Have you ever been in a situation where it felt like it's the perfect day to cook your favourite meal and suddenly a blunder happens! By mistake, you add too much spice to the food and are now left clueless on how to fix it? You will probably give up on the dish and prefer not eating it, to avoid the burning sensations and bad stomach. Well, you will be happy to know that spiciness in food can be reduced easily with a few basic foods kept in our kitchen. All you need to know is what to use and how to use it to fix your extra spicy meal. To help you out, we have curated a list of 6 simple tips that you can try at home to tone down the spiciness of a dish.
Here Are 6 Ways You Can Reduce Spiciness Of Food:
1. Add Water
This is the most convenient way to fix spiciness in your dish. All you need to do is add some water to dilute the spices and chillis. Of course, there will still be some spiciness in the food, it won't totally go away, but adding water will reduce the heat and not result in mouth and stomach burning.
Also Read: 8 Creative Ways to Utilise Sour Curd in Your Kitchen
2. Add Sugar
Sugar or other sweeteners can work wonders in toning down the heat level of a dish. Adding sugar will provide a sweet taste to the dish and it will not taste as spicy as it was, since the sugar will cut down the spiciness. You can use jaggery powder or sugar to fix the dish. Besides this, you can use tomato ketchup too, since it's loaded with sugar.
3. Add Dough Balls
Most of us keep homemade dough in our fridge to make roti and breads. If you have this available, it can really save your dish. Just make medium size round dough balls and put it into the dish; this specifically works well for curries. When added in water, the dough balls will absorb the spiciness in curry. Add 4-5 balls and take them out after 20 minutes.
Add medium sized round balls in the dish to reduce spiciness. Photo Credit: istock
4. Add Dairy
Dairy is excellent at balancing spice and has a cooling impact. To fix the spiciness level, you can add dairy products like milk, curd, cream, cheese, tofu, etc. Just like cow milk, coconut milk too has a cooling effect - you can use it if you avoid animal products.
Dairy products contain casein, a protein that helps in balancing spice. Photo Credit: istock
5. Add Potatoes
Use potatoes for a quick fix! All you have to do is dice potatoes into 4 big cubes and put holes in it with the help of a fork. This will help potatoes to absorb more water. Now add them to the dish and let them sit until the potatoes are nicely cooked. Once they are cooked, taken them out of the dish.
Also Read: 8 Genius Tricks to Reduce Excess Salt in Curries
6. Add Acidic Ingredients
Acidic food goes well with spicy dishes. Many people squeeze fresh lemon juice to dishes that are rich in spices. This is because the acidic property in lemon helps to cut down the spice levels. Besides lemon, you can also use vinegar in small quantity. Make sure not to add too much of it, as it will give an over powering taste of citrus.
Hope these tips were helpful for you in balancing the spiciness of dishes. Do let us know in the comment section below.