Easy Crusty Vegan Bread Recipe
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Crusty homemade and super easy Vegan bread recipe (+ Video) with only 3 ingredients: flour, water and instant yeast. Plant based, no knead, no fancy equipment needed, and we won’t be using any oil at all. Truth be told this is really my Italian pizza dough recipe in loaf form.
The best plant based vegan bread recipe ever!
Easier than making a ciabatta, this is for when you want your house to smell like a French or Italian bakery on a cold December day with minimal effort. It’s as easy as mixing three ingredients together in a large bowl, shaping a loaf and baking it.
There’s nothing else like the comforting sound of crackling crispy crust being torn over a steaming bowl of soup. This artisan bread loaf is also wonderful with this broccoli potato soup, or used for bruschetta, sandwiches and casseroles, for making bread crumbs, French toast, cheesy garlic bread and even Thanksgiving bread stuffing.
Am I right, or am I right…?!
By all means, feel free to chop up some fresh rosemary or black olives to add to your dough and give it that artisan Tuscan flair. You’ll still be under 5 ingredients, like a boss!
This vegan bread recipe is:
- Quick & Easy
- From Scratch
- Egg & Oil-Free
- Perfect for Sandwiches
- Crackling Crust
- Big Holes + Soft Center
- Dairy-Free
- Simply the Best!
The Secret to Making Crusty Bread
- a preheated pizza stone or cast iron dutch oven with a lid.
- a blasting hot oven.
- a tray of water to create steam <—crucial!
- allow the loaf to cool off in the oven or on its side on a cooling rack.
TIP: If you don’t have a pizza stone you can still bake your bread inside a cast iron skillet or dutch oven (lined with parchment paper) with the lid on instead.
FAQ
- Is Bread Vegan or Not? Yes it is, as long as you don’t add any animal products into the mix!
- Can I make bread without yeast? Yes you can but it will have to be a flatbread like this quinoa or potato flatbread.
- What to do with stale bread? So you forgot you made fresh crusty bread and now you have a stale loaf instead? No problem! it’s a sign from above that you must hurry and make Panzanella + a big pot of this Italian Bread Soup / Pappa al Pomodoro right away.
How to Store It
If you happen to not eat this loaf in the same day just store it on the kitchen counter in a bread box or a reusable bag for a couple of days.
What to Serve With
My favorite way to enjoy bread is fresh out of the oven, grilled for panzanella, dunked in this vegan zuppa Toscana, unstuffed cabbage roll soup, chunky potato soup, roasted butternut squash soup, chickpea salad sandwich and next to grandpa’s tomato cucumber salad + vegan ribs.
how to make homemade crusty bread
Easy Crusty Vegan Bread
Ingredients
- 3.25 cups all purpose flour + more for sprinkling (organic non-gmo)
- 1.5 cups warm water
- 2 tsp instant dry yeast
- 1.5 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Add the all purpose flour, yeast and sea salt to a large mixing bowl or your kitchen aid mixer. Mix in the water and stir well until incorporated. Cover the bowl loosely with a kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 2 to 3 hours. ( you may leave it overnight as well but it is not necessary )3.25 cups all purpose flour, 1.5 cups warm water, 2 tsp instant dry yeast, 1.5 tsp sea salt
- After about 2 hours check the dough and you should notice the surface dotted with bubbles. Turn the dough onto a floured surface and sprinkle it with a little flour. Shape it into a round loaf by folding it over on itself a few times. NO KNEADING Allowed!
- Meanwhile preheat your oven to 450"F with a pizza stone inside. I If you don't have a pizza stone preheat a cast iron dutch oven with the lid on instead). Place a baking dish with a couple of inches of water in it on the bottom rack to help create steam inside the oven for a crispy crust.
- Sprinkle a pizza peel or a cardboard box with some flour and place the bread loaf on top. Allow it to rest for 45 minutes while the oven warms up. Using a serrated knife make a few slits on top of the loaf.
- Sprinkle the pizza stone with a little bit of the semolina flour then gently slide the bread dough onto it just like you would do with a pizza. Cook for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool down before slicing. For an even crispier crust allow to bread to cool inside of the oven with the door slightly open.
Video
Notes
- No pizza stone? No problem, you can still bake the bread inside a preheated cast iron skillet or a dutch oven with a lid on instead (line with parchment paper but do not preheat the paper with the dutch oven). If using this method you won't need a tray of water to create steam as the lid will trap the steam inside the pot).
