My own rule of thumb for a dawat menu is:
One or two appetizers
Here are some suggestions:
mini qeema filled patties (we make them square bite sized) which can be made a day or two ahead and then just pooped into the oven to bake for 20 minutes,
mini samosas,
aloo tikkis,
vegetable crudites,
bhel puri (this is super simple),
gol gappas (we did gol gappas and had the chick peas/potatoes, chutnies in serving dishes for people to self serve and and the pani/zeera jal in shot glasses - it was a huge hit),
mini grilled chicken and veggie pita pockets
Why not serve mini burgers/sliders as an appetizer and make it for everyone?
**One salan
**Kofta sounds great. If you want to make it a bit different, you could make either palak kofta or nargisi koftas
**One vegetarian dish
**
A few options to consider: nauratan korma, shahi paneer, matar paneer, haldi-aloo ← this goes best served with puris and parathas, dum aloo
**One kebab/dry meat dish
**Shammi kebab, chappli kebabs, fish kebabs. Because you have kofta which is made from mince, a seekh kebab is a bit redundant.
You can also do chicken tikka or beef tikka, or even on shish kebabs and do it with vegetables, if you don’t want to do a kebab.
**
One rice
**Either hara masala or kacha ghosht ka biryani sounds perfect
**Salad
**If you have crudites, no need for separate salad and your greek pasta salad is a great other salad.
**Raita
**
You can do dhai boondi raita, cucumber raita, or baingan ka raita
Naan, paratha, roti
Naan goes with everything. If you had qormas and kebabs, I’d even suggest having some parathas to go along with it.
One to two desserts
Your desserts of sheer khorma and Kit kat dream dessert cake sound great. Odds are your guests will also bring desserts as hostess gifts, so no need to go overboard. You can add ice-cream or a fruit with creamy dip tray if you want to go that route.
