A basic recipe for soft, leavened flatbreads

just a few ingredients with minimal kneading

Apr 01, 2025

Warm, soft, freshly made flatbreads are hard to beat—they’re practically a universal love language. There’s especially one category where they reign supreme. Dips. Whether it’s scooping up Hummus, Mutabal or Toum, these dips feel incomplete until they are paired with a torn piece of glutenous joy. And that’s where the trouble begins. Ever since moving out of London (I am already plotting my return), I’ve struggled to find well-made flatbreads to complement my near-weekly dip ritual. So, I took matters into my own hands.

These vegan flatbreads, though loosely inspired by Greek pita, aren’t rooted in any one tradition. Instead, I very selfishly wanted to have a go-to recipe that I can knock out whenever a dip—or anything flatbread-worthy, really—is on the horizon. Spoiler: it hardly requires any kneading. A five-minute rest jumpstarts gluten development, meaning just 3-4 minutes of kneading (instead of the usual 10) gets the dough ready to roll. For the full recipe, scroll down to the bottom of this newsletter.

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Easy & Soft Vegan Flatbreads

Ingredients

20g fresh yeast (or a 7g packet dried yeast)
1 tbsp golden granulated sugar (10g)
3 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for greasing & brushing
230ml lukewarm water
350g bread flour, plus extra to dust
50g wholemeal flour
1 tsp salt (8g)

Method

Crumble the yeast into a large bowl. Add the sugar, olive oil and water and stir to dissolve the yeast. Add the flours and salt and use your hands to mix everything into a rough dough.

Transfer the dough to a work surface, cover it with the bowl placed upside-down over it and let it rest for 5 minutes, which will kick-start the gluten development. Once rested, knead the dough for 3-4 minutes until smooth and elastic.

Shape the dough into a large ball, grease a clean bowl with a little oil and place the dough inside. Cover it with a reusable plastic bag or a damp kitchen towel and leave to double in size for 30–60 minutes (the length of time will depend on the ambient temperature).

Preheat a large, heavy-based pan over medium heat. As it heats, return the dough to the work surface and divide it into six pieces (around 110g each). Shape each piece into a ball by tucking the edges underneath before stretching it over the work surface in circular movements with one hand. You are aiming to create a smooth surface across the dough. Cover the balls again.

Dust the surface with a little flour and roll the dough balls out into 20cm wide circles, placing the rolled dough on a clean tea towel as you go and covering it with another towel to prevent it from drying out.

Now add the piece of dough you rolled out first to the hot pan and cook for around 1 minute until the bottom has golden spots all over.

Flip it, cook for 1 minute more, then brush with ½ teaspoon of oil, flip it again and repeat, cooking it for 30–60 seconds more on each side until beautifully golden. Transfer to a plate and cover with a clean towel to soften and keep warm. Wipe the pan with kitchen paper and repeat with the rest of the flatbreads.