extra flour so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands.
- Divide the dough into 8 pieces with a bench scraper or a knife. Shape each piece into a disk, then roll the disk into a flat circle, about ⅛- to ¼-inch thick. Don't worry if it's not a perfect circle - naan can be irregular.
- Preheat a 10¼-inch cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Be ready to adjust the heat of your pan so the dough doesn't burn before the inside is cooked or is too slow to brown.
- Brush one side of the naan with water. Place the naan, water-side down, on the hot skillet. Cover the skillet to trap the steam. Sprinkle on the chopped garlic, if using.
- Cook for about a minute, or until the dough starts to bubble and isn't sticking to the skillet. Brush the other side with water before flipping it over. Cook the naan for another minute or so.
- Transfer the naan to a cooling rack for later use, or wrap it in a dish towel to keep warm if you're serving it immediately. Repeat with remaining dough disks.
- If desired, brush the naan with the melted butter and sprinkle on some chopped herbs. Serve and enjoy!
- Cooled completely to avoid condensation, naan can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Rewarm on a skillet or in a toaster oven before serving.
- In the freezer, naan will last for up to 2 months. Defrost on the counter before rewarming.
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