Degchi
Photo: Billjones94 / CC BY-SA 4.0
A Desi Weekly Dinner Menu for Two, Seven Nights
Big recipes, small household
Most recipes serve four to six. For two people, that means either a week of leftovers or a half-used bag of spinach going slimy. This plan reuses the same vegetables and a few pantry staples across seven dinners, with one planned leftover night.
Dish names link to our library where we have them: daal, aloo gobi, khichdi, chana masala, egg fried rice, anda curry and chicken pulao. Amounts are for two.
The plan
| Night | Dinner | Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Mon | Masoor daal, rice, onion salad | Lentils, rice |
| Tue | Aloo gobi with roti | Potato, cauliflower |
| Wed | Anda curry with rice | Eggs, tomato-onion base |
| Thu | Chana masala with roti | Tinned or cooked chickpeas |
| Fri | Chicken pulao and raita | Chicken, rice, yogurt |
| Sat | Egg fried rice with leftover veg | Leftover rice, eggs, veg |
| Sun | Khichdi with pickle and papad, or leftovers | Rice, moong |
One shopping list for the week
| Item | Amount | Used on |
|---|---|---|
| Masoor daal | 200 g (1 cup) | Mon |
| Moong daal | 100 g (1/2 cup) | Sun |
| Basmati rice | 600 g (3 cups) | Mon, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun |
| Atta | 500 g (