Darn, the name gave the secret away 🙂 I was debating what to name it and was thinking of just calling it Paleo and AIP Naan without giving away my secret 🙂 Anyway this naan was the highlight of my week this week. And so without much ado, just as I promised to you in my last post, here is this wonderful grain free Naan recipe that I ended up experimenting with and which turned out to be a great success right in the first experiment!
While I was making my Moroccan Chicken stew in the Instant Pot yesterday, I first thought of making a cauliflower mash to go with it. And then I decided to add some sweet potato to it to give it more of a ‘mashed potato’ kind of richness and texture. And then as I mashed them together, an idea came to my mind just out of the blue. Why not try to make a naan out of this? Brilliant, Indu (Patting self on the back:) )
So long story short, the experimental recipe was a total success. Now the sweet potato is the Indian sweet potato or purple skinned sweet potato with white flesh. These are called as Japanese sweet potato too. They have a different texture than regular yellow sweet potato. Here’s a pic–>
You can also use mashed yuca instead of white sweet potato. I have made these using both and they both work fine. Another thing to remember is to make sure the cauliflower does not have any water on it when you mash it. That’s why it is very important that you steam it and not boil it.
Loved how this turned out and I don’t even like regular naan! Alright so let’s get down to the recipe!
- 2 cups cauliflower florets (1½ cups after steamed and mashed)
- ½ cup mashed white sweet potato or ½ cup mashed yuca (see notes)
- ¼ cup cassava flour plus 1-2 tbsp more as needed
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- ½ tsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- About 2 tbsp coconut oil or ghee for frying (use coconut oil for AIP)
- In a steamer, steam the cauliflower florets for 6-7 mins or until cooked. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and blot dry with a paper towel. Mash the cauliflower using a masher.
- Add the mashed sweet potato to the bowl too. Add the ¼ cassava flour, the sea salt, the nutritional yeast and the olive oil.
- Mix everything using your hands to form a dough. Add the extra cassava flour if needed 1 tbsp at a time until you get a smooth dough (its ok if it is a bit sticky).
- Divide the dough into 4 balls.
- On a plastic liner(or ziplock bag), place one ball at a time and press using your hands to form a round flat shape like a naan or a roti.
- Heat a griddle or a non stick pan. Add about 1 tsp of oil (or ghee) and spread it over the pan using brush.
- Now take the naan(along with the plastic or ziplock) in your hand and carefully flip it so that the naan side is on your palm and then peel the plastic liner slowly and place the naan onto the pan.
- Cook for 4 mins on medium heat. Brush the top side with some oil and flip the naan and cook on the other side for 3 more mins. Transfer to a plate.
- Repeat the process for the rest of the dough balls.
- Serve naan with your favorite curry.
[…] Cauliflower Naan from Indu's International Kitchen *This recipe was the result of a creative experiment! […]
what do you mean by nutritional yeast? marmite? any substitute?
Nutritional yeast is inactive yeast and is very healthy – has a lot of vitamins and minerals. The link in the recipe will take you to amazon which shows you more about the product. You can omit this ingredient too – it is optional. It just gives it a cheesy kind of flavor. You could add some spices to it if you don’t have this ingredient or you can totally skip it altogether.