Paleo Irish Soda Bread (Updated 2024)

Amazingly maintaining the crusty exterior and tender crumb of the original, this delicious paleo soda bread is both grain free and vegan!

For the printable recipe click here.

A taste of the Emerald Isles

Before visiting Ireland my expectations about the food there were pretty low; I had heard it was all boring and bland. Fortunately for my taste buds, this was far from the truth. In reality, Ireland is a totally underrated foodscape with incredible culinary treasures to be tasted.

Although simple, one of the standouts on nearly any Irish table is the iconic soda bread.

While in the States you'll often find soda bread sweetened and loaded with raisins or currants, in Ireland I typically found this yeastless bread a little more on the savory side.

Made from some combination of wheat, oat, and barley flours, with butter and buttermilk, it might be served with every meal. Whole-grain-heavy loaves are called brown bread, and all varieties are heavenly with a generous slather of salted Irish butter.

Soda-licious

Soda bread is so-called because instead of yeast, it relies on baking soda for leavening. This recipe relies entirely on baking soda without the addition of baking powder.

Baking soda, aka sodium bicarbonate or sodium hydrogen carbonate, is a base, meaning it has a relatively high pH.

In this recipe, the basic baking soda reacts with the acidic apple cider vinegar to create gas bubbles within the dough that expand in the heat of the oven to help the soda bread achieve a lighter, airier texture.

Paleo Irish Soda Bread

When my family first embarked on a paleo path, I assumed soda bread would be a once-a-year, dietary-offroading-for-St.-Patrick’s-Day kind of treat. I didn’t even think there was much reason to experiment with a paleo version at first--how could it measure up? But this year I just went for it, and leaping leprechauns, I’m glad I did!

This paleo soda bread maintains the hearty, crusty exterior and tender crumb of the original, amazingly excluding all grains and dairy.

All this and vegan, too?

This delicious paleo Irish soda bread is not only gluten free, grain free, and dairy free, but also egg free and free of animal products of any kind, making it vegan as well!

But is it tasty?

Absolutely!

In fact, we throw a big St. Patrick's Day party every year, and this year we are making it for our guests, who mostly follow typical, non-paleo diets.

We used to serve more traditional versions of Irish soda bread and maybe one using a gluten-free all-purpose flour blend, but now we think this one is good enough to be the only one we serve!

What is soda bread best with?

Anything!

We served it alongside green shakshuka the other day, and it was fabulous.

Serve thick slices of soda bread alongside a steaming mug of lamb stew, or top with salted ghee, whipped bacon drippings, honey, or jam.

If you can handle grass-fed butter, don’t skimp on the salted Kerrygold. Oh. My. Yumminess.

Here's what you'll need:

1 ¾ cups almond milk
¼ cup cider vinegar or lemon juice
2 ½ cups almond flour
1 ½ cup potato starch
⅓ cup coconut flour
2 T coconut sugar
1 T ground chia
1 T flax seed meal
2 tsp kosher salt (I used Morton)
2 tsp baking soda
3 T palm shortening

Here's what you'll do:

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the almond milk and cider vinegar or lemon juice and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (almond flour-baking soda). Use a pastry cutter to “cut” in the palm shortening. Alternatively, use two forks to distribute the shortening throughout the dry mixture and till no large clumps remain.
Use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula to make a “well” in the dry ingredients, and pour the milk mixture in, stirring to incorporate into a sloppy dough-mound. The dough will look really wet at first but will thicken up slightly after a minute or two.
Transfer the dough to the prepared baking sheet, pat into a thick round, and use a sharp knife to cut an X across the top.
Place the pan in the oven, immediately turn the temperature down to 425, and cook for 50-55 minutes, or until a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 200-210 degrees F. Cool completely before serving. Leftover bread can be kept at room temperature, wrapped in plastic or stored cut-side-down in a sealed bag or container, for about three days. Leftovers are great toasted!