How to Create an Indian Dinner Party Menu + Sample Menus

Creating an Indian Food Menu

Friends and blog readers often ask me what dishes to pair together when creating a menu. While there are no set rules, I typically aim to serve dishes that differ in taste and texture. I pair a “wet” dish (e.g., butter chicken) with a “dry” dish (e.g., cabbage and peas). And I also try to include a good variety of vegetarian and non-veg.

Take a look at my sample menus below, and feel free to switch recipes out! You can find all of my Indian recipes here and all of my Instant Pot Indian recipes here. Nearly all of the recipe suggestions in my sample menus are Instant Pot recipes because they are easy to make and perfect for parties!

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Snacks/Appetizers

Before I get into planning a lunch/dinner party, I want to talk about snacks. Depending on the type of event you’re planning, you may want to have some snacks. If you’re having a small casual dinner, you can skip this part. But if you’re having a party with several guests, you’ll want to include snacks. It’s very common during “Indian parties” to serve a few different appetizers. This way, you have food ready for friends to munch as soon as they arrive. They can enjoy the snacks while you wait for all of your guests to arrive.

The photo above is from my husband’s birthday lunch. We had around 20 friends over (half adults, half kids) and what you see is our lunch. Before serving lunch, I served samosas, pani puri, and chicken bhuna.

Here are some ideas for snack and appetizers:

• Dhokla (savory chickpea flour cake)
• Samosas with chutney (store-bought samosas with homemade tamarind chutney and green chutney)
• Pani Puri with chickpeas and boiled/roughly mashed boiled potatoes and chutney (store-bought puris with homemade tamarind chutney and green chutney, simple raita and spiced pani)
• Chicken Bhuna
• Kerala Meat Cutlets
• Chickpea Sundal
• Black-Eyed Pea Chaat
• Stuffed Aloo Tikki
• Sweet Potato Tikki
• Khandvi

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Serve the following with each menu listed below:

• Plain Basmati Rice or Matar Pulao or Jeera Rice
• Naan (when organizing a lunch or dinner party, I serve naan that I buy from Costco or Trader Joe’s)
• Salad
• Raita (yogurt thinned out with a little water, salt, and roasted cumin powder)
  • Try my simple beetroot raita
• Pickles or Chutney (I always have a jar of achaar in the pantry/fridge at all times)
• Indian Pickled Onions

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Here are Several Sample Menu Plans:

Lunch Party Menu (as pictured in the top photo of me standing by my kitchen island)

This is the menu from the photo above of me standing next to several dishes. On the day this photo was taken, we had around 12 adults and 11 kids at our place, and so I doubled all the recipes below in my 6 quart Instant Pot. We had a good amount of leftovers (except for the butter chicken). Everyone finished all the snacks I mentioned in the snack section, so if you’re not going to serve snacks, you likely won’t have leftovers.

• Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
• Keema
• Vegetable Korma
• Langar Dal
• Aloo Beans (Punjabi Potatoes and Green Beans)

(For this particular event, I prepped/cooked everything needed for the snacks as well as the butter chicken, keema, and langar dal the day before. I cooked the korma, aloo beans, and matar pulao the morning of the party).

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Fancy Dinner Party Menu

• Chicken Biryani
• Paneer Onion Masala Stir-fry or Paneer Butter Masala
• Corn Kadai or Tangy Tomato and Fresh Corn Soup
• Spiced Buttery Lentils (Dal Makhani)
• Potato and Eggplant in Pickling Spices (Achari Aloo Baingan) or Vegetable Korma (though I wouldn’t serve the korma if you are serving the paneer butter masala)
• Mango Cheesecake or Kheer (Creamy Cardamom Rice Pudding)

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Fancy Dinner Party Menu (All Vegetarian)

• Egg Biryani
• Vegetable Korma or Butter Chickpeas
• Corn Kadai or Aloo Methi
• Spiced Buttery Lentils (Dal Makhani)
• Indian Cheesecake or Sweet Saffron Fruit and Nut Rice (Meethe Chawal)

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Holiday Menu

• Tandoori Whole Chicken with Potato Curry
• Green Bean Thoran
• Corn Kadai
• Pumpkin Dal
• Masala Chai Pumpkin Pie or Sweet Potato Halwa

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Holiday Menu 2

• Murgh Musallam
• Aloo Beans OR Aloo Methi OR Arbi
• Mushroom Do Pyaza
• Tangy Tomato and Fresh Corn Soup OR Corn Kadai
• Masala Chai Pumpkin Pie or Sweet Potato Halwa

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Weeknight Menu

• Spiced Ground Meat and Rice (Keema Pulao)
• Yellow Lentils with Spinach (Dal Palak) or Langar Dal
• Cabbage and Peas or Potatoes and Cauliflower (Aloo Gobi) or Aloo Beans (Punjabi Potatoes and Green Beans)

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Vegan Menu

*substitute ghee with coconut oil and heavy cream with full-fat canned coconut milk

