This easy Keto naan recipe makes pillowy-soft, fluffy flatbreads that taste just as good as the real thing! They're perfect for mopping up your favourite Indian curry. Low carb, gluten free and egg free!
Table of contents
I've been craving Indian food recently and have been eating plenty of curries. I normally make them with cauliflower rice instead of real rice to keep things low carb. But one thing was missing. NAAN BREAD!
How many carbs in keto naan bread
Traditional naan bread has around 40 grams of carbs. Yikes!
In contrast, one of these low carb flatbreads come in at only 3.6g net carbs. That's all the great naan taste without the blood sugar spike!
A coconut flour naan
It's actually really simple to make low carb naan at home that puffs up as beautifully as naan made from wheat.
I decided to use coconut flour as opposed to almond flour because the gently sweet taste lends itself to Indian cuisine. To add elasticity, I used psyllium husk powder and xanthan gum, which hold the naan together beautifully.
This naan bread recipe is a bit of a personal breakthrough - it is my first EGG FREE low carb bread.
AND IT'S TOTALLY DELICIOUS!
It's great sprinkled with nigella and sesame seeds. And before serving, spread it with some melted coconut oil and top with fresh chopped cilantro / coriander or parsley.
Turn this naan into a low carb pitta bread by brushing it with a simple garlic butter (melted butter, 1 chopped garlic clove, salt).
How to make Keto naan - step by step
1.) Stir together the dry ingredients in a bowl - coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, baking powder, xanthan gum and salt.
TIP: I like to use a hand whisk for this and check that there are no lumps. Coconut flour has a tendency to clump together!
Add the melted coconut oil and the yogurt. You can use either natural full fat or Greek.
2. Now add the hot water and stir. At first it seems like there's a lot of liquid. But both psyllium and coconut flour are SUUUPER absorbent and a dough will form quickly.
I find it easiest to use a fork for this step. If you continued with the whisk, the dough gets caught in the middle, which is a major mess.
3.) Time to get your hands involved. Form a dough ball and let it rest for a few minutes until the dough is not sticky any more.
4.) Cut the dough into six equal slices and form balls.
5.) Place the balls between 2 sheets of parchment paper and roll out into long flatbreads. Pierce the middles a few times with the fork and sprinkle with nigella seeds and/or sesame seeds.
6.) Place the parchment with your naans onto an upturned baking tray. I find this helps the flatbreads (or cookies - anything flat) brown more evenly.
Bake for about 12-15 minutes and give them a little poke with the fork in case huge air bubbles form.
The baking time will depend on how thinly your naans are rolled out. Just keep an eye on them and remove them from the oven once they're nicely browned.
7.) Brush with melted coconut oil or butter or olive oil and top with more chopped coriander or parsley and more salt before serving! A pinch of cumin would also work well.
Love yeast breads? I have tested a version of this naan with yeast instead of baking powder. It produces a slightly more tangy bread. I found it looked identical to the yeast-free bread, but had a little more elasticity.
How to make Keto naan with yeast
1.) Stir 2 tsp of dry active yeast and 2 tsp of inulin (or honey/maple syrup) into 1 cup of WARM water. Cover with a cloth and leave to proof in a warm place for around 10 minutes. (This could be on top of a radiator, for example).
2.) Once the yeast is frothing, stir in the coconut flour, psyllium, xanthan gum, salt, melted coconut oil and yoghurt. Make sure that the yoghurt is room temperature - we don't want to kill off the yeast.
3.) Form a ball, cover again and let the dough rise for 30-60 minutes until it has increased in size considerably.
4. ) Proceed as per recipe below.
Recipe tips
I'm using psyllium husk powder and not psyllium husks in this recipe. The powder is REALLY finely ground. Psyllium husks, on the other hand, look like tiny sticks. It's easy to mistake them for powder at first glance, so do double-check your pack.
To make the naan bread recipe dairy free, use an unflavoured coconut yogurt such as by the Coconut Collaborative.
The xanthan gum is non-negotiable. Coconut flour is naturally gluten free and therefore lacks the elasticity of wheat flour. In the absence of eggs, we need the help of xanthan gum to bind and create an elastic dough.
Can you make this naan in a skillet?
Traditional naan is baked in a Tandoor oven. In lieu of this, people tend to make it in a skillet.
I think it's absolutely possible to fry this Keto naan bread in a pan on the stove - if you have the time to spare. I decided to bake it in the oven, because this way I can make a batch of six in one go and no-one has to wait for dinner.
How to serve coconut flour naan
First of all, serve this Keto naan bread warm - either straight from the oven or toasted. Once it cools, it loses its crispy crust.
NOTE: It's really essential to add a generous pinch of salt and black and white sesame seeds or, even better, nigella seeds to the bread, and baste it with melted butter, olive or coconut oil before eating. Without, the naan does not have much flavour (as it's mostly coconut flour).
It is designed to be eaten WITH a curry, for example this Keto chicken curry!
Can you freeze Keto Naan bread?
