Taftoon bread substitutes

Soft flat rounds of leavened wheat bread with no internal pocket, sold for gyros and wraps.

Best for

scooping khoresh and stews, wrapping kabab, serving alongside rice, cheese, herbs and walnuts at breakfast

The best supermarket match, because pocketless pita has the same softness and pliability and roughly the same thickness. It is usually a little denser and a little blander than taftoon, and it lacks the scorched blisters a tandoor gives, which you can fix in forty seconds by slapping it into a dry cast-iron pan over high heat until dark spots appear. Regular pocket pita also works but it is drier and splits into two thin leaves when you fold it, so buy the pocketless kind if you have the choice.

Leavened tandoor-baked flatbread from South Asia, usually enriched with yogurt, milk or ghee.

Best for

kabab plates, mopping up stew, when you want the tandoor char, wide availability

It comes out of the same kind of oven, so it has the charred blisters and the soft chew that make taftoon recognisable, and it is stocked almost everywhere. The difference is richness and weight: naan is thicker, softer and buttery from yogurt and ghee, so a plate that would have been light and bready becomes noticeably heavier and the bread competes with the food rather than carrying it. Choose the plainest naan available and skip any garlic or butter-brushed versions.

Very thin soft Armenian and Iranian flatbread, sold in large sheets or squares.

Best for

wrapping kabab and koobideh, lining a plate under rice, rolling with herbs and cheese, Persian and Armenian groceries

Nearly the same family of bread, and probably the most authentically Iranian option on this list. It is thinner and drier than taftoon, so it can crack when you fold it, and it gives none of taftoon's chew. Flick a little water over it and warm it in a covered pan or a low oven for a minute and it turns supple again. Excellent for wrapping, slightly frustrating for scooping a thick stew because it tears.

Soft wheat flatbread, unleavened or lightly leavened, in the bread aisle of every supermarket.

Best for

wrapping, last-minute meals, budget cooking, when the bread is a vehicle rather than a feature

Better than its reputation. Tortillas are pliable, thin and neutral, which covers taftoon's main structural job. What changes: they taste faintly floury and slightly sweet, they have no fermented bread flavour and no chew, and left untoasted they can feel gummy. Dry-toast each side for twenty seconds in a hot pan until it puffs slightly and takes on brown spots, which drives off the raw flour taste and makes a real difference. Choose the plainest kind without added baking powder flavour if you can.

Wholemeal flatbreads, either leavened pita or the unleavened Indian griddle breads.

Best for

matching taftoon's wheaty flavour, everyday meals, breakfast bread, healthier swaps

Taftoon is often made with a proportion of whole-wheat flour, so a wholemeal bread lands closer in flavour than white pita does, with the same nutty, slightly sweet wheat note. Roti and chapati are smaller and unleavened, which makes them thinner, less soft and more prone to drying out within minutes of coming off the pan, so serve them immediately or keep them wrapped in a towel. Two roti roughly cover one taftoon round.

A soft yeasted dough of flour, water, a little milk, salt and yeast, rolled thin and cooked on a very hot dry pan.

Best for

getting the real thing, cooks who already bake, large family meals, when no shop nearby carries Persian bread

This is genuinely worth an hour if taftoon matters to the meal, and it is one of the easier breads. Mix a slack dough, let it rise until doubled, divide it, roll each piece very thin, dimple it all over with your fingertips, and cook it on a screaming hot dry cast-iron pan for about a minute a side until it puffs and blisters. Stack the cooked rounds under a clean towel so the steam keeps them soft. A home pan cannot reach tandoor temperature, so the char is lighter, but the softness and chew come out right.