Since that time, Kemal and I have been experimenting with cooking our favorite Indian meals, and we’ve also tried making different kinds of Indian flat breads, including naan, which is very much like pita bread. Aloo naan basically means bread stuffed with potatoes and spices. You can also stuff naan with cheese, garlic, onions, peas and potatoes, and you can spice it in different ways.
Yesterday I made naan, and today I made aloo naan, and while Kemal and I love both, we prefer aloo naan because the potatoes and spices inside the bread add so much flavor. I prefer the bread when it comes right out of the oven, and you should have heard me oooohing and aaaaaahing this morning while I was having it for breakfast. Every bite is pure joy! 
Here’s a picture of the aloo naan. The piece in the front has a little tear on it and you may be able to see the potato stuffing just a bit there. Mostly the stuffing isn’t all that visible because the potatoes are shredded and hard to see, but believe me, you can definitely feel the potato flavor on your taste buds.
Aloo Naan and just plain naan is very easy to make. If you want to make naan without the potato filling, just follow the recipe below by making the bread without the stuffing. There’s also a video I’ve linked to if you want to see plain naan being prepared.)
Aloo Naan: (Recipe Source: The Naan recipe is adapted from: Jemeela)
Ingredients for the bread (naan):
- 1 tsp. dry active yeast
- 3 cups of white bread flour
- 2 tbsp. olive oil + extra for oiling the baking pans
- 4 tbsp. Greek yogurt (regular yogurt can be used instead)
- 1 tsp of honey
- 1 tsp of salt
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
Ingredients for the potato stuffing:
- 3 small potatoes (I used Yukon gold)
- water
- masala (this basically is translated as “a mixture of spices”). There are many different types of Indian masalas you can buy in a specialty store or you can just mix the spices yourself. I used a combination of coriander, fennel, caraway, cardamom, ginger, white pepper, chili pepper, black pepper, garlic, marjoram, and salt. If you prefer, you can always just season your potatoes with salt and pepper if you want to keep it simple.
Instructions for making the potato stuffing:
- Wash the potatoes.
- Place them in a pot of boiling water and cook them (with the skins) until the potatoes are soft.
- Drain the potatoes and set them aside to cool.
- After they’re cooled, remove the skins and then grate the cooked potatoes.
- After the potatoes are grated, season your potatoes with a masala and then mix. You can use whatever spices you like.
- After you’ve mixed the potatoes and seasonings, form 7 potato balls and set aside.
Instructions for making naan:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
- Grease your baking pans with a little olive oil. This adds flavor and will also prevent the bread from sticking to the pan.
- Put the bread flour in a large mixing bowl, and then sprinkle the yeast and salt over the flour.
- Add the honey, yogurt, 2 tbsp. of oil, and the water, mixing well to make a soft dough. The dough shouldn’t be too dry or too sticky. If it’s too dry, add a little more water. If it’s too sticky, just add a little more flour.
- When the dough is soft, form it into a ball and transfer it to a floured surface.
- Knead the dough for about 3 or 4 minutes.
- Now you want to to divide the dough into small balls by pinching off pieces of the dough. Whenever I divide my dough, I make 7 small dough balls.
- Take a dough ball and flatten it. You can do it by hand or with a rolling pin.
Note: If you want to make plain naan, you would simply place the flattened dough on the greased pans and bake on the bottom rack in your oven until each side is golden brown. You’ll need to flip the bread so each side can brown. It doesn’t take long for each side to brown so watch your bread closely.
If you want to make aloo naan (which is the potato stuffed bread) then continue with the following instructions:
Instructions for making aloo naan:
- Take one of your potato balls and put it in the center of one of the dough balls that you’ve just flattened.
- Now you need to flatten the potato ball.
- Take the edges of the dough up to the top so you cover the potato stuffing.
- Now you want to flatten the potato stuffed dough. You can do this by hand or with a rolling pin. I do it by hand. You want to flatten the dough so it’s thin, but not thin enough that it causes the potato stuffing to come out. You want the potato stuffing to be contained.
- Place the potato stuffed dough that you’ve just flattened onto the greased baking sheet.
- Repeat this process until all of the dough is stuffed with potatoes and flattened.
- Bake the bread on the bottom rack of your oven until each side is golden brown. You’ll need to watch the bread carefully, because it doesn’t take long for each side to brown. When the bottom has become golden brown, flip it with a spatula so the other side can brown.
- After the bread is done, you can sprinkle it with a little sea salt or seasonings if you like or you can just enjoy it the way it is. I added a little salt to the outside of mine because I prefer my bread saltier than Kemal.
