Last Updated on June 1, 2025 by Nico
Ready in under 30 minutes, sourdough discard naan is a simple and tasty addition to any meal of the day. It is also a fantastic way to avoid wasting flour and water when building up a sourdough starter.
Naan is a simple bread to make with sourdough discard (discard is what you throw away when building up your starter).
While naan is a great way to use up discard, you can also use mature starter to make these naan – both will work great. These naan are ready in under 30 minutes and works well as a side with soup or salad, as sandwich bread, or even as a pizza base.
(If you’re looking for other simple no-wait sourdough discard ideas, try these Sourdough Scallion Pankcakes or these No-Wait Sourdough Crackers With Olive Oil And Herbs.
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Sourdough no-wait recipes are recipes that you do not need to ferment the dough overnight. This means that breads made with discard and not long-fermented are ready to eat quickly. But it also means that they will not have the same fermentation benefits of breads made with mature starter and fermented dough.
If you have a gluten sensitivity, it would be better for you to wait until your starter is mature and allow the dough to ferment for 8 hours before consuming the naan.
I’ve included full instructions for how to long-ferment this recipe in the FAQ, as well as instructions on how to make this recipe dairy-free.
Ingredients
Sourdough Discard
Organic All-Purpose Flour
Plain Natural Yogurt
Salt
Milk
Baking Powder
Supplies
Cast Iron Skillet or Non-Stick Pan (I use a Lodge cast iron skillet)
Large Bowl
Rolling Pin
Stainless Steel Flipper
Instructions
Mix together the yogurt, milk, and sourdough discard.
Slowly add the flour, salt, and baking powder into the liquid mixture.
Transfer the dough to a clean surface. Knead it for a few minutes.
Divide the dough into eight balls. Spend a few minutes tucking the edges down to the base of each ball.
Flatten each ball using a rolling pin.
Heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet. Let the skillet get quite hot before putting your naan on the pan.
Add one of the flattened balls into the hot skillet.
The dough should start to bubble. Once it does, use a stainless steel flipper to flip the dough over.
Let it sit on the heat for another 30 seconds or so. Then remove and set aside.
You can brush the hot sourdough discard naan with butter for an added savoury flavour.
Repeat with the remaining balls.
Enjoy!
How We Enjoy This Naan
As a side – Naan works well as a side to just about anything. With a spicy curry and rice, with soup or a salad, or even with eggs.
As sandwich bread – It also works well as a simple and quick sandwich bread, especially when it’s fresh off the skillet.
As a pizza base – These naan also make delicious single portion pizza bases. To make a quick pizza, you can chop up any vegetables you have on hand, shred some cheese over top, and put it into the oven for about 10 minutes.
Substitutions
Dairy-free – substitute the milk and yogurt for dairy free milk and yogurt. You can also swap the milk out for water and drop the yogurt completely, but the naan will have a drier texture.
Additions
Garlic – You can mince and lightly sauté 3-4 cloves of garlic. Once you remove the naan from your skillet, brush it with butter and sprinkle the garlic onto the buttery side.
Salt – Brush the hot naan with butter and sprinkle a pinch of your best salt on top of the butter
Sesame Seeds – Knead 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds into the dough before dividing it into eight balls. You can also brush the hot naan with butter, and sprinkle sesame seeds on the buttery side.
Chives – Finely chop chives until you have about a tablespoon. Once the hot naan is removed from the skillet, brush butter on one side and sprinkle chives on top of the buttery side.
FAQ
While they are most delicious straight out of the skillet, the naan will last 2-3 in the fridge or in an airtight container on the counter. To reheat, put into the oven for a few minutes.
Yes. To freeze, let the naan cool completely. Layer a piece of parchment paper between each naan. They will last about 3 months in a freezer safe container. To reheat, simply put into a hot oven for a few minutes.
Yes, you can prepare the dough and leave it to sit in your fridge for about 2 days.
Simply swap out the milk and yogurt for dairy free alternatives such as unsweetened almond milk and lactose-free greek yogurt.
