Think peshwari naan is too difficult to make at home? Think again! This easy peasy homemade peshwari naan recipe is super simple to make and delivers unbelievably tasty naan bread every single time!
Think peshwari naan is too difficult to make at home?
I must confess – I did! Peshwari Naan was always one of those recipes I had mentally filed as ‘too difficult to make at home’.
Peshwari Naan is by far and away my favourite type of naan, but I’ve never really liked supermarket Peshwari Naans. So Peshwari Naan has always been a very occasional treat to be had only when we go out to an Indian restaurant or get in a takeaway.
One day I got fed up of never being able to have Peshwari Naan with my homemade curries… and so I thought, ‘I’ll just give it a try’… and it turns out making homemade Peshwari Naan is way easier than I ever though… so I just had to share this easy peasy recipe on Easy Peasy Foodie!
What is Peshwari Naan?
In case you are not 100% what it is, Peshwari Naan is slightly sweetened flatbread, thought to originate from Peshawar in Pakistan, and very commonly found in British Indian restaurants and takeaways.
It’s filled with a paste of desiccated coconut, ground almonds, sugar and sometimes sultanas, and traditionally cooked on the hot walls of a tandoor oven.
Don’t worry, though, you won’t have to invest in a tandoor oven – a dry frying pan over a high heat works almost as well!
Personally, I am not a fan of sultanas in Peshwari Naan, so I don’t include them in this recipe. But feel free to throw a handful of sultanas into your Peshwari paste if you do like them!
How to make homemade Peshwari Naans
Peshwari Naans are surprisingly simple to make.
All you need to do is make a simple bread dough by mixing flour, dried yeast, salt and sugar with yogurt, warm water and melted butter. Then knead for 5 minutes and prove for 1 hour.
While the dough is proving, make the peshwari paste by mixing together desiccated coconut, ground almonds, sugar, and butter in a small bowl until it forms a paste.
Once proved, divide the dough into 8 balls. Roll out each ball into large ovals, and spread the peshwari paste over half of the oval. Fold over your naan and press down around the edges, so it is nicely sealed.
Reshape your naan so it is a nice oval shape, then place the naan breads directly onto a pre-heated frying pan and fry for about 1-2 minutes on each side. The naan should be fully cooked through and have lots of dark brown spots, but it shouldn’t be black/burnt!
Continue in the same way until all your naans are cooked.
(Full recipe given in the recipe card below.)
What to serve with Peshwari Naans
Peshwari Naans go well with almost any curry, but IMHO they work best with curries that don’t have lots of coconut or almonds in them already. In other words, it’s nice when the sweet and nutty flavour of these naans is a contrast to the curry rather than more of the same. (Though you are fully entitled to disagree with me!)
My favourite curries to serve with these homemade naans are:
- Easy Chicken Balti
- Chicken Tikka Biryani
- Easy Chicken Dhansak
- Easy Chicken Tikka Masala
- Easy Lamb Rogan Josh
(Shown here with Easy Chicken Balti)
Peshwari Naan with Easy Chicken Balti
Can you cook peshwari naan in the oven?
So I tried cooking these homemade peshwari naans in my regular (i.e. non-tandoori) oven… And honestly? They were nowhere near as good. Cooking them in a frying pan is only a tiny bit more effort, and the result is way better and much more like you get in an Indian restaurant/takeaway.
Can you reheat peshwari naan?
Absolutely! Although peshwari naan does taste best made fresh, you can absolutely reheat them if you need to.
I recommend you keep any leftover naans in an airtight container or food bag in the fridge, where they will keep for up to 4 days.
I recommend you reheat these naans in an oven set to 180C (160C fan / gas mark 4 / 350F) for 5-10 minutes or until piping hot. I don’t recommend you try to reheat these naans in the microwave as they are likely to go soggy!
Can you freeze peshwari naan?
Yes you can. Again, they are best made fresh, but they still do freeze very well. Place the naans in an airtight container or food bag in the freezer, where they will keep for up to 3 months. (To stop them sticking to each other, you may want to place some baking paper between each naan.)
Defrost for a couple of hours at room temperature and reheat as above.
If you like this recipe…
…you might also like:
- Easy Homemade Naan Bread
- Easy Bombay Potatoes (Bombay Aloo)
- Multicoloured Pilau Rice
- Fruity Pilau Rice
- Easy Indian-style Yellow Rice (Turmeric Rice)
Multicoloured Pilau Rice
Easy Homemade Peshwari Naan
Ingredients
Naan Bread
- 50 g butter
- 350 g white bread flour
- 7 g easy action yeast (AKA fast action yeast / instant yeast - see Note 1)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 100 ml plain yogurt
- 150 ml warm water
Peshwari Paste
- 150 g ground almonds
- 50 g desiccated coconut
- 45 g sugar
- 75 g butter softened
Instructions
Naan Bread Dough
- Start by melting the butter, either in the microwave or in a saucepan on the hob.
- In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, salt, and sugar.
- Make a well in the centre and add the yogurt, warm water and melted butter. Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients thoroughly until it forms a ball.
- Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.
- Return the dough to the bowl and leave to rise for 1 hour.
Peshwari Paste
- Meanwhile, make the peshwari paste.
- Place all the peshwari paste ingredients in a small bowl and keep stirring until it forms a paste. At the start, it will feel impossible, but keep stirring and eventually it will start to come together. (Pro tip: use a table knife rather than a spoon to stir – it breaks the butter up better!)
- Use your hands to bring the peshwari paste together in a ball.
Peshwari Naans
- After it has risen, knock back the dough (i.e. punch out all the air) and divide into 8 equal size pieces. Roll each piece into a ball.
- At this point, put a non-stick frying pan over a high heat to heat up.
- Take 1 of the 8 balls and then roll it out and stretch it out into an oval shape that is double the size you want your naans to be. (You are aiming for naans that are roughly 15cm x 10cm, so this oval should be about 15cm x 20cm, but just roughly - no need to be super accurate!)
- Take a 40g blob of peshwari paste and spread it over half of the oval, but not quite to the edge – leave about a 1cm border.
- Fold over your naan and press down around the edges, so it is nicely sealed.
- Reshape so it is a nice oval shape roughly 15cm x 10cm. (But be gentle – you don’t want the filling to break out of the naan!)
- Place the naan breads directly onto the pre heated frying pan and fry for about 1-2 minutes on each side. The naan should be fully cooked through and have lots of dark brown spots, but it shouldn’t be black/burnt!
- Remove the naan bread from the pan and place on a plate.
- While the first naan is cooking, roll out the second ball of dough, add the peshwari paste, fold and reshape. As soon at the first naan is cooked, place the second one in the pan.
- Continue in the same way until all your naans are cooked.
- Serve with your favourite curries, chutneys, pickles etc.
Notes
- The yeast I have used in the recipe is known variously as easy bake, easy action, fast action, quick or instant yeast. It is the dried, powdered form of yeast that DOES NOT need to be first mixed with water and sugar. The yeast I have used is the kind that can be just chucked in with the rest of the ingredients and therefore makes this recipe much easier and less faffy!
- Suitable for freezing.
- Nutrition information is approximate and meant as a guideline only.
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