Lahoh substitute

Best substitute

Injera

Use the same amount piece for piece as the lahoh you are replacing

Best for maraq

Different taste

Lahoh is structure rather than flavour: it is the plate and the spoon, and its holes exist to soak up sauce. Injera is the closest thing in the world and swaps piece for piece, though it is teff-based and noticeably sourer. For breakfast lahoh with honey and ghee, crumpets are a genuinely good stand-in. To make something in twenty minutes, cook unsweetened thick pancake batter on one side only, covered, with 2 tbsp plain yogurt or a splash of club soda stirred in for lift and a hint of tang.

Other lahoh substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Crumpets or Split English Muffins
Different taste
Use 1 crumpet for every small lahoh, toasted
The supermarket option that actually works, because crumpets are made from a wet fermented batter cooked on a griddle and are full of the same absorbent holes.
What changes
Best for
breakfast lahoh with honey, sugar and ghee, sesame oil and sugar, serving alongside tea, a quick weekday breakfast
For breakfast this is a much better match than it sounds, since the holey, chewy, absorbent structure is exactly right and butter and honey behave the same way on both. It is wheatier and yeastier, considerably thicker, and completely unfoldable, so it fails entirely as a scoop for maraq. Use it for the sweet breakfast version and something else for the stew.
3Unsweetened Pancakes, Cooked on One Side
Different taste
Use the same amount by piece, with 2 tbsp plain yogurt or ½ cup club soda added per batch of batter
The twenty-minute homemade route: ordinary pancake batter with the sugar left out, cooked one-sided and covered so the top steams.
What changes
Best for
maraq, suqaar, breakfast, when you need bread today
The technique matters more than the recipe. Cover the pan so the top steams and stays pale and spongy rather than browning, and never flip it. Without a ferment you get no sour tang and fewer holes, which is what the yogurt or club soda is patching: yogurt for tang, club soda for lift. The result is softer and sweeter than real lahoh but it does the job on a plate of stew.
4Sourdough Discard Pancakes
Close match
1 cup discard + ½ cup water + a pinch of salt + ½ tsp baking powder makes 3 to 4 small lahoh
The best homemade version if you already keep a starter, because the ferment is the thing lahoh's flavour and holes come from.
What changes
Best for
maraq, suqaar, breakfast, the most accurate homemade lahoh, using up starter discard
This is genuinely close. The discard supplies the tang and the bubble structure, the baking powder gives it a final push so the eyes open properly, and the one-sided cook does the rest. Thin the batter until it pours like cream. It will taste more wheat-sour than a sorghum-based lahoh, which most people will read as pleasant rather than wrong.
5Lavash or Thin Flatbread
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount as a scoop only
A vehicle for getting food to your mouth, with none of lahoh's texture.
What changes
Best for
picking up drier food, suqaar, an emergency, when nothing spongy is available
Be honest about what this does and does not do. It is fine for gripping pieces of meat and vegetables, and it is wrong in every other respect: crisp or leathery instead of soft and spongy, and it absorbs essentially nothing, so a thin maraq slides straight off it. Warming it briefly makes it more pliable and slightly better at the job.
6Warm Pita Bread
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount as a scoop, warmed and torn
Sturdier than lavash and more useful for wet food, because the pocket traps sauce instead of letting it run off.
What changes
Best for
maraq, bean stews, wet dishes, a practical everyday stand-in
The most practical of the flatbread options for saucy food, since the pocket holds liquid and the crumb absorbs some of it. What you lose is the whole textural character: pita is bready and chewy and takes up a lot of room in the mouth, so it dominates the plate in a way lahoh never does. Warm it first, because cold pita is stiff and tears badly.

What is Lahoh?

Lahoh is a soft, spongy pancake bread from Somalia, Djibouti and Yemen, made from a lightly fermented flour batter and cooked on one side only so the top sets full of holes, also written lahooh, laxoox or canjeero.

Cooking tips

Cook lahoh and any stand-in on one side only, over medium-low heat, until the surface is dry and covered in open holes. Flipping it collapses the eyes and you end up with a pancake, which is the difference between lahoh and breakfast.
The batter should be thin enough to pour and spread itself, closer to crepe batter than pancake batter. Thick batter gives you a dense disc with a smooth top and no holes at all, which is the most common failure.
Use a dry, well-seasoned or nonstick pan with no oil. Fat fries and seals the underside so the bubbles cannot rise and break through the top, which is why an oiled pan gives you a smooth, browned pancake instead.
Stack them as they come off the pan and cover them with a clean cloth. Lahoh goes leathery within minutes if it sits uncovered, and the steam from the stack keeps them soft and foldable.
If you are short on time, a tablespoon of plain yogurt or half a cup of club soda in the batter fakes some of the fermented lift and tang. It is not the same as a real overnight ferment, but it visibly improves the holes.

Frequently asked questions

Is lahoh the same as injera?

Very similar in role, shape and technique, and different in ingredients. Both are batter breads cooked on one side until the top fills with holes, and both are used as plate and utensil. Injera is made with teff and fermented longer, so it is sourer, more mineral-tasting and usually thinner. Lahoh generally uses wheat, sorghum or semolina and is milder and slightly sweeter. Either works with either cuisine's stews.

Is canjeero the same as lahoh?

Yes. Canjeero, also written laxoox, is the Somali name for the same bread, and lahoh is the more common spelling in Djibouti and Yemen. Yemeni lahoh tends to be a little thicker and spongier and is often eaten with soup, while Somali canjeero is thinner and often eaten at breakfast with sesame oil and sugar. If a recipe calls for one, buy or make the other.

Can I use regular pancakes instead of lahoh?

Yes, with two changes. Leave the sugar out of the batter, and cook them on one side only with the pan covered so the top steams and stays pale and spongy instead of browning. Adding two tablespoons of plain yogurt to the batter gives a hint of the sour tang that fermentation would have provided. They will be softer and less holey than real lahoh but they work fine under a stew.

Can I just skip the bread and serve rice instead?

Absolutely, and this is what many Somali meals do anyway. Bariis iskukaris, the spiced rice, is served with the same stews, and any saucy maraq or suqaar is perfectly good spooned over rice. You lose the scooping-by-hand element that makes the meal what it is, but nothing about the food suffers. This is the easiest honest answer if you have no bread and no time.

Why does my lahoh have no holes?

Almost always one of four things: the batter was too thick, the pan was oiled, the heat was wrong, or you flipped it. Thin the batter until it pours like cream, use a dry pan, keep the heat at medium-low so bubbles have time to rise and break through, and never turn it over. If the batter also had no ferment or leavening, add yogurt or club soda or a half teaspoon of baking powder.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Lahoh substitute

Other lahoh substitutes

2Crumpets or Split English Muffins

3Unsweetened Pancakes, Cooked on One Side

4Sourdough Discard Pancakes

5Lavash or Thin Flatbread

6Warm Pita Bread