- Can I make bread without yeast? Yes you can but it will have to be a flatbread like this quinoa or potato flatbread.
Nutrition
If using a cast iron dutch oven do you cover the bread with the lid for baking or leave it off?
Yes cover then remove in the last 5 minutes of baking.
Thank you for the recipe. How did you count the nutritional information?
There’s a nutrition calculator plugin that calculates everything based on recipe.
Great and easy recipe!!! We used our Dutch oven and I ended up cooking for an additional 10 mins because my oven can be a bit wonky but it turned out so fluffy and delicious!!! I was happy to make it plain the first time but I would love to try some additions for sure! Either way absolutely delicious.
This bread was a little bit dense but maybe because I didn’t let it rise for long enough (2 hours)? still really good though, adding some more spices next time to experiment!!!
will make your bread on Tuesday, to eat it with a bean soup scheduled for that day simple and delightful
Thanks for sharing this clean and simple recipe. I came across your recipe while searching for a quick bread…I can’t wait to make this, as the reviews are wonderful, but I think the total time could be updated to better reflect the time needed to prep, wait, and bake. Total time of 40 minutes is not really accurate if you account for inactive/rising time.
Will this recipe work to make mini rolls instead of a loaf?
Hi Sash, here is a recipe for dinner rolls: https://veggiesociety.com/italian-vegan-dinner-rolls-recipe/
Thx for this recipe! I couldn’t believe how well it turned out given how simple it is. I’ll be making it regularly.
I made my loaf on a segment of parchment paper, which made it really easy to transfer to the heated stone in the oven and to remove from the oven when done. jAlso, I used 2 cups all-purpose and 1.25 cups whole wheat flours, and it came out just fine, dense but still springy and yummy.
So amazing. I was quite skeptical at first, how can something so easy turn out so good? I made it into 6 smaller loaves instead of one larger one. I then scooped out the centre and filled it with french onion soup. Lets just say it was beyond a hit at my dinner party. Every crumb was gone! Best recipe I’ve made in quite a while. Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful bread.
This makes me so happy Michele! Thanks for reporting back.
This is my go to recipe for bread. I love making garlic toast with it. It doesn’t always come out right for me, though. Sometimes it tastes too yeasty. Does anyone know how I can avoid that?
Hi Andrea! Is it possible the yeast wasn’t mixed well into the other ingredients..? In the future you can allow the dough to rise for a longer and develop more flavor. I hope that helps ~ Florentina Xo’s
This is an amazing recipe! My bread came out perfect last night! I did brush on a tiny bit of garlic oil as it finished baking. I’ve made similar recipes in the past, but none of them have been this good!
Thanks for reporting back Kathy, you totally made my day! Xo’s ~ Florentina
This is a great recipe! I’ve made it a long time ago. Minor suggestion, update the prep time to include the 2 to 3 hr proof time for the dough. 10 minutes prep time can misleading. 🙂
This was so very easy and delicious! I used bread flour and a packet of yeast (just a smidge over 2 t) and baked in a Dutch oven. Will definitely make again! Thank you.
So easy and delicious. I even used old flour AND yeast (Past its expiration date) and it still was delicious. I read a comment to add salt on top because of bland taste so I did that but honestly could have skipped that. Add it later on if needed when eating. Can’t wait to experiment with this. Made it in my toaster oven on a pizza stone and had to cover my top after about 20-25 min because it was getting too dark. I was concerned it would stick to pizza stone so used parchment paper but next time will trust the recipe and forgot that for a crispier bottom. Thanks so much for this recipe!!!
This makes me so happy! It is easier to transfer with parchment paper and in the future you can actually shape the loaf on parchment paper and place inside a round bowl to prevent any spilling of dough while resting, then easily transfer to pizza stone or cast iron dutch oven. I find the best way to keep the crust crispy is to let the bread cool on its side so the steam escapes quickly. Note: if you live in a humid climate no matter what you do (outside of running a dehumidifier) the crust will only stay crusty for so long. I hope that makes sense ~ Florentina Xo’s
Let me start out by saying I have never made bread before. That being said, this recipe was SO easy, even for me, and the bread ended up looking and tasting like the bread my family would buy at the Italian deli when I was a kid. This is an amazing recipe, and I will definitely be making this again. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for reporting back Devon, I’m is happy the bread turned out amazing, it abosolutely made my day! ~ Florentina Xo’s