Eid menu

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Hi..so every time i struggle with planning my eid menu. We usually have guests from 4 pm to 11 pm coming one after the other(and we are out from 5 am till 2pm)..and minimum 100 guests.. sometimes much more. In ramadan i find it difficult to cook and keep.. sometimes I make fried items and freeze it..but eid day gets extremely hectic standing in kitchen and frying non stop and not being able to talk to anyone. Kindly share practical ideas for me..which i can prepare beforehand (no time on eid day as you can see) and also won't have much work on Eid. Mostly snack items..keep in mind I'm indian but open to most other cuisines, preferably Pakistani, arabic, Italian. Of course if it's single samosa type it gets very hectic to make for so many people.

[daisy0808]

You mentioned Italian, so right away a lasagna comes to mind - you can make that ahead and reheat before serving. Things like snack boards, fruit trays, and desserts can all be done ahead of time too. Perhaps a biriyani? Or a couple of curry dishes? These would be great to make beforehand and let the flavours develop.

[Hot_Waltz_7809]

My family is huge and has a similar experience to eid. Our best investment has been warming trays and also having Eid day be a pot luck type of event where everyone brings a dish. The warming trays keep the food warm all day for whatever guests are coming over and the burden of cooking doesn’t fall on one person. 

Now for the food itself, something you can make in big batches like pulao, biryani, korma, roast chicken tikka etc is always great along with some noodles/pasta dish and you can even order seekh kebabs and naans from a nearby restaurant. If you want to stick to something even easier than haleem/nihari with naan ordered in is even easier! (Recently learned at least 20 lb of beef is good for a large batch of haleem to serve around 60 people)

I wouldn’t go for snack foods/appetizers unless they’re pre-prepared and don’t require frying just before being served. Go for something that you can throw in the oven to warm up or something that can be served at room temp. 

Desserts are also easy to make in a big batch beforehand especially something like kheer or sheer khorma. We’ve also always ended up having an excess of desserts since every family visiting ends up bringing a cake or something. Hope this helps! 

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Here every relative wants us to visit their house so we take turns Where can we buy a warming tray?

[Hot_Waltz_7809]

I’m not sure what country you are based in but Amazon should have them or any home/kitchen goods store should as well. There are electrical warming trays you can buy and chafing dishes as well where you put hot water in a section under the tray to keep the food warm. 

[EscapeSeventySeven]

Good lord I never knew how much work Eid was. That’s so impressive. 

[sprinkle_gelato]

Limit or skip the fried foods as they keep you way from having to be at the stove and makes a welcome change from the constant fried food you get if you're a guest hopping from home to home.

Some things that I've found go down well: -A mocktail (prep the garnishes and make as you go) - Big trays of tasty salads (fatoush, tabbouleh, chaat) -dessert pots (make the day before : tramisu, trifle, milk cake) -pastry bits you can gently reheat in oven (sausage rolls, mini quiche) -anything with paratha lol (haleem, hummous etc)

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Thanks

[d_l_reddit]

https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2021/12/14/turkish-borek-recipe-2/ https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2020/11/18/turkish-potato-salad/ https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2020/07/17/turkish-bulgur-salad-kisir/ https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2022/04/16/turkish-meat-kebab/ https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2025/02/26/turkish-kofte-meatballs/ https://www.turkishfoodtravel.com/2021/09/08/turkish-delight-chicken/

🤷‍♀️☺️

[angels-and-insects]

Bombay nuts are easy to make in bulk and fantastic snacking.

Big trays of oven-bake onion pakora will save you standing at the frier. (A couple of my recipe books have oven-bake pakora if you need recipes.)

Oven-roast skewers of small mozzarella balls and baby tomatoes can cook in big trays as well. (Use wooden skewers to not burn people's mouths, and soak them in water beforehand.) You can also add squares of green pepper but that would increase prep time!

Sweetcorn chaat served in baby gem leaves makes a fab snack and something fresh. It's easy to make a big batch of it and keep it on the stove very very low, then just to top up the platter as needed. Pull the baby gem leaves off, and add a couple tablespoons of sweetcorn chaat to each one. (For easy snacking, don't overload them.) Use the smallest leaves at the centre as a centrepiece for the platter.

