Garlic Naan Bread
So I had been coming across tapioca flour in many paleo recipes around Pinterest. At first I would ignore any recipes using tapioca or arrowroot mostly because I didn’t know any facts and the origin of this flour. After exploring some of the possibilities that this flour provided, and especially after coming across this particular 3 ingredient paleo naan bread recipe, I got interested because none of the healthy flours that I use (coconut, almond, quinoa) would ever provide the same texture.
Of course, I miss all bread products, conventional crackers, wraps, pita and naan and since this flour seemed to offer the possibility of making conventional looking bread, I made my best to source some good quality tapioca flour. Although I’m sure that you can find tapioca flour locally, maybe in speciality stores, I chose to buy mine online. This saved me lots of time searching for the quality I wanted (organic and free from additives). I loved this brand. The fact that tapioca falls under ‘paleo’ gives me sufficient motivation to try it out. Personally, both wheat and quinoa make me feel bloated so I’d rather try this grain free tapioca flour instead anyway.
Some facts
Tapioca flour is a starch, hence making the inside of a thick naan bread soft and gooey (yummy!). I did not know much about this plant but researching along the way I found out that this flour is made from the root of the cassava (a.k.a Yuka) plant. After cassava plants are harvested, their roots are treated to remove toxins found in the plant. The starch is then processed into flour. Tapioca is almost completely free of both protein and gluten (bonus :)). It’s mostly carbohydrates with low amounts of saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. Tapioca is also used as a thickening agent and the fact that it has no particular taste makes it adaptable to many recipes.
Keep on the lookout because I plan to make many interesting recipes using tapioca. Next on my list; pancakes, fruit filled pastry and pizza dough!
I also make these naan bread in the shape of a wrap sometimes. Check out this instragram video below.
- 1 large clove garlic minced (or 2 small)
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ cup organic tapioca flour
- ½ cup pure ground almonds
- ½ cup coconut milk (carton milk works fine)
- 1 teaspoon coconut oil
- Combine the tapioca flour, ground almonds, minced garlic and rosemary. Mix well with an egg whisk to form a batter. It is best to mince the garlic with a garlic press.
- Add in the coconut milk (or any other milk of your choice) and whisk well. Make sure you leave no lumps.
- Heat a non-stick pan adding the coconut oil. When the oil has melted, use a kitchen paper towel to distribute all over the pan.
- Pour in all the batter for a wrap, or 1/4 cup batter each time for small naan, directly from the mixing bowl into the hot pan. You can use the back of a spoon to flatten out the batter. Allow a few minutes for the naan to cook from one side before flipping over. Keep on flipping the naan until the batter is cooks through and some browning takes place on each side. Some puffing up can occur with each naan.
- Repeat this process until all batter is used up. I had 5 small naan bread but you can make 2 large naans instead, with the same amount of batter.
