Search
Login
Foodies Only in your inbox
By clicking "Subscribe", you agree to ourPrivacy Policy and to receive marketing emails from Foodies Only
ITC Portal
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
Copyright © 2025 Foodies Only
7 min
21/01/2026
After slogging for the entire week, the weekend demands to be slower and something special, and one of the ways to make your weekend special is through food! This article looks at dishes that can make your weekend an extraordinary one and allow you to spend time with your family indoors by making these dishes. From biryani to shahi paneer, to chicken curries, read the article below to know what all you can cook to make your weekend dinners special!
Weekdays are about efficiency; how you manage to make your meals quickly and healthy enough to sustain throughout the day. But weekends have some high demands; they require you to slow down, enjoy a little, and eat food that actually your soul wants and not your body. This also means you can deviate a bit from your healthy meals and indulge in some cheating! Weekends are also the time when you can spend a little longer in the kitchen, with your family, friends, partner and unwind a bit. Dishes like biryani, butter chicken, shahi paneer, naans, and tandoori platters require you to participate in the cooking process without having to worry about your tasks and jobs! These dishes also make the dinner feel like a special occasion. This article looks at such dishes that automatically make your dinners feel like a celebration and a feast. Read below to know the dishes that you might want to try in your kitchen this upcoming weekend.
No dish will make you feel festive as much as biryani does! No matter if it is Hyderabadi biryani, Lucknowi biryani, or Kolkata-style biryani. The layers of basmati rice, topped with meat or vegetables and slowly cooked spices, make this dish a favourite among vegetarians as well as non-vegetarians. When the kitchen is filled with the aroma of spices, the celebration starts, and it always tastes the best when shared with family or friends!
Festivals might not have butter chicken on the menu list, but whenever butter chicken is marinated well, slowly cooked, it certainly becomes a festival! Butter chicken and paired with garlic, can make any evening special and celebratory. A side of green chutney with disc-cut onions takes this dish to another level!
Paneer lababdar is the butter chicken equivalent for vegetarians. This dish is rich, creamy and stands out on a normal or a festive evening. The gravy, made with tomato, cashew, mild spices, and soft paneer cubes, just makes it melts in the mouth. It can be paired with jeera rice, parathas, phulkas, or naans, and it will taste the best. The aftertaste of paneer lababdar is what makes this dish special and stands out from its paneer equivalents.
Prawn malai curry comes from Bengal and is a special seafood dish that has no competitor. The prawns are cooked in a coconut-milk-based curry with mild spices. It strikes the exact balance between being mildly spicy and creamy. This curry tastes the best when paired with rice, but it does not taste bad with roti as well! Prawns, certainly, are not for regular days, but are saved just for that celebratory weekend with friends and family!
Dal makhni is the king of all dals! The process demands you to spend enough time in the kitchen and let it cook slowly until all the grains, pulses soften, and the cream and butter are entirely mixed in it. The velvet texture of dal makhni makes it a perfect pair with naan, roti or jeera rice. Next time, dal makhni is cooked at your home, you know it's a weekend and a cause for celebration!
Before you start prepping for dinner, you need the right starters that set the tone for the celebratory weekend dinner. A platter of tandoor grilled chicken tikka, seek, and paneer tikkas is the perfect start to your festive weekends. This platter can be the starting part of your celebration, or it can be the celebration itself if it is on a mini scale. Paired with green chutneys and salads, this platter sets the right tone for the weekend to get started.
The above dishes highlight how weekends are certainly more than just eating. They are about gathering together, spending time in the kitchen, enjoying the making process, and eating all together! Whether it is biryani, dal makhni or just the tandoori platter, these dishes make sure that your weekends stand out from your weekdays and give you enough reasons to celebrate and savour the food!