This is the best homemade gluten-free vegan bread recipe which is egg-free, dairy-free, yeast-free, and nutritious! This German bread is actually healthy since it contains psyllium husk powder. It’s crispy on the outside and soft on the inside!
Homemade Gluten-Free Vegan Bread
I cannot tell you how many times I tried making the perfect gluten-free vegan bread… Actually, I lost count how many times I ended up throwing the towel because it’s damn hard to create good gluten-free bread without eggs.
But since I can be quite stubborn (haha) I actually never gave up and continued with the recipe testing…
Psyllium Husk Powder
One day, I started experimenting with gluten-free pizza crust that contains psyllium husk powder. The recipe turned out so good, that I got intrigued.
To make a long story short, I made an online search about homemade gluten-free vegan bread + psyllium husk and found a couple of different recipes that were using huge amounts of psyllium husk powder in their bread recipes.
One recipe was from a German blogger, and she inspired me to give psyllium husk a try. I tweaked her recipe and used a different flour blend and the bread turned out amazing!
I was shocked by how great it turned out, especially since the bread is wheat-free (and therefore gluten-free), and egg-free (vegan)! It did rise, even though it doesn’t contain yeast and it actually looked like German bread from a bakery.
Conclusion: Psyllium husk powder is a godsend for gluten-free vegan baked goods. It’s also very healthy, especially for our gut! So please do yourself and favor and buy it or order it online. It’s cheap and absolutely amazing!
How To Make Gluten-Free Bread?
Check the video in the post to see how I made this amazing bread.
Step 1: Make the psyllium husk gel first. Mix the psyllium husk powder and water in a bowl. Try to be quick, because it gels instantly, within SECONDS. I always use a whisk, it works the best. Set aside and measure the dry bread ingredients in the meantime!
Step 2: It’s time to measure/weigh all dry ingredients and add them to a big bowl. You can also preheat your oven to 390 °F (ca. 200 °C) now.
Step 3: Mix it all together: Add the psyllium gel to the big bowl and mix all ingredients with a hand mixer (use the dough hooks). You can also knead the dough with your hands or use a Kitchen Aid. It will take about 5-10 minutes until the dough comes together.
Step 4: Shape the dough and bake the bread in the oven for about 55-60 minutes. That’s it!
Add Seeds Of Choice
I love adding pumpkin seeds but you can also use sunflower seeds, sesame seeds or nuts of choice (e.g. hazelnuts, walnuts, cashews, almonds, etc).
The Ingredients
You can find all the ingredients with measurements below in the recipe card! Please also check the recipe notes below where I list different substitutes.
My favorite flour combo is this:
- Buckwheat flour
- Rice Flour
- Chickpea Flour
- Tapioca Flour
Recipe Notes & Substitutes
- Some readers replaced the buckwheat flour with oat flour or sorghum flour (or a combo) and the bread still turned out amazing.
- Rice flour works great in this bread recipe, but feel free to experiment with lentil flour, teff flour, sorghum flour, or quinoa flour.
- You can use arrowroot flour instead of tapioca flour/starch. Cornstarch or potato starch will most likely work as well.
- Chickpea flour is the same as garbanzo bean flour. It adds plant-based protein and I love adding it to bread. Some readers had success using oat flour instead.
- Psyllium husk powder is the most important ingredient in this recipe and cannot be subbed by any other ingredient. Make sure to use psyllium husk POWDER. If you have psyllium husk (not the powder), you can blend it in a blender or electric spice/coffee grinder until it’s a fine powder.
Can I Freeze Gluten-Free Bread?
You can definitely freeze this gluten-free bread! Slice it and wrap all individual slices in wax paper or parchment paper. Put in zip lock bags and freeze for up to 3 months. Let thaw at room temperature and then toast the bread once you want to serve it.
Other Gluten-Free Bread Recipes
You can serve the bread with stews, soups and all kinds of comfort meals. Make sure to also check out my other vegan and gluten-free bread recipes:
- Gluten-Free Baguette
- Gluten-Free Pita
- Gluten Free Naan
- Gluten Free Buns
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Moist Vegan Cornbread
- Marbled Banana Bread
Should you give this gluten-free German bread recipe a try, please leave a comment and rating below and don’t forget to tag me in your Instagram or Facebook post with @elavegan and #elavegan because I love to see your remakes! 🙂
Gluten-Free Bread Recipe
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 100 g (3/4 heaped cup) buckwheat flour (see notes)
- 100 g (2/3 cup) white rice flour
- 100 g (1 cup) chickpea flour
- 40 g (5 Tbsp) tapioca flour/starch (see notes)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3/4-1 tsp sea salt
- 50 g (3/8 cup) pumpkin seeds (optional - see notes)
Psyllium mixture:
- 450 ml (1.8 cup) water
- 30 g (3 Tbsp) psyllium husk powder (see notes)
Instructions
- I recommend using the metric measurements for this recipe (grams/ml). In a bowl, combine the water with the psyllium husk powder and whisk well. It will gel instantly and become thick. Set aside for 20-30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, measure/weigh all the dry ingredients and add them to a large bowl. Preheat the oven to 390 °F (200 °C).
