Sangak Bread substitute

Best substitute

Whole-wheat pita, split open and blistered

Use 2-3 pita for every large sheet of sangak

Best for scooping dizi and abgoosht

Taste and texture differ

Whole-wheat pita, opened out flat and blistered in a dry cast-iron pan or straight over a gas flame, is the working supermarket answer: figure two to three pitas per sheet of sangak. Lavash is better if you are wrapping kabab, and naan is better if what you want is the chew. Sangak's job at the table is structural rather than decorative, it goes under the kabab to catch the juices and gets torn up to scoop stew, so pick your substitute by which of those jobs you need rather than by which looks closest.

Other sangak bread substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Lavash
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 sheets for every sheet of sangak
The other Iranian flatbread, and the right choice specifically for wrapping.
What changes
Warm it briefly under a damp cloth so it becomes pliable.
Best for
wrapping kabab koobideh and joojeh, sandwiches, serving with cheese and walnuts, lining a serving platter
Lavash is thinner, softer and much more neutral. It wraps beautifully and it is what most Iranian kabab shops use anyway. It is too flimsy to scoop a thick stew like dizi without tearing, and it brings no sourness or char at all, so a plate of kabab on lavash tastes noticeably plainer than the same kabab on sangak.
3Naan
Different taste
Use 2 naan for every sheet of sangak
The closest match for texture.
What changes
Tandoor-baked naan has the same soft chew and leopard-spotted blistering that comes from a very hot surface.
Best for
matching the chew and blister, scooping thick stews, eating with cheese and herbs, reheating well
Naan is made with white flour and enriched with yogurt, milk or ghee, so it is softer, richer and slightly sweet where sangak is lean, nutty and sour. Alongside a rich lamb stew that richness can tip the meal over. It is also thicker, so it soaks up less juice per bite. Choose plain naan, never garlic or butter naan, which will fight the food.
4Barbari or Turkish pide
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Sangak's nearest genuine relatives.
What changes
If your Middle Eastern grocer has barbari but not sangak, stop looking and buy the barbari.
Best for
Persian breakfast, serving alongside stew, cheese, walnuts and herbs, any authentic substitution
Barbari is thicker with a much more open crumb and a glossy seeded top, so it eats more like a bread and less like a wrapper, and you cannot tear it thin enough to line a kabab platter. Turkish pide is closer in shape but softer and made with white flour. Both are the right cuisine and the right register, which counts for a lot.
5Whole-wheat sourdough, sliced thin and toasted
Different texture
Use 3-4 thin slices for every sheet of sangak
The only easy substitute that actually delivers sangak's two defining flavours, whole-wheat nuttiness and sourdough tang.
What changes
Best for
flavour matching, breakfast with feta and walnuts, eating alongside a bowl of stew, anything where shape does not matter
The taste is genuinely closer than pita's. The shape is entirely wrong: it is a thick slice rather than a thin flexible sheet, so it will not wrap, will not go under a kabab and will not tear into scoops. Cut it as thin as you can and toast until crisp so it at least works as a dipper.
6Whole-wheat tortilla
Taste and texture differ
Use 2 tortillas for every sheet of sangak
A last resort that does one job adequately, which is holding kabab and rice in a bundle you can pick up.
What changes
Best for
wrapping only, school lunches, when there is nothing else in the house
Soft, faintly sweet and slightly rubbery, with a doughy flavour that does not belong anywhere near Persian food. Char it hard in a dry pan to burn off some of that flatness. Nobody will mistake it for sangak, but a kabab wrap made with it is still a good lunch.

What is Sangak Bread?

Sangak Bread is the large flat Iranian whole-wheat sourdough also written nan-e sangak, baked directly on a bed of hot pebbles so it comes out dimpled, chewy, faintly sour and blistered with char, and at an Iranian table it does the job of both plate and utensil, wrapped around kebab, herbs and feta rather than served as a side.

Cooking tips

There is no real substitute for sangak, because the pebble bed is the ingredient. What you can reproduce cheaply is the effect: flick a little water onto whatever flatbread you have and hold it over a gas flame or press it into a dry cast-iron pan for thirty to sixty seconds until it puffs and spots. That single step closes most of the gap.
Sangak is torn, never cut. Put the whole sheet on the table and let people pull pieces off, and do the same with your substitute, because eating it in ragged pieces is part of why it works with stew.
Slide a piece of the bread under grilled kabab as it comes off the skewer. The bread soaks up the fat and juices and becomes the best thing on the plate, and this trick works with pita, lavash or naan just as well as with sangak.
Sangak is genuinely sourdough, made with a wild starter and a long ferment, which is why it tastes tangy and keeps better than most flatbreads. If flavour matters more to you than shape, a whole-wheat sourdough loaf is a more honest substitute than a white pita.
Freeze flatbread flat in a stack with baking paper between sheets, then reheat straight from frozen over a flame. It comes back far better than refrigerated bread, which goes stale and stiff within a day.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between sangak and barbari?

Sangak is thin, wholemeal, sourdough, baked on hot pebbles and eaten torn, mainly alongside kabab and stew. Barbari is thicker and longer with deep grooves, a glazed seeded top and an open chewy crumb, and it is the classic Persian breakfast bread with feta and walnuts. They are used differently, so if a recipe names one, the other is a substitute rather than an equivalent.

Can I use naan instead of sangak?

Yes, and for chew and blistering it is the closest thing in most supermarkets. Buy plain naan rather than garlic or butter versions. The main compromise is that naan is enriched and made with white flour, so it is softer, sweeter and richer than sangak, which can be too much next to a fatty lamb stew. A wholemeal naan, if you can find one, is better still.

Can I make sangak at home without pebbles?

You can make something very close. Use a whole-wheat sourdough dough at high hydration, stretch it thin onto a preheated baking steel or an upturned heavy tray at the highest temperature your oven reaches, and poke deep dimples across it with your fingers before it goes in. You will get the chew, the sourness and the char. You will not get the exact scattered pebble dimples, which are cosmetic more than anything.

Can I just serve rice instead of the bread?

For a stew like ghormeh sabzi, yes, since rice is the usual partner anyway. For dizi or abgoosht, no. In those dishes the bread is not a side, it is a tool: you tear it into the broth to soak it and you use it to eat the mashed meat and chickpeas. Without bread of some kind, the dish does not really work, so use any flatbread rather than skipping it.

Is sangak vegan?

Traditional nan-e sangak is flour, water, salt and a sourdough starter, so plain sangak is vegan. Check anything sold in a bakery with seeds or toppings, and note that some substitutes are not: naan is usually made with yogurt or milk, and some commercial pita and pide contain milk powder. Lavash and most whole-wheat pita are typically vegan.

Related substitutes

More grains & starches substitutes

Sangak Bread substitute

Other sangak bread substitutes

2Lavash

3Naan

4Barbari or Turkish pide

5Whole-wheat sourdough, sliced thin and toasted

6Whole-wheat tortilla