Planning Your Indian Spice Dinner Party

When planning your meal, bear in mind that there are generally 3 items in a traditional Indian spiced meal:

• Main dish
• Side dish
• Staple (Bread or rice)

Chutneys, salads and raitas can also be served to add a tangy taste.

Planning The Menu

When deciding what dishes to serve, take into account the following considerations:

Is the main dish going to be highly spiced, or have subtle flavours?

Do the flavours of the dishes you have chosen complement each other?

Choose a side dish based on the strength and consistency of the main dish. For example, a mild side dish is more enjoyable with a spicier main dish and dishes with a drier consistency are generally accompanied with a curry or a lentil dish.

How To Serve An Indian Spice Feast

Unlike Western meals, an Indian meal is not served as separate courses. Although it has several courses, these are all brought to the table at the same time, allowing diners to help themselves to each dish in any order.

For more extravagant dinner parties, you can add more dishes to the standard 3 dish menu. Try adding one or two dry meat dishes, such as kebab or tandoori chicken, along with some chutneys, pickles and raitas, with a dessert to follow.