- Add the psyllium gel to the bowl and knead the ingredients with a hand/ stand mixer (use a dough hook). You can also knead the dough with your hands. It will take about 5-10 minutes for the dough to come together.
- If the dough appears too wet, sprinkle it with 1-2 Tbsp tapioca flour. If it feels too dry, add a little water.
- Shape the dough into a round or rectangular loaf and place it on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (I sprinkled the paper with a bit of tapioca flour).
- Bake for 50-60 minutes. Let the bread cool completely, then slice and enjoy. The bread freezes well, for up to 3 months!
Notes
Video Of The Recipe
- Psyllium husk powder is the most important ingredient in this recipe and cannot be substituted by any other ingredient. Make sure to use psyllium husk POWDER. If you have whole psyllium husk (not the powder), you can blend it in a blender or electric spice/coffee grinder until it's a fine powder.
- A few people mentioned a weird smell in the bread (I didn't, and most other people didn't either), however, I received a few helpful comments.
- You can use whole-grain buckwheat flour or regular, both are fine. Some people replaced the buckwheat flour with oat flour or sorghum flour (or a combo) and the bread still turned out amazing.
- Rice flour works great in this bread recipe, but feel free to experiment with lentil flour, teff flour, sorghum flour, or quinoa flour.
- You can use arrowroot flour instead of tapioca flour/starch. Cornstarch or potato starch will most likely work as well.
- Chickpea flour is the same as garbanzo bean flour. It adds plant-based protein and I love adding it to bread. Some readers had success using oat flour instead.
- Please don't compare this bread with wheat bread which contains gluten and yeast or a gluten-free bread which was made with eggs and yeast. It's hard to make a gluten-free, yeast-free, vegan bread, but this is the best recipe I have tried so far, and it turns out amazing every time! Depending on the flour mixture, the bread might end up more fluffy or dense.
- Pumpkin seeds: You can use sunflower seeds instead, however, they will turn green due to a chemical reaction with the baking soda/powder. This is perfectly fine and shouldn't concern you.
Nutrition information is an estimate and has been calculated automatically
Samantha
I bought all the ingredients in bulk from our small town local health food store, following the recipe exactly, along with weighing everything in my digital kitchen scale and using my KitchenAid for the dough hook to knead it. I am not sure if I bought something that was expired or what happened exactly but my bread was totally sticky and gloopy, it would not form at all, so I ended up just scraping it out of the bowl with a spatula and forming it as best as I could. I will see how it tastes when it’s done but it’s not pretty at all!
Do you have any suggestions or recommendations?
Ela
I am not sure what went wrong. Hope it still turned out delicious.
Cara
Really tasty and easy! I didn’t have parchment paper so I dusted a pan with tapioca flour and came out great! Crispy on outside soft and flexible in the middle. 🙌
Ela
So happy to hear that, Cara. 🙂
Bernadette
hi,absolutely love the taste of this bread.Made 4 times but I keep ending up with lots of holes in mine.I am hand kneading it,any tips?
Ela
Hey, that can happen when the psyllium didn’t dissolve properly.
Pia
Hi!
Love this recipe!!
Do you think it will work with brown rice flour instead of white rice flour?
Ela
That should work, but it might end up denser.
Carine Steenkamp
I have just baked this bread, It is SO delicious…nice crust but perfectly soft on the inside. Thank you so much for this recipe. It is impossible to find vegan GF bread here in South Africa. I was scared to bake one myself, but this is the most incredibly easy, and delicious recipe! It came out perfectly.
Ela
You are very welcome, Carine. 🙂
Heidi Laursen Habel
Trying this for the first time. Can I place the dough in a bread loaf baking dish ?
Ela
Yes, that should be fine.
Jessie
Hi Ela,
Thank you for your GF bread recipe, it sounds unbelievably easy and successful at the same time…😊 How can i incorporate GF sourdough starter to your recipe please? what would the recipe look like with the SD starter? New to the whole GF sourdough starter and bread making community 😅
Ela
I never tried it, so I really don’t know. Please report back if you give it a try. 🙂
Alyssa
Hi Ela, is it possible to make this with a store-bought gluten-free flour mix instead of mixing different kinds of flour?