• Vegetable Korma
• Masala Dal
• Potato and Eggplant in Pickling Spices (Achari Aloo Baingan) or Aloo Methi
• Carrot Pudding (Gajar ka Halwa)

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Vegetarian Menu

• Masala Egg Roast (Nadan Mutta Roast)
• Lentils in Coconut Curry (Kerala Parippu)
• Mushrooms in an Onion Gravy (Mushroom Do Pyaza)
• Moong Dal Halwa or Sweet Potato Halwa

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Keralite Menu

• Kerala Beef Fry (Erachi Ularthiyathu) or Goat Pepper Fry
• Coconut Rice
• Beet Stir-fry (Beet Thoran)
• Mixed Vegetables in Yogurt Sauce (Avial)
• Sweet Lentils in Coconut Milk (Moong Dal Payasam)

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Punjabi Menu

• Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
• Spiced Chickpea Curry (Chole/Chana Masala)
• Potatoes and Cauliflower (Aloo Gobi) or Potato and Eggplant in Pickling Spices (Achari Aloo Baingan)
• Spiced Buttery Greens (Saag)
• Carrot Pudding (Gajar ka Halwa)

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Brunch Menu

• Steamed Rice Cakes (idli) or Crispy Crepes (Dosa)
• Aloo Masala for Dosa (recipe coming soon)
• Split Pea & Vegetable Soup (Sambar)
• Spiced Brown Chickpeas (Sookha Kala Chana Masala)
• Sweet Saffron Fruit and Nut Rice (Meethe Chawal) or Moong Dal Halwa
• Masala Chai/Chai for a Party & Stovetop Chai

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Fusion Brunch Menu (pictured below)

On the day this picture was taken, we had 12 adults and 12 kids at the house. I decided to create a fusion menu with some Indian food and then a few American dishes like waffles and turkey bacon for the kids (and adults if they wanted). I tripled my recipes below for egg biriyani, egg curry, and my breakfast skillet recipe and then doubled the recipes for chana masala and chicken stew. There were some leftovers but not an overwhelming amount – I always like to make extra food as it’s better to have more than not enough. Since this was an early brunch, I did not serve any snacks/appetizers.

• Potato Egg Scramble with Avocado (not Indian but well-spiced! I wanted to serve something a little different and this was a hit)
• Egg Biryani
• Chana Masala
• Kerala Chicken Stew and/or Kerala Egg Curry (normally I would only make 1 coconut stew but I really wanted the vegetarians to be able to enjoy too. You can always make this Kerala Egg Roast or this Punjabi Egg Curry instead).
• Store-bought parathas (ordered these from a local Indian restaurant to make life easier. Had yogurt, achar, and butter to go with this on the table)
• Masala Chai/Chai for a Party or Stovetop Chai and Orange Juice/Mimosas for the adults
• Waffles and Turkey Bacon for the kiddos (and a friend brought the biscuits pictured)

(For this brunch, I prepped/cooked the chicken stew and chana masala the day before. I also made the egg curry sauce and the egg biryani rice the evening before – but I wanted the eggs to be fresh so I hard-boiled those the morning of the brunch and added them directly to the curry and the rice. I made the egg scramble that morning as well as the turkey bacon. I prepared the batter for the waffles and made those as guests arrived so they’d be nice and hot).

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Kid Friendly Recipes

This one isn’t a menu – just a shortlist of some kid-friendly recipes you may want to add to an existing menu. While kids can of course eat any Indian dish, I think these may be more well-received.

• Shortcut Dal Dhokli
• Pav Bhaji
• Masala Pasta OR Indian Vegetable Lasagna
• Butter Chicken
• Mango Chicken

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Easy Onion Masala Menu ideas:

If you make my onion masala in advance, you’ll save A LOT of time and can easily throw together a meal impressive enough to feed guests! While the recipes below all call for onion masala – DO NOT WORRY – they taste different from one another, so they will NOT be similar in flavor.

Onion Masala Brunch/Lunch Menu (vegetarian)

• Shakshuka Eggs or Sukhi Matar Anda Sabzi
• Toor dal
• Paneer Butter Masala

Onion Masala Lunch/Dinner Menu (vegetarian)

• Egg Korma
• Aloo Methi
• Langar dal

Onion Masala Lunch/Dinner Menu (non-veg)

• Chicken Bhuna or Chicken Saag
• Aloo Matar
• Langar dal
• Corn Kadai

Onion Masala Kid-Friendly Menu

• Masala Pasta OR Indian Vegetable Lasagna
• Pav Bhaji

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Dessert/Chai

I shared some dessert ideas in some of the sample menus above, but you can find my Indian Instant Pot Desserts here and ALL of my Indian desserts (non-instant pot as well) here. Dessert is a must when having guests over! You can buy store-bought dessert or if you’re looking for something very simple, try my Instant Pot Kheer!

I also have a recipe for How to Make Chai for a Party in an Instant Pot, which is great for a large crowd. Chai is also easy to make on the stovetop. Depending on the crowd, you can offer chai before or after the event. I’ll usually do some cocktail/drink to start the party then end with chai but totally your preference!