Indian cuisine is very vast when it comes to entertaining your guests with Indian food. But preparing Indian food at home could be hard, and the biggest tension is how to decide the menu. Worry not, we are here to make it easy for you and take your biggest worry away.
Here is an all-inclusive guide on lunch ideas for Indian guests.
To start with, most of the Indian food is categorized into 3 categories:
1. Drinks & Appetizers
2. Main course
3. Dessert
Drinks and Appetizers
Mostly in India, the guests are welcomed with tea. So you can offer tea/coffee if it is cold outside; otherwise, you can go with lassi or lemonade, whatever is convenient for you and most liked by your guest (if you know their preferences). There are numerous Indian appetizers that you can serve to your guests, from aloo chat to dahi bade, samosa, and a never-ending list. For a good menu, divide your appetizers into veg or non-veg dishes (if your guests are non-vegetarian).
For vegan guest
You can make spicy Aloo chaat or Dahi Bhalla or Aloo kachori for them. You can add paneer tikka or chili potatoes to the list. Know the choice of your guests and serve them accordingly. If there are more vegan guests, then make at least two veg appetizers.
For non-vegan guest
You can go with numerous savory delicacies. Chicken tikka, fish fingers, chicken 65, chili chicken, keema kachori. These are easy to make and lovely to eat. Your hard work would surely be cherished after adding these items to your menu.
Accompaniments
Green chutney and tamarind chutney are a must with any Indian appetizer. You can make green chutney at home and buy tamarind chutney from the market.
Main Course
So, here comes a little tricky part which could be an easy task for some and difficult for others. 3-4 dishes can be prepared and apart from that, plain rice and naans are a must. There should be 2 veg dishes and 2 non-veg dishes. In the veg, you can make 3-4 veg dishes. So let’s move on to the menu.
For Vegan guests
You can make Dal Makhni or dal fry that’s easy to make then a dish of paneer as palak paneer, shahi paneer or any other recipe but it should be with rich gravy. Although you can prepare any vegetable of your choice, try mushrooms or any dish with potato; it just has to go nicely with your menu you can complement it with pooris and raita (made with curd) salad. That’s all you need to prepare. Apart from that, you can make veg biryani – this will be a perfect menu for a veg lunch party!
For Non-Vegan guests
Even for non-vegan guests you have lots and lots of options. You can make two chicken dishes—one could be mild in taste and the other would be a little spicy, so you can make chili chicken and butter chicken. You can make chicken angara with authentic korma. Then you can even make a nihari, it’s very famous and is loved by everyone. You can have biryani or Yakhni pulao, whatever you are comfortable in making, and the raita will complement your biryani. There could be a salad along with it as well, but you don’t need to make 2-3 salads, only one is sufficient. You can make any other roti/naan. It will complement your dishes absolutely well.
Dessert
When it comes to dessert, everyone loves it, whether it is a kid, an adult, or old, everyone is fond of it, and if you present a good dessert, in the end your whole hard work for organizing the lunch or dinner party will be successful. You can make kheer, it’s a sweet dish made from milk and rice. This is a mesmerizing dish. If you make it perfectly, then you will rock your party. Your guests will love this.
Apart from it, you can make carrot pudding, semolina pudding, and it would surely be delicious and loved by everyone. You can even make or buy chocolate cakes, brownies with ice creams. This will be a good subtle ending to your lunch party.
So, this will be a menu for your next lunch or dinner party which I am sure you and your guests will love. Try it and let us know in the comment section whether your guests liked it or not.
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