Of course! Keto recipes with coconut flour generally freeze well. Store in an airtight container in the fridge of freeze for up to 3 months. You can toast it from frozen.
More great keto bread recipes
Tried this recipe? Give it a star rating below!
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Keto Naan Bread
Note: The servings slider only changes the first amount in each line and not any subsequent amounts. Please make your own calculations where necessary. ***As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- ¾ cup / 75g coconut flour
- 2 tbsp psyllium husk powder
- 1 tsp xanthan gum
- 1 tsp baking powder
- GENEROUS pinch salt
- 1 tbsp nigella and/or sesame seeds
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup / 240ml hot water
- ¼ cup / 60g full fat natural yoghurt
- 2 tbsp coconut oil / olive oil melted
Topping
- 2 tbsp coconut oil / butter / olive oil melted
- handful chopped parsley or coriander / cilantro
- generous pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 Celsius / 356 Fahrenheit.
- Mix all dry ingredients in another bowl - coconut flour, psyllium husk powder, xanthan gum and salt. Make sure there are no lumps.
- Add the wet ingredients - hot water, yoghurt, melted coconut oil or olive oil - and stir together until a dough forms.
- Form a dough ball and let it sit for a few minutes until the coconut flour and the psyllium have absorbed all the moisture and the dough is not sticky.
- Cut the dough into 6 pieces and roll them out between two sheets of parchment paper into long flatbreads, about ½ cm thick. Place on an upturned baking sheet and remove the top parchment. Optional: sprinkle with sesame seeds and/or nigella seeds.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes or until browned (baking time will depend on how thick your flatbreads are). If large air bubbles form, pierce with a fork during baking. If necessary, rotate the baking sheet so the flatbreads brown equally and/or turn on the grill/broiler at the end to ensure they crisp and brown on top.
- Top with melted butter, olive oil or coconut oil, sprinkle with more salt and chopped parsley or coriander/cilantro leaves before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Pam says
This had good flavor and I love it and when my psyllium turn things purple!
But, they didn’t puff at all, I’m at high altitude so that may have been the problem.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Altitude is notorious for messing things up. However, I have found that when I roll them out too thick this can prevent puffing too. It's because there's no egg to help the rise.
Autumn says
I tried the yeast version of this. My naan turned out purple. And didn't rise at all although the dough did increase when I let it rest in a warm place. The dough was not purple before cooked. What do you suppose was the problem?
Katrin Nürnberger says
2 different issues here. Some brands of psyllium turn purple when baked. I talk about this in the post. As for the rise, you probably rolled it our too thick. Because there's no egg in the recipe, the naan has to be fairly thinly rolled out - check the images for reference. Hope this helps 🙂
Kim Parker says
How fine is your psyllium? I have a super fine powder which looks as powdery as corn starch, and also the whole psylium husks. Thank you!!
Katrin Nürnberger says
I used the psyllium powder.
Helen Williams says
Hi, I don't like coconut flour, could I swap it for almond flour? I think I would just need less water. Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have never tried that! Let me know how you get on 🙂
Yasmin says
Made it tonight for my curry, turned out amazing! The only things I've changed was I added gee as didn't have coconut oil and added natural sweetener so it tasted like sweet coconut naan you can get from a take out.
I will roll out bit more thinly next time but it went well with my curry.
The only issue I have in the colour inside, it turned sort of purple grey same as the bread roll I did few days ago. Not sure if it's the coconut flour?
Thank you so much for the recipe, now I don't need to struggle mobbing up my curry 🙂
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Yasmin, it's the psyllium husk brand you used that caused the colour. Some take on a purple hue.
Joanne says
HI, can I ask why you're not using egg in this recipe?
Katrin Nürnberger says
Mainly for my readers who cannot tolerate egg. You can definitely add one if you prefer, You'd just have to adjust the other ingredients 🙂
Tess Gadd says
Hi what can I substitute the yogurt for so not using dairy?
Katrin Nürnberger says
I would use coconut yoghurt.
Sophie says
Hello, Can you freeze the cooked naan?
Katrin Nürnberger says
yes, of course! Reheat them in the oven so they get fluffy again.
Jamie says
I would like to try this recipe, but I don’t have xantham gum, do you have a recommendation for a substitute? Would ground flaxseed work?
Katrin Nürnberger says
You could try, but you would need quite a bit more, which would change the taste and texture of the bread.
Debbie says
Hi I’ve made these twice in the last week, one with baking powder the other with yeast. Both came out great, but I did notice that if you change the quantity only the cup amount changes on the coconut flour, it stays at 75g. This may be why some bakes haven’t turned out quite right. Unless this is only happening on my device
Katrin Nürnberger says
Yes, unfortunately this is a limitation of the tech. Only the first ingredient can change, which is normally where I put the cup amounts.
Nirandi Wick says
Hi,
Can I replace psyllium husk powder with almond meal?
Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
You would need to use quite a bit more and also add an egg. Psyllium soaks up a lot of moisture and also helps bind the dough.
