North Indian · Side dish
Naan
Naan is a leavened flatbread of plain flour, yoghurt and yeast, slapped against the wall of a tandoor and cooked in under two minutes. Without a tandoor the problem is heat, and the way round it is a cast iron tawa, heated hard and then turned upside down over the flame.
- Prep
- 1 hr 30 min
- Cook
- 15 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 45 min
- Servings
- 4
- Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 1/2 cup thick yoghurt, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon instant yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder and 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons oil or melted ghee
- About 1/3 cup warm water
- Butter, nigella seeds and chopped coriander, to finish
NNWA health note
Naan is refined flour, and the yoghurt in the dough plus the butter brushed over the top add fat, so it carries more energy than a chapati of the same weight and much less fibre. A naan is also a good deal larger than a home roti, which is where most of the real difference comes from. Made with half wholemeal flour it keeps more of the bran at some cost to texture, and skipping the butter finish changes the numbers more than most substitutions do.
Method
- 01
Stir the yeast and sugar into the warm water and leave it ten minutes until it froths. If nothing happens, the yeast is dead and the naan will not rise.
- 02
Combine the flour, baking powder and salt, then work in the yoghurt, the oil and the yeast water to a soft, faintly tacky dough.
- 03
Knead for eight minutes until smooth and springy, cover, and prove somewhere warm for about an hour and a half until doubled.
- 04
Knock back gently, divide into six, and let the balls rest covered for fifteen minutes.
- 05
Roll each into an oval around four millimetres thick. Wet one face lightly with water and press nigella seeds onto the dry face.
- 06
Heat a cast iron tawa until a drop of water vanishes on contact. Lay the naan wet side down, cover for a minute until bubbles rise, then lift the tawa and hold it inverted over the flame so the top blisters.
- 07
Take it off with tongs, brush with butter, scatter coriander, and stack under a cloth.
Last reviewed on 10 September 2026.
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Why does the dough contain yoghurt?
For acidity and for softness. Acid weakens gluten slightly, which gives the tender, tearing crumb a naan is supposed to have rather than a chewy one. The milk solids also brown faster under fierce heat, which is part of why naan spots so readily where a plain flour bread would stay pale. Use yoghurt at room temperature so it blends in without shocking the yeast; straight from the fridge it drags the prove out.
Yeast or baking powder?
Both, and they are doing different jobs. Yeast, given an hour and a half, builds flavour as well as gas, and that faint sourness is much of what separates naan from any other flatbread. Baking powder delivers a fast burst of lift the instant the dough meets the heat, and that is what opens the big puffed pockets. A yeast-only naan tastes better and lies flatter; a baking-powder-only one is quicker and duller.
How do you get blisters without a tandoor?
Heat from above, which a tawa will give if you turn it over. Stick the wet face of the naan onto a screaming hot cast iron pan, cover it for a minute while the base cooks and bubbles form, then lift the pan off the hob, invert it, and hold the naan a few centimetres above the flame. The bubbles char within seconds. An oven grill at its highest setting over a preheated tray does a passable job, but nothing else gets as close to a tandoor as an open flame.
Why does my naan come out hard?
Too much flour worked in while rolling, an underproved dough, or a pan that never got hot enough. A naan cooked slowly dries out before it colours, and once dry it cannot be rescued. The dough is meant to stay slightly tacky, so resist adding flour until it feels comfortable to handle. Roll on a lightly dusted surface with a light hand, and let the tawa reach full heat before the first one goes near it.
Can it be made with wholemeal flour?
Partly. Replacing half the plain flour with wholemeal gives a naan that is still soft but noticeably denser and browner, and it will not balloon the same way, because bran cuts through the gluten strands. All wholemeal produces a decent flatbread that is not really a naan any more. If more fibre is the aim, missi roti is a more honest route than a compromised naan, and whether refined flour deserves its reputation is examined in is maida bad for health.
How should it be stored?
Naan is at its best within minutes of coming off the heat and turns leathery within hours. Stacking them under a cloth as they cook traps steam and keeps them pliable long enough to get a meal on the table. Wrapped and frozen, they reheat decently on a dry tawa for a minute a side, which beats a microwave comfortably. The dough can also be proved, divided and refrigerated overnight, which improves the flavour. For a daily bread that keeps better and needs no proving, tandoori roti is the one to learn, and shelf life and handling in a commercial kitchen are the territory of the food science and FSSAI course.
Learn the science
Food Science & FSSAI
This dish's nutrition reasoning is taught in full in this NNWA course.
What people ask about Naan
Can I make naan without a tandoor?
Yes, on a cast iron tawa. Wet one side of the rolled naan, stick it to the screaming hot pan, cover for a minute while bubbles form, then lift the pan off the hob, turn it upside down and hold the naan over the open flame until the top blisters. An oven grill is a reasonable second best.
Why is my naan hard instead of soft?
Usually too much flour was worked in during rolling, or the dough was underproved, or the pan was not hot enough and the naan dried out before it coloured. The dough should stay slightly tacky, the prove should take about ninety minutes, and the tawa needs to be properly hot before the first one.
Do I need both yeast and baking powder in naan?
They do different things. Yeast builds flavour and structure over an hour and a half of proving, giving naan its characteristic faint sourness. Baking powder gives an immediate burst of lift when the dough hits the heat, which produces the large puffed pockets. Using both gives a better result than either alone.
Is naan less healthy than a chapati?
It carries more energy and less fibre, because it is made from refined flour with yoghurt and oil in the dough and butter brushed on afterwards. Size matters as much as composition: a restaurant naan is considerably larger than a home chapati, so the difference on the plate is bigger than the recipe alone suggests.
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