For those of you coming to this recipe after seeing our cooking demo at the Long Island Garlic Festival this past weekend, welcome! We’re glad you liked our demo/free samples enough to try making this recipe yourself.  I hope you’ll check out and try some of our other recipes as well.

Most people’s experience with naan is from eating it in Indian restaurants. Naan is a leavened flatbread that originated in Asia.  Traditionally it is baked in a clay oven called a tandoor, but since we, and I’m assuming most of you, don’t have a tandoor we’ve taken to cooking it on the grill.  And if you don’t have a grill, or the weather isn’t conducive to grilling outdoors, you can also use a cast iron grill pan.  Trust me –  you’re going to want to find a way to make this naan.  It’s garlicky, and buttery, and delicious.   And it goes great with chicken tikka.

Grilled Garlic Naan:

For the paste:

• 1 bulb garlic (approx. 6-10 cloves or ¼ cup), peeled and minced
• 1 tsp. cumin
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar

 For the dough:

• ½ packet active dry yeast
• ½ tsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. water
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tbsp. oil
• ½ tsp. salt

Melted butter for brushing

In a small bowl combine the yeast, sugar and water. While the yeast blooms, in another bowl combine all the ingredients for the paste.  Stir well to combine.  In a third bowl add the flour, oil, and salt.  Add in the paste and the yeast, and mix well.  Add water as necessary (about a tablespoon at a time until you feel comfortable eyeballing it) until the dough is moist, but not too sticky.  If the dough gets too wet you can add more flour.  Once dough is at the proper consistency, roll it into a ball, place in the bowl, and cover with a warm damp cloth.  Let the dough rise for 15-20 minutes.

Once the dough has risen, remove from bowl and knead on a floured surfaced. Make the dough into a flattened log shape, and cut into 6 equal pieces.  Individually, flatten the pieces with your fingers until they’re about a quarter inch thick.

Heat grill to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, or a grill pan on medium-high heat. Lubricate well.

Place naans on the grill. Brush with melted butter.  Cook until the first side starts to get brown grill marks.  Flip, and brush the other side with butter.  Cook until the other side browns.  Cooking time should only take about 5 minutes in total.

Serve warm. You can brush with additional melted butter if desired.