Vegan Kubaneh

Vegan Kubaneh

Kubaneh is Jewish Yemeni bread that is eaten both on weekdays and on Shabbat. I humbly veganized this kubaneh recipe by famed Israeli chef Meir Adoni in the New York Times. This recipe speeds up the whole preparation and baking time process (which is to let it rise overnight and/or slow bake over night). And, it worked well. Adapting baked goods with vegan ingredients is usually easy because you mostly you need to swap a binder, fat, and/or liquid and there are plenty of vegan options. For this, I used olive oil instead of butter and carbonated water instead of eggs (yes, this works). The rest of it follows the recipe. It is often served with a side of schug or grated tomatoes and I included the New York Times tomato recipe too.

Ingredients: Vegan Kubaneh

2-2.5 tbsp olive oil
1 cup flat water at room temperature
1 tbsp instant yeast
3 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tbsp kosher salt
1/4 cup carbonated water

Tomato:
1 tomato, grated
1/2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt

Preparation:

1. Take your pan (I used a deep round baking pan but a 9 inch springform pan is called for. Heavily grease it with about 1/2 tbsp or more of olive oil.
2. Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and both waters and and 1.5 tbsp olive oil  in a large bowl. Knead together for about 15 minutes. The New York Times recipe calls for this to be done with an electric mixer but I did it by hand. 
3. Let sit for about 20 minutes in a warm place, covered.
4. Put the dough on a cutting board. Cut it in half and continue to cut each half into another half until you have 16 evenly sized pieces of dough.
5. Drizzle a small amount of olive oil onto the clean counter and take your first ball of dough. Using your fingers, pull it apart as wide as possible, (the recipe called for it to be 12 inches in diameter. I did not always achieve this) and don’t worry about holes or tears in the dough.
6. Then, roll the dough into a long strip. I noticed sometimes that the dough started to shrink when I rolled it so I rolled it a bit more to lengthen it again. Then take the long roll and wind it into a snail shape.
7. Put the rolled dough into the pan.
8. Repeat this process with the remaining 15 pieces of dough, starting with a small drizzle of olive oil. The rolled dough should fit snuggly into the pan next to the other ones.
9. Once complete, cover the pan and let rise in a warm place for at least an hour.
10. While it’s rising, prepare the tomato sauce. Grate one tomato into a bowl. Add some olive oil and a pinch of salt. Mix well.
11. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until golden brown on top. Remove from the oven and let slightly cool before serving.

B’tayavon!