Ela
You can certainly try it, but every flour mix is different. 🙂
Elaine
I made this today and wow. I was out of buckwheat, so mine was with Oats, teff, and brown rice, tapioca and potato starch. I used sunflower seeds. What kind of white rice do you use to make your white rice flour? I did not have a scale or a Kitchen Mixer so I did it with a fork. I am going to keep making it and trying different flour recipes. This is a gift!!! Thank you.
Ela
Hi Elaine, I am so glad you like it. 🙂
PS: I use store-bought rice flour.
Rika
Made this bread with 300g of Bob Mills all purpose Gluten free flour. Came out perfectly. Do utopian think it would work to substitute Almond Flour?
Ela
Hey Rika, I am pretty sure almond flour won’t work.
Jae
Is an adjustment needed in the recipe for high altitude baking?
Ela
Not that I know of.
Pam
wow! that was the easiest loaf of bread I’ve ever made. I just ate a wonderful meatball style sandwich that tasted amazing. thank you so much for the wonderful recipe!
sincerely pam
Ela
You are very welcome, Pam. 🙂
Pam
Made this today. Added sunflower seeds, poppy seeds and sesame seeds and put some on top. Came out beautifully- will make again. And again!! Thanks
Ela
Sounds amazing, Pam! 🙂
Mélissa
This recipe is by far the best i’ve ever tried !
I adapt the flours with what i had at home, rice –> teff & chickpea –> lupin and it turns out amazing.
thank you !!
Ela
You are very welcome, Melissa. So glad you like the recipe. 🙂
Lenore Howard
I’ve made this heaps of times also. Change the flours around sometimes and it’s still a winner.
Ela
So glad to hear that, Lenore. 🙂
Rachel
I’ve made so many variations of this bread and they all are amazing! I’ve added different flour mixtures, used chia or pumpkin seeds and even added pumpkin seed protein flour to the mix. Probably my favorite recipe of all my recipes ever tried!
Ela
Wonderful! I am so glad you like it, Rachel. 🙂
Halle
Finally a GF bread that is so similar to real bread… and tasty!! I used sorghum in place of buckwheat and oat flour in place of chickpea. How easy and delicious!! I’m curious to know if this loaf could be shaped into individual rolls instead? If so, how long would they bake for?
Ela
Wonderful! So glad it was a hit! Yes, that should work fine. I would bake them for about 40 minutes, but it depends on the size and your oven. 🙂
Halle
I did this modification for lunch today and split the dough into 12 portions. I rolled them into balls and baked for 40 mins. They came out perfect to dip into our soup! Thank you, Ela!
Ela
That’s awesome! Thanks for getting back to me. 🙂
Julie A
My daughter was getting rid of her weekly sourdough starter. I used it for this recipe. I realized that I inadvertantly forgot to add salt to the recipe and was really bummed that I might have messed the loaf up. Nope! It came out perfect except for the fact that I had to pull it out of my top oven due to rising so high. I also replaced oat flour for buckwheat since I forgot that I had buckwheat. I will be making this again soon to freeze a bunch of it. So good! Thank you for sharing.
Ela
Wonderful! So glad it was a hit! 🙂
Kenn
Wonderful recipe! I made this today using oat flour instead of buckwheat flour and the result was excellent. Thank you so much for this recipe and I wish you all success.
Ela
Thank you, Kenn! I am so glad you like the bread. 🙂
Pattie
Can this be made in a bread machine?
Ela
Yes, I think many readers already tried it with success.
Pattie Busby
Thank you!
Ela
You are welcome! 🙂
Olivia (:
Hi Ela!
I’ve been making this bread for moths now. I was looking for an easy GF bread recipe without, I found yours and never stopped making it or looked for other recipes.
Yesterday I ran out of rice flour and thought; imma try it with oat flour and we’ll see how it turns out. Turns out perfectly fine! It’s a bit darker and maybe a bit less crunchy on the outside. I do prefer it with rice flour idk why, because the difference is barely noticeable haha.
Anyway, just wanted to let you know and others that it’s possible with oat flour too (:
Side note: I did not used pumpkin seeds.
xx Olivia
Ela
Hi Olivia, I am so glad you like it! Yes, a few readers tried oat flour with success. This recipe works with different flours (teff, quinoa), too.
Thanks for your helpful feedback. 🙂