Barbari Bread substitute

Best substitute

Ciabatta

Use the same amount by weight as the barbari bread you are replacing

Best for Persian breakfast with feta, walnuts and herbs

Close match

Ciabatta is the closest thing in most supermarkets: split it lengthways, brush with oil, scatter sesame seeds and toast it, and you have very nearly the right crumb and crust. Focaccia works if you can live with the extra oil, and Turkish pide is the closest in shape and seeded top. Reach for pita only if you have no choice, because barbari's job is to provide a real open crumb that soaks up soup and holds up feta and walnuts, and a thin pocket bread cannot do that.

Other barbari bread substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Focaccia, plain
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Right shape, right open crumb, and it already comes as a long flat slab with dimples, which is visually close to barbari's grooves.
What changes
Best for
serving at the table, soaking up stew, cheese and herbs, quick availability
Focaccia carries far more oil than barbari, and most shop-bought versions are salted heavily and studded with rosemary or olives. Next to a plain feta-and-walnut breakfast that richness dominates, and the herbs are simply wrong for Persian food. Buy the plainest one you can find, and if it is very oily, warm it in the oven on a rack so some of the oil drains off.
3Turkish pide or ekmek
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
The nearest relative in the same family of breads: a long or oval flatbread, dimpled, glazed and usually scattered with sesame and nigella seeds.
What changes
Best for
matching barbari's look and seeds, breakfast, serving whole at the table, authentic substitution
Almost the same idea, with a softer crust and a slightly tighter, fluffier crumb, so it is more pillowy and less chewy than barbari and it does not shatter when you bite it. Ramazan pidesi in particular is very close. If your grocer sells this, it is the substitution to make.
4Baguette or batard, split
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 baguette for every barbari loaf
A reasonable option that gets the crisp crust right, and it is available everywhere.
What changes
Best for
breakfast with cheese, dipping, toasting, when there is no Middle Eastern bakery nearby
The crust is excellent and arguably crisper than barbari's. The crumb is the problem: a baguette is tighter and leaner, so it does not have the same soft chew and it absorbs less. It is also much narrower, so a slice gives you a small piece rather than a proper mouthful. Split it lengthways and toast the cut faces.
5Whole-wheat or plain pita, split and toasted
Taste and texture differ
Use 3 pita for every barbari loaf
The convenience answer.
What changes
Split each pita into two rounds and toast them until crisp so they at least stand up to dipping.
Best for
scooping, very quick breakfasts, supermarket availability, kabab wraps
This is a much bigger compromise than it looks. Pita is thin with almost no crumb, so if you are dunking it into aash or piling it with feta it collapses and you lose the entire point of barbari, which is soft interior bread. Fine as a scoop, poor as a substitute.
6Plain naan
Different taste
Use 2 naan for every barbari loaf
Good chew, good blistering, widely stocked, and it reheats well in a dry pan.
What changes
Best for
chewy texture, eating with stew, reheating, supermarket availability
Naan is enriched with yogurt or milk and often brushed with ghee, so it is softer, richer and slightly sweet where barbari is lean and bready. It also has a soft crust rather than a crisp one, so you lose the crackle that makes barbari satisfying. Choose plain, never garlic naan.

What is Barbari Bread?

Barbari Bread is Barbari, or nan-e barbari, is a long thick Iranian flatbread with deep parallel grooves down its length, a glossy glazed top scattered with sesame or nigella seeds, a crisp thin crust and an open chewy crumb.

Cooking tips

If you are baking barbari yourself, the glossy top comes from roomal, a thin cooked slurry of flour or cornflour and water brushed over the shaped dough before baking. It is what makes the crust glassy and helps the seeds stick, and skipping it gives you a dull, floury-looking loaf.
The long grooves are not decoration. Pressing them in with oiled fingers just before baking stops the thick dough from ballooning in the middle and helps it bake evenly, so do it with your substitute dough too if you are making a flat loaf.
Toast substitutes cut side down in a dry pan rather than in a toaster. Direct contact with hot metal crisps the surface while the crumb stays soft, which is exactly the contrast barbari has fresh from the oven.
Barbari stales fast because it is lean, with no fat or sugar to keep it soft. Buy it the day you want it, or slice and freeze it immediately and reheat straight from frozen in a hot oven for a few minutes.
The seeds on top are usually white sesame, black nigella (siah daneh), or both. Nigella tastes faintly of oregano and onion and is the more distinctive of the two, so if you want your substitute to read as Persian rather than Italian, nigella is the seed to reach for.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between barbari and sangak?

Barbari is thick, long and grooved with a glazed seeded top and an open chewy crumb, and it is the classic Persian breakfast bread eaten with feta, walnuts and herbs. Sangak is thin, wholemeal, sourdough and baked on hot pebbles, and it is torn up to eat with kabab and stew. They are both Iranian flatbreads but they do different jobs, so substitute accordingly.

Is barbari a sourdough bread?

Traditionally it is leavened with a starter and given a long ferment, which is where its faint tang comes from, though most modern bakeries use commercial yeast with a slow rise instead. It is much less sour than sangak either way. This is part of why ciabatta, which also relies on a long slow fermentation, tastes closer to barbari than a quick-risen sandwich loaf does.

Can I use ordinary sliced sandwich bread?

It will feed you, but it is the weakest option on this list. Sandwich bread is soft, sweet and fine-crumbed with no crust to speak of, so it goes soggy the moment it meets soup and it tastes noticeably sweet next to salty feta. If it is all you have, toast it hard first, which at least gives you some structure.

Can I just leave the bread out?

It depends on the meal. For a Persian breakfast of feta, walnuts, herbs and jam, the bread is the plate and the meal does not exist without it, so use any decent bread rather than none. Alongside a rice-based dinner, barbari is a nice extra and skipping it costs you very little. Serve rice or a bowl of aash on its own and nobody will feel short-changed.

What seeds go on top of barbari?

White sesame seeds, black nigella seeds, or a mixture of the two, pressed into the glazed dough before baking. If you are dressing up a ciabatta or focaccia as a barbari substitute, brush the top with a little water or oil and scatter sesame and nigella on before you toast it. It sounds cosmetic but it changes the aroma of the loaf noticeably.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Barbari Bread substitute

Other barbari bread substitutes

2Focaccia, plain

3Turkish pide or ekmek

4Baguette or batard, split

5Whole-wheat or plain pita, split and toasted

6Plain naan