Easy vegan soda bread

A vegan friendly soda bread made from just a few store cupboard ingredients. Quick & easy to bake, and delicious with all sorts of toppings.

Over the last year, we’ve been eating lunch as a family almost every day. I tend to put my creative efforts into making delicious dinners, so coming up with something quick, filling and tasty for lunchtimes too has been a learning experience!

Quick and easy lunches

We quickly settled into something of a routine. Lunches are generally variations on a theme, and consist of foods that can be quickly prepared.

We usually have some combination of:

• bread, crackers, wraps, savoury scones etc.
• humous, dips and spreads
• cheeses
• eggs – omelettes, scrambles, or egg and onion
• ready-to-eat fish like smoked salmon or tinned tuna or sardines
• salads – usually a leafy salad with cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, radishes etc, and sometimes a red cabbage salad, chopped salad, or something else.

On some days there are also leftovers from the night before. And if it’s cold I might make soup. But the menu above is typically the backbone of any lunchtime meal.

Thank goodness for quick breads!

Since DH can’t eat yeasted bread – he has a delicate tummy, poor thing – and gets bored of crackers etc quite quickly, homemade quick breads have been a lifesaver.

Quick breads are any kind of non-yeasted bread that can be mixed and baked, without needing time to prove. They were developed in the USA in the second half of the 18th Century, when chemical raising agents became more widely available.

Although technically many cakes, including muffins, scones and banana bread (the clue’s in the name with that one!) are actually quick breads, the name tends to be used to refer to more savoury examples. For instance corn bread, beer bread or damper, and of course, soda bread.

Easy soda bread

I love to make soda bread with yogurt, but of course we don’t always have yogurt in the fridge! Fortunately, it’s also perfectly easy to make a simple, dairy-free soda bread.

Soda bread traditionally contains just a few basic store cupboard ingredients. To make a quick and easy loaf you will need:

• plain (all-purpose) flour
• bicarbonate of soda (also known as baking soda)
• a pinch of salt
• an acidic liquid

Traditionally soda bread was made with buttermilk as the acidic liquid, although I usually use yogurt. However you can really use any liquid you like, as long as you also add a squeeze of lemon juice or a dash of vinegar to provide the acid.

Acid + base = bubbles of gas

The role of the acid is to react with the bicarbonate of soda and make bubbles of gas that cause your soda bread to rise. Without the acid, the soda bread will be dense and claggy, and will have a bitter ‘baking soda’ taste. Yuk!

However, if you don’t want to add lemon juice or vinegar, you can swap out the bicarbonate of soda for baking powder. Baking powder consists of bicarbonate of soda mixed with an acid component. When the powder is mixed with liquid, the two chemicals dissolve and react together to produce bubbles of gas.

So to make super-simple soda bread, simply replace the bicarb in the recipe with baking powder, and then you can use the liquid of your choice! It takes about three times as much baking powder as baking soda to produce the same amount of ‘rise’.

Easy vegan soda bread recipe

An easy dairy-free soda bread can be simply made from flour, baking powder and plant-based milk, plus any seasonings or flavourings.

In the recipe below, I’ve added the traditional pinch of salt, and then a good grind of black pepper too. Salt and pepper are considered almost ‘background’ flavours, but they make this vegan soda bread loaf really tasty, and versatile enough to go with loads of different toppings.

You can can also add any of the following, or anything that takes your fancy!

• pumpkin, sunflower, sesame or any other seeds – or a mixture
• sun-dried tomatoes – be sure to drain off as much oil as possible
• chopped fresh herbs – parsley, dill, chives or rosemary are all delicious
• pitted black or green olives – whole or sliced/chopped
• a teaspoon or two of your favourite spices – try garam masala for a fragrant spicy loaf, or smoked paprika for a gorgeous colour and aroma

No-knead dough

Unlike yeasted dough, soda bread dough should be handled as little as possible. Once the liquid begins the leavening reaction, you should get your loaf into the oven as quickly as possible.

This means that rather than taking your time kneading the dough, you should mix, shape and bake your soda bread as fast as you can.

This will ensure that your finished vegan soda bread loaf is light and airy, with a fabulous fluffy texture. Just ready and waiting to be spread with something delicious…

Traditionally, soda bread has a deep cross cut into the top of it. This provides ‘growing room’ in the crust so your loaf can rise nice and tall!

What to eat with dairy free soda bread

The easy vegan soda bread recipe below makes a delicious savoury loaf that is a great blank canvas for all sorts of toppings. I recommend eating it warm from the oven with butter or vegan spread, or dipped into some extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

As you can see in the photos, we usually cut it into chunks to serve. However, you can also slice it like any other loaf, and use it to make sandwiches. I like it with humous, sliced tomato, and lots of leafy salad.

Lightly toasted, this vegan soda bread is wonderful with a bowl of soup. Or you can cube and fry any leftovers to make quick and tasty croutons.

Tasty vegan soda bread

I hope you enjoy this tasty vegan soda bread. It’s certainly become a fixture at our family lunches!

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📖 Recipe

More delicious quick bread recipes

If you’re looking for quick and delicious savoury bakes, why not try these delicious sun-dried tomato and pesto muffins, these tasty vegan smoked tofu and caramelised onion muffins, or this fab vegetable soda bread.