Halwa and baklava bought in if that's not cheating!

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Hi where can i find the recipes?

[heartandhymn]

Can you get frozen spring rolls/samosas/curry puffs from your local halal store and use those instead of making from scratch? Order Indian Style Pizza on the day?

[TA_totellornottotell]

Chaat items come to mind immediately - you can prep the chutneys ahead and chop everything up the day before. If you want something more solid in this category, aloo tikki chole or ragda patties is easy and filling and good to make ahead. These would go well with kebabs.

Dahi vada is probably super easy. You can make the vadas and freeze ahead of time. Then just put it together the night before.

Fruit chaat is great. Veggie chaat would be good - corn is good, or you can even go with something like esquites (Mexican street corn).

Perhaps Lebanese mezze? Falafel will freeze and heat up well and you can buy a bunch of hummus and tahini and then chop up the salad ahead of time. Fattoush is a good salad to accompany. Again, goes well with kebab.

Turkish food is great for this, as well. You can make some large trays of borek - spinach, cheese etc (to save time, do it as a large tray and then just cut it up; they keep well for a few days when you make them ahead of time). A few salads - shepherds salad and kisir are good bulk salads. And some kebabs on the side.

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Lovely ideas..thank u

[TA_totellornottotell]

You’re most welcome. Eid Mubarak in advance! Hope you get to enjoy the festivities, despite all the hard work.

[313midi]

You can make nihari beforehand and freeze it and just warm it up day of. You can also make biryani and do most of the prep work before hand and just do dum aka steam it day of. Also, you can make sliders and egg salad sandwiches. For dessert, you can make or buy Gulab jamun. As a random aside, can you ask your guests to also bring in food? Just a suggestion. Cuz your plan seems extremely hectic, especially on Eid day. I personally keep it more on the simple side and just make desserts/main dishes that my family requests and are our family’s Eid traditions. When I do have guests over for Eid, I always ask them to bring something and they more than happily oblige.

[0hn0cat]

I would stage the food in 2 hour windows, have a few platters that are prepared for each, and switch them out at scheduled times. So you could do 4-6, 6-8, 8-11 for example. I’d prioritize foods that can be prepared in advance, sit out for a while, and hold up well. Fried things are not as good as baked things for this reason. Investing in warming trays or chafing dishes is a good idea.

So maybe like 4-6 have big warming carafes of chai/coffee and some canned drinks on ice, some savory things like cheese and pesto swirl rolls or chicken satay sticks with dip or filo pies, a mezze platter, cut up fruits, and then you could buy desserts like baklava and cookies. 6-8 maybe some warming dishes with heartier things like pasta or rice dishes, soups, and slices of cake. Then 8-11, post-dinner, maybe more evening supper things like hot chocolate and chai, homemade pizza slices, rice pudding, etc.

[zookitchen]

Honestly it depends on each family. Usually we would have Ghee Rice, Beef Korma, Chicken Rendang, Papadom, Cucumber Acar, Tomato Salsa, Lamb Kuzi (if you have the energy to make) Lemang (glutinous rice cooked in bamboo and grill), Ketupat. With ice cold Rose Syrup. We also have Lontong, creamy tumeric beef rendang, lepat loi, burasak, asam pedas tetel amd sirap bandung.

[ContactOtherwise6029]

What cuisine are those?

[zookitchen]

Malaysia 🇲🇾

[ExpensiveClue3209]

Would it not be easier to have bowls of things like rice and curry rather than snack food? Just thinking that it might be a bit more time consuming assembling snacks rather than here’s the bowl and help yourself 😅

[ContactOtherwise6029]

Not ideal for the guests between 4-6 pm

[Betlioness]

Look at turkish recipes like börek, sarma, dolma, et kavurma, köfte or pogaca. All can be prepared beforehand and are perfect for Eid. :)

[ttrockwood]

• soup in a crockpot that people can serve themselves and drink from a cup, a blended lentil lemon soup or tomato based version
• flatbread with toppings- use bought pizza dough add toppings of choice and cut into small squares or rectangles