Trecia Fitzgerald says
I’m not a fan of coconut flour; can I substitute another flour?
Katrin Nürnberger says
You can try using 3x the amount of almond flour.
Jiji says
Can I use a mix of coconut and almond flour? Thanks
Katrin Nürnberger says
Yes, but you would have to adjust the quantities. Generally, coconut flour is 3x more absorbent than coconut flour. So whichever portion of the recipe you replace with almond flour, use 3x the amount.
Kelly Land says
Made these tonight and decided to pan dry one with a bit of olive oil garlic powder and salt.... so amazingly good. Baked the rest and after put the same oil garlic and salt on both sides and broiled... thing doing it in a skillet or electric skillet is best. Thank you, so good and fast!
Katrin Nürnberger says
That's so good to hear! Thank you for your feedback 🙂
dawn johnson says
Oh dear! I had such high hopes: my dough never firmed up like yours did in the video. Even added a bit more coconut flour. So I think you can predict what happened: 35 minutes in the oven later (turning and flipping along the way), they'd managed to brown on the top, but hopelessly semi-liquid in the middle. So annoying - I'd cooked a nice curry, too. I really, really wish you could just buy this stuff next to the regular pitta breads and naans in the shops! Okay - self pitying done! I'll try this again, but start with half the amount of water, and add a little at a time if needed. See how that goes.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Dawn, do check your psyllium and be sure you're using the correct amount of either psyllium husk OR psyllium powder. Then, roll it out thinly, like you can see in the video or the images. Egg free bread cannot be rolled out thick, then it stays gummy. The only way to have a thicker bread would be to replace the water with egg, then you'll be sure to get a rise!
Lorraine says
Does this work if I pre-make the dough but cook it a few hours later, or even the next day?!
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have not tried that, but it might affect the rise.
Donna says
Why am I surprised that this naan bread came out amazing. I really enjoyed it. Texture, flavour, taste 10/10. Thank you
Kent Nussbaumer says
Wow this was delicious and so easy to make.
Annie says
Why was my Naan gummy and dark? It looks nothing like the photos. I did everything exactly like the recipe and used a food scale. I measured to make sure it was as thin as you said.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Annie, the only product that could have turned your bread dark could be the psyllium husk. As I mention in the post, some brands cause a colour change in baked goods, usually purple. This does not, however, affect the taste. If your bread was gummy, this means it did not rise enough. Reasons for this could be
1. you didn't roll it our thinly enough,
2. ingredients were cold and this slowed down the baking process
3. you used psyllium husk instead of psyllium husk powder and therefore the dough was too moist (check the pack - it needs to be a fine powder, not tiny sticks)
4. baking powder was out of date and did not activate
5. oven not warm enough or you baked on the lowest shelf instead of the middle (where the oven is cooler)
I really hope this helps and you can figure out what went wrong. Let me know if you try again!
Elaine says
I followed the recipe so carefully but I have flat, dense, soft sort of pittas! Not sure what I did wrong, as I measured carefully!
Perhaps a little thick, but still rather disappointing! Have lots of yoghurt left so will have another go tomorrow.... hate to be beaten by a recipe!!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Elaine, try rolling thinner next time. Because there's no egg in the naans to help puff them, they cannot be too thick or they will end up gummy on the inside. I'm sure you'll get it right in your second go!
Juan Goldaracena says
It's so good even my no-keto family eats it! Thanks!
Denise says
Can you use full fat sour cream instead of yogurt? This recipe looks amazing, can't wait to try it!
Katrin Nürnberger says
Hi Denise, I think some readers have done this with good results.
Heather says
I wondered the same thing about cottage cheese. I have all the ingredients handy except the yogurt. If I pulverize some cottage cheese in a blender, would that work instead?
Katrin Nürnberger says
Possibly! It would be an experiment. I guess the fat content is similar 🙂 Hope your Keto naan will be lovely and fluffy!
Theresa says
Can you use a coffee flour. Ccoconut allergy here
Katrin Nürnberger says
I have never heard of coffee flour, so I think you mean a different flour? Coconut flour is very particular, and you cannot replace it 1:1 with any other flour. You would have to use up to 3x as much almond flour to replace the coconut flour.
patricia says
what is 1/2 cm thick? I am USA
Katrin Nürnberger says
0.2 inch 🙂
Ayesha Siddiqui says
Hi, thanks for the recipe. My naan won't cook properly from the middle. I cook it for a long time. Do you have any suggestions??
Katrin Nürnberger says
Try rolling it out thinner next time. I found that when it's too thick it can become gummy. Also, for best results, always weigh your ingredients 🙂 Hope this helps!
farida says
J'ai fait le naan aujourd'hui c'était parfait et rapide merci
Sumaiya says
I made the naan today and loved it! I did not have xantham gum so used two eggs whites instead turned out fine :)Thank you for the recipe will be making it again.
Katrin Nürnberger says
Thanks for letting everybody know your substitutions! Always so helpful 🙂