Raksha Bandhan special Menu plan – to celebrate the brother sister bond

If you taste any Indian food item, you can never just taste the flavors rolling on your tongue but also truly feel the care and love poured into the food item. The preparation of Indian food has always been considered sacred. It is almost treated as any other ceremony and the chef pours his / her heart and soul into it. Hence the preparation of the food is almost as satisfying as the dish. The same is the case with Raksha Bandhan special menu plan – sweetness and spiciness of the brother sister bond reflects in the feast prepared for the day.

The secret ingredient is always love!

The tradition talks about brother visiting his sister on this day bearing gifts and sister preparing the feast for her beloved brother. There has been changes to this tradition to bring us to the modern day celebration. May you order the food from Zomato or make it yourself, the intention remains to treat the family with awesome food to celebrate the festivities of Raksha Bandhan!

Owing to social distancing, this year Raksha Bandhan might be virtual. But in case you are having a celebration at your home, here are our recommendations of food items to include in your menu plan.

You might like to read about the Maharashtrian cuisines for festivals!

Raksha Bandhan Special Menu Plan

As any feast, this meal should also start with appetizers and welcome drink.

Appetizers and Welcome drink

You would want to keep just the apt amount of appetizers to tease the appetite of your guests without killing it for the entree. And nothing teases better than a chat item. So you can select any one of the chat items given below –

• Dahi Wada
• Samosa Chat
• Cheesy Monaco bites
• Nachos with a salsa dip
• Fafda and Dhokla dipped in chutneys
• Crispy assorted pakoras

You can also pair these with any of these store-bought sweet snacks for your bhaiya –

• Coconut laddoos
• Fruit biscuits or Nankatai
• Coconut barfi
• Mango Barfi or similar assorted barfis

For a welcome drink in your Raksha Bandhan special menu plan, you can choose either Jaljeera or Hot ginger lemon tea.

Jaljeera is most popular drink made up of mint, coriander and cumin powder with just a splash of lemon juice to enhance the tangy flavor. Apart from being a refreshing drink, it also works as a good appetizer.

Considering it is monsoon, I might also like to choose a hot welcome drink like ginger lemon tea or kahwa. Choose a perfect drink keeping in mind the tastes of your guests.

Main Course / Entree

Then we move ahead to the main course. Till this time probably your guests are tired after endless chatting and looking forward to gobble up a plateful of yummy meal. So we give them a main course of either of these options –

• Chhole Bhature with a salad on the side followed by Peas Pulao
• Aloo paratha with pickles and rajma followed by curd rice
• Paneer makhani with roti and pineapple raita followed by Biryani
• Maharashtrian Puri – Potato vegetable and Mataki or sprouted moth bean dal followed by masale bhat (maharashtrian spicy rice).
• As a complete snacky menu, you can also go for Pav Bhaji or Misal Pav followed by south indian style Lemon rice.

There can be many more options under Guajarti, Rajasthani and South indian cuisines. You can choose a range those go well with your appetizers and satisfy the taste buds of your guests.

You might like – Food escape to Gujarati cuisine! 

Desert / Sweets

Desert items or sweets remain the highlight of any festivities. So you can have two or more options from the list given below –

• Gulabjamun or Rasagulla – you can accompany it with a dollop of vanilla ice cream
• Motichur cheesecake parfait (mentioned in our earlier blog – you can check it out here)
• Mango – Kesar sooji ka sheera
• Sweet Coconut rice (maharashtrian style Narali bhat – this delicacy is the specialty of Narali Pournima celebrated in Maharashtra)
• Lauki halwa topped with crushed dry fruits.

Choose your favorite and include it in the menu for the day. You will have a perfect menu plan for the day!

Tips to be organised and get a perfect menu plan

Just a few tips to have a great menu yet have time to enjoy –

1. The crux is in the prep. Start preparing 1 or 2 days earlier so as to be ready with food and be able to enjoy it with the guests.
2. Pitch in for help. Although it is very tempting, there is no need to pull this off alone. You can ask for help to family members or even your maid.
3. You can plan a menu so that it will make easy to order in couple of items. That way you will not be burdened with cooking everything or looking tired when the guests come when you do so.

You will like to read all about it here – Meal planning for new brides and busy bees! 

The most important thing is that you get to spend some quality time with your brother.

Food is the ingredient that binds us together

Do ensure that you do that amidst the chaos of Raksha Bandhan special Menu plan.

Happy festivities!

We have a great series on Festival special food cuisines – read Ganesha festival special meal plan here!