Looking for an Indian Party Menus, then look no more. Here is a step by step guide to your Indian Party Menus for Diwali, get-togethers and more. Make the list, get organize and discover how planning small tasks can make your life so much easier!
Preparing for a party all by yourself can be a tiring job. But if planned efficiently, it can make cooking a pleasure and you will feel like organizing a party every weekend. Have you by any chance missed my meal planning basic section then please read that and it will put some light on – “How should you get started on meal planning?”
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This is my Diwali Menu that I had prepared last year for 16 guests – 10 adults and 6 kids. TOTAL TIME TO COOK THIS WHOLE DINNER – 7 HRS. 10 MINUTES – divided over a period of 2 days. Don’t be alarmed, see the step by step preparation below and you will find it quite comforting.
Recipe Links provided in the steps below.
My first step was to multiply my ingredients- let’s see the sample below. In this image, I have doubled the quantity of my corn soup to match up to my guest count. I have skipped kids from the soup list – as kids usually pass on the soup. But if someone is still up for one, this soup will yield enough quantity. 🙂
My planning started a day ahead – TOTAL TIME – 2 hr. 30 minutes.
- Soak the dal. Link – Dal Makhani
- Chopped/grounded ginger – garlic for all my veggies and snack. Chopped/pureed tomatoes for the next day. I prefer not to chop onions a day ahead and store in the fridge as it leaves a strong odor.
- Prepare chutneys. I always have tamarind chutney ready in my freezer – so this one is marked out. Link – Green Chutney, Tamarind Chutney.
- Marinated Paneer. Though recipe says to marinate for 2-3 hours I kept it overnight. Link – Paneer tikka Masala.
- Started on making Gajar ka halwa. Link – Gajar halwa.
- Prepared 30 peda pieces. Link – Milk Peda
Party day cooking – TOTAL TIME – 3 hr. 40 minutes
- I started by boiling potatoes, boiling dal makhani and grilling paneer all at once on different burners. While these were boiling/cooking, I moved on to cutting my veggies and salad. This was all done in 30 minutes – in between, I kept a close watch on paneer.
- Chopped onions.
- Made soup. Link – Corn Soup.
- Prepared Khaman. While this was steaming, I prepared my veggie dip. Link – Khaman and Veggie dip.
- Then I moved on to assemble potato balls. Link – Cocktail snack – Potato balls.
- Made tadka and kept the dal on low flame to simmer.
- Cooked achari gobi. Emptied in serving dishes. Link – Achari Gobi
- Cooked Paneer. Emptied in serving dishes.
- Made raita and kneaded the dough for rotis. Link – Raita, Roti.
- When dal was ready – emptied it in serving dishes.
2 Hours before the party starts – Final touch ups – TOTAL TIME – 1 hr.
- Fried potato balls. Kept them in warm otg/oven on the lowest setting, so that they stay crisp.
- Made rotis.
- Made rice. Link – Jeera Rice
- Arranged chips/nachos in a bowl to go along with a veggie dip
SETTING MY TABLES AND ALL SET AND READY TO GREET MY GUEST. 🙂
More Menus coming up……..
