This Gluten-Free Vegan Irish Soda Bread is crusty on the outside, soft on the inside and packed with sweet raisins. It's filling and nutritious, slices well and is perfect for St. Patrick's Day! It's no-knead, yeast-free, oil-free, refined sugar free and nut-free too.
Inspired by this Gluten-Free Vegan Bread recipe, I was keen to experiment with more quick-bread recipes and I knew I would have to try making a soda bread!
Soda bread is a yeast-free bread made using bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) as the raising agent. It is often combined with buttermilk, as the acidic buttermilk reacts with the alkaline bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) to make a fluffy dough.
It is really easy to make dairy-free buttermilk!
1. Mix almond milk with vinegar in a measuring jug.
2. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Tip: This trick works with any kind of non-dairy milk, as the vinegar curdles the milk so that it resembles buttermilk.
How to make this recipe
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: This batter is much more liquid than a traditional soda bread, as gluten-free flours absorb a lot more moisture!
- Transfer the mixture into a baking dish lined with greased baking paper (I used a 20 cm/8 inch circular tin).
Tip: Take a small knife and draw a cross over the top of the batter, if desired.
- Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes, until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Make sure to leave the bread to cool down completely on a cooling rack before packing it away to store because otherwise the steam from the warm bread will get trapped and you'll end up with soggy bread, which nobody wants!
How long does this keep for?
This Irish Soda Bread keeps well covered in the fridge for a good few days. If not eaten on the day it's made, it's best toasted before eating.
Can you freeze it?
If you're freezing it, you can just slice it up and put the whole thing in the freezer. Then when you want to eat it you can just pop the slices of bread in the toaster straight from frozen.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of plant-based milk.
- The rice flour and tapioca flour can be replaced with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
- The vinegar can be replaced with lemon juice.
- The raisins can be omitted.
- The raisins can be replaced with dried cranberries or chopped dates.
- You can add some chopped walnuts.
- You can add some mixed seeds and/or sprinkle them on top.
- You can add some caraway seeds!
More gluten-free vegan bread recipes
- Gluten-Free Vegan Chickpea Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Blueberry Banana Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Almond Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Oat Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Dinner Rolls
- Gluten-Free Vegan Seeded Buckwheat Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Cornbread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Bread Rolls
- Gluten-Free Vegan Oatmeal Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Biscuits
- Gluten-Free Vegan Carrot Bread
- Gluten-Free Vegan Orange Bread
- Quinoa Bread
- or browse the whole collection!
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I'd really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Irish Soda Bread
Ingredients
- 375 ml (1 ½ cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 220 g (2 cups) chickpea (gram) flour
- 220 g (2 cups) rice flour
- 30 g (¼ cup) tapioca flour
- 6 teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- Pinch salt
- 150 g (1 cup) raisins or sultanas (optional)
- 120 ml (½ cup) water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Measure out the milk and, leaving it in the measuring container, add the vinegar and stir - leave to sit for around 10 minutes, while you do the rest of the steps.
- Place the chickpea flour, rice flour, tapioca flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt and raisins in a large bowl and mix well.
- Add the milk and vinegar mixture and the water, and mix again.
- Transfer the mixture to a baking dish lined with greased baking paper (I used a 20cm/8inch circular tin).
- Take a small knife and draw a cross over the top of the batter, if desired.
- Bake in the oven for around 45 minutes, until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Leave to cool slightly before slicing.
- Leave to cool on a wire rack before putting away to store.
- Keeps well in the fridge for up to a few days - if not eaten on the day it's made, it's best toasted before eating.
Video
Notes
- You can use any type of baking tin you like, but to get a beautifully risen, puffed-up bread with a traditional cross on the top, I would recommend using a circular baking tin.
- The cross on the top might look fancy, but it's super easy to make - all you need to do is use a knife to score the top in a cross pattern before you put it in the oven.
- Make sure to leave the bread to cool down completely on a
cooling rack before packing it away to store because otherwise the steam from the warm bread will get trapped and you'll end up with soggy bread, which nobody wants!
- This batter is much more liquid than a traditional soda bread, as gluten-free flours absorb a lot more moisture!
- You can use any type of plant-based milk.
- The rice flour and tapioca flour can be replaced with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend.
- The vinegar can be replaced with lemon juice.
- The raisins can be omitted.
- The raisins can be replaced with dried cranberries or chopped dates.
- You can add some chopped walnuts.
- You can add some mixed seeds and/or sprinkle them on top.
- You can add some caraway seeds!
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illy
Hi Rhian
I made the bread but it didn’t really rise for me. I used 2 cups of a gluten free flour blend (sweet white rice flour, whole grain brown rice flour, potato starch, wholegrain sorghum flour, tapioca flour, xanthan gum) plus the rest of ingredients except for tapioca starch. I used buttermilk and added extra milk as the though seemed dry, still wasn’t quite as wet as in the pictures.
I would love to try this recipe again - what do you suggest i do differently?
Thanks
Rhian Williams
Hi - thank you so much for your feedback. I'm sorry you had a problem with the recipe. I think using xanthan gum was the issue - whenever I've used it in baked goods like cakes or breads without yeast, it's made the mixture kind of gluey and hard to rise, and also makes the dough drier. If making again I would use tapioca starch as a binding agent instead of xanthan gum. I hope that helps and please let me know how you get on! Thank you again for your feedback.
Kelly Dynes
I followed this exact recipe but it just doesn’t bake in the middle, it just got harder on the outside and wouldn’t cook through in the middle. Really disappointed ☹️
Rhian Williams
Hi Kelly, thank you so much for your feedback! I'm so sorry to hear that - did you bake it at the right temperature? And what sort of baking tin did you use?
Allison
I had the same issue. I used a dark metal round cake pan and cooked it for over an hour before finally pulling it out, cut into it and it was gluey. I did sub flours, so maybe i ended up with more liquid than needed, but I feel like it really should have been more done with how dark it turned out on the outside.
Rhian Williams
Hi - thank you for your feedback. Subbing the flours would definitely have caused this issue! Which flours did you use?
Lorraine Brady
I've just made this, in fact it's still in the oven but I'm a bit worried because it was very very wet. I actually ended up adding more flour to it to try and get it to the right consistancy but I got a bit worried I was adding to much so the final consistancy was still way to wet to hold a cross shape. I did use a gluten free flour blend instead of rice flour/tapioca flour and then left out the raisins.
Soda breads I'm used to making a dry enough that you can just shape them and put them on a baking tray without any tins to hold the form. But I've never made gluten free/vegan one before.
Rhian Williams
Hi! I think it should be ok - the batter is much wetter than a traditional soda bread!! I will add that as a note to the recipe, thank you for the feedback!!
Bobby
Hi Rhian..I am very new to baking. I did try to bake 2 times but i saw it was still not cooked in the middle. What would be my tips for trying this bread out? I will be making it for my kid. I will be using coconut milk.
Rhian Williams
Are you using a tinned coconut milk or one from a carton? If you're using a tinned one, it'll be because it's too thick, so you need to use a thin one from a carton. If this isn't the issue, to make sure it bakes all the way through I would recommend baking at a slightly lower temperature and covering the top with baking paper for the first half of the baking process then taking it off afterwards to ensure it gets crusty on top!
Jacqueline
Hi, which flour could I use to replace chickpea flour? Love your recipes, thanks
Rhian Williams
Hi - if you don't want to use chickpea flour I'd recommend using either this rice flour bread recipe: https://www.rhiansrecipes.com/rice-bread/ or this almond flour bread recipe instead: https://www.rhiansrecipes.com/almond-bread/ and you can just add raisins. Hope that helps!