This vegan soda bread is a delicious crusty loaf with no yeast and no kneading - easy to make and dairy-free, with vegan yoghurt and milk replacing the traditional buttermilk.
If you like the idea of making your own bread but are a bit daunted by all that kneading, proving, and faffing about with yeast, then soda bread is definitely a good place to start!
It is so easy to make with just five ingredients, and will be in the oven in less than 10 minutes, (you can be slathering it with vegan butter just 40 minutes later!). It is the perfect loaf to make with small people around, as you don't need to start planning hours in advance, just make, bake, then eat.
Whether baking soda bread is for you a project to while away an hour in the kitchen, a fun activity to keep the kids amused for a while, or just a way of making a crusty loaf from ingredients you already have in the cupboard to avoid a trip to the shops, this straightforward recipe is a great place to start.
This tastes great as it is, but the recipe is also a perfect starting point for experimenting with flavour combinations. I've suggested four of my favourites below, but get creative and scour your cupboards for new ideas - the sky is the limit!
Do leave a comment below to share what you put in yours. Let's crowdsource some lovely ideas to get everyone baking their way through this lockdown!
One of the silver linings of having the kids at home every day for the foreseeable future is little helpers in the kitchen. This is my eldest showing off the finished product, and my youngest is kneading the dough below.
Soda bread is such a great thing to cook with kids. It isn't sweet and sticky, (I think we all tend to bake far too many sweet treats with kids and not enough savoury ones).
With minimal kneading and no yeast involved it is a pretty much guaranteed success and on the table (or in tummies!) 45 minutes after you start baking.
What you need to make your Vegan Soda Bread
Ingredients
Flour Use a good quality plain flour for soda bread. Don't be tempted to use self-raising instead, it contains baking powder which will make your loaf a bit cake-y rather that bready. A combination of 50/50 wholemeal and white flour would also work well here. I used some lovely flour from Wicken Windmill in Cambridgeshire - flour milled solely by wind power - how lovely!
Bicarbonate of soda The raising agent that gives soda bread its name. If you don't use it very often, do check that yours is still in date. Once you've opened a tub it lasts about six months before it begins to lose its potency, so if yours has been lurking in the cupboard for years it might be worth getting a new one.
Dairy-free yoghurt Make sure you use unsweetened yoghurt, you don't want to add any sweetness to this bread. I tend to use either soya or oat yoghurt.
Dairy-free milk Again, make sure it is unsweetened for the same reason, and again oat or soya both work well.
Equipment
The lovely thing about soda bread is that you don't need any fancy equipment at all - just a large bowl, your hands, a baking tray and an oven!
Variations on your Vegan Soda Bread
You can use this basic soda bread recipe to make all sorts of lovely loaves. Here are a few of my favourite flavours:
- 'Cheese' and Jalapeño Add 75g grated vegan cheese to the flour in step 2, (something like Violife Epic or Applewood Smoked), followed by 2 tbsp roughly chopped jalepeño slices from a jar.
- Sun-dried Tomato Roughly chop about 100g sun-dried tomatoes from a jar and toss them through the flour in step 2.
- Olive and Pine Nut Slice some de-stoned green or kalamata olives (from a jar is fine), and toss through the flour in step 3 followed by 3 tbsp pine nuts.
- Potato and Rosemary Peel and grate a medium-sized potato into the flour, finely chop the leaves from 2 rosemary stalks, and add 50g grated vegan cheese. Continue the recipe from step 3 onwards.
Freezing and Storing your Vegan Soda Bread
Soda bread doesn't keep particularly well, (though it is so delicious it won't last long anyway!). It is at its best when still warm from the oven, and makes lovely toast the following morning but that's about it - you won't get a second day's lunch out of it, I'm afraid.
However, soda bread does freeze well - I recommend slicing it first, then popping in the freezer. That way you can put a slice straight from the freezer into the toaster, the best way to keep it moist and fresh - really delicious!
Slather with vegan butter (the block butters are the best), and homemade jam (have you tried my morello cherry & raspberry jam?) or if it is brunch or lunch, my sun-dried tomato vegan pâté takes just five minutes to whizz up and is totally delicious!
For more quick and easy vegan recipes take a look at my latest book Vegan in 15.
"Brilliant! Chock full of easy recipes and great tips and advice" Hello! Magazine
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Vegan Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 500 g plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200 g unsweetened dairy-free yoghurt
- 200 g unsweetened dairy-free milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan) / 400°F / Gas Mark 6. Grease a large baking tray with a little oil.
- Sift the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
- Add the dairy-free yoghurt and milk and stir until a smooth dough is formed - it is easiest to bring it together with your hands.
- Knead the dough lightly in the bowl, just for a minute, but not any longer.
- Tip the dough onto the baking tray and roughly shape into a circle. Dust it generously with flour.
- Use a sharp serrated knife (a bread knife is perfect) to cut a large cross through the dough - about half way through the dough.
- Bake the loaf for 40-45 minutes until it sounds hollow when you tap on the bottom.
- If you prefer a softer, chewy crust, wrap the loaf in a clean tea towel the minute it comes out of the oven. If you prefer it crispy, just leave it to cool on a wire rack. Serve whilst still warm from the oven, spread with vegan butter.
LOVE soda bread 🙂 Can’t wait to try this!
Is there a particular non-dairy milk/yogurt that works better than others?
That's great! I tend to use unsweetened soya for both milk and yoghurt, but oat milk or an unsweetened nut milk will also be fine - just make sure it doesn't have too strong a flavour - I avoid coconut or hazelnut for that reason. Hope that's helpful! Kate x
That’s great! Thank you.x
Thanks so much for this recipe ,I have been looking for similar recipe for ages, simple and perfect soda bread, which is similar to sourdough, but I cannot tolerate much yeast so its perfect. I have passed onto my sister and sister in law to try who were impressed with my photo.
Stay safe and happy
That's great to hear - thanks Sue x
An excellent bread and super easy to make too. It came out delicious!
What an easy vegan bread recipe. I love the step by step presentation. And all the tips.
We love soda bread but never tried making our own so looking forward to making some vegan bread.
I love homemade bread, it is so much better than a store-bought. Love how simple this recipe is and turned out great without yeast!
Wow, no way this is vegan!! I have got to try this, in all of the variations you stated 😉 Thanks so much for the recipe!!