This usually happens with the first 1-2 naan you make and is likely due to the pan not being hot enough quite yet. Don’t worry – they still taste great.
Yes, you can long ferment this recipe if you have a mature sourdough starter on hand. All you need to adjust is the fermentation time and to drop the baking powder. Combine the flour, sourdough starter, yogurt, and milk and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a covered bowl and let it sit in a warm place for at least 4 hours (maxiumum 24 hours). Then divide the dough into 8 pieces, roll flat, and cook as normal.
Try These Other Simple Sourdough Discard Recipes
6 Sourdough Discard Quick Bread Recipes
No-Wait Sourdough Crackers With Olive Oil And Herbs
If you make this recipe and enjoy it, please consider giving it 5 stars. Find me on Instagram @documentingsimpleliving and show me what you’ve made!
Easy No-Wait Sourdough Discard Naan Recipe (No Yeast)
Ingredients
Method
- Mix together the yogurt, milk, and sourdough discard.
- Slowly add the flour, salt, and baking powder into the liquid mixture.
- Transfer the dough to a clean surface. Knead it for a few minutes.
- Divide the dough into eight balls. Spend a few minutes tucking the edges down to the base of each ball.
- Flatten each ball using a rolling pin.
- Heat a non-stick or cast iron skillet. Let the skillet get quite hot.
- Add one of the flattened balls into the hot skillet.
- The dough should start to bubble. Once it does, use a stainless steel flipper to flip the dough over.
- Let it sit on the heat for another 30 seconds or so. Then remove and set aside.
- You can brush the hot sourdough discard naan with butter for an added savoury flavour.
- Repeat with the remaining balls.
Nutrition
Video
Notes
- While they are most delicious straight out of the skillet, the naan will last 2-3 in the fridge or in an airtight container on the counter. To reheat, put into the oven for a few minutes.
- To freeze, let the naan cool completely. Layer a piece of parchment paper between each naan. They will last about 3 months in a freezer safe container. To reheat, simply put into a hot oven for a few minutes.
- You can prepare the dough and leave it to sit in your fridge for about 2 days.
- To make this recipe vegan or dairy-free, simply swap out the milk and yogurt for dairy free alternatives such as unsweetened almond milk and lactose-free greek yogurt.
- To long-ferment this recipe, combine the flour, sourdough starter, yogurt, and milk and knead into a dough. Place the dough in a covered bowl and let it sit in a warm place for at least 4 hours (maxiumum 24 hours). Then divide the dough into 8 pieces, roll flat, and cook as normal.
Made this tonight and they turned out amazing…! SO easy, and SO good! Thanks for the recipe! I added a bit of olive oil to the dough, and about 1/2 tsp of salt 🙂 Also did sour cream instead of the yogurt and it worked just fine!
I’m so happy to hear that! Great idea to use sour cream. I’ll try that next time
Love this recipe, so easy and quick to throw together for dinner. Just wish they were a little more flavorful. Will try to add some salt this next time.
We loved these. Made it just as the recipe states. I thought I could roll out each one as one was cooking. Not!! I ended up rolling all them out and then cooking.
I brushed with butter and salted each.
So happy to hear you enjoyed them!
Can you leave out the baking powder
Hey, I haven’t tried this – I’d imagine they wouldn’t puff up so they’d be more like (very) flatbreads. Let me know if you give it a try!
Great texture but needs salt. Should’ve read the comments first.
Thanks for this feedback – I’ve updated the recipe now. I agree salt makes these tastier!
Hello! I make these all of the time and they are delicious! My question is, for the long fermentation process, you list all ingredients except for the baking powder and salt. Is there a reason for this or should they be added as well? Thank you again for the recipes!
I’m sorry disregard my last question. I went back and reread and found my answer. Thank you so much!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Hi! I’m in the UK, do you have measurements in grams please?
I’m sorry I don’t have the gram measurements just yet. I’ll update the post when I do.
The whole family loved this. I did not make any changes to the recipe and it came together quickly. Will definitely be making again.
So happy to hear you guys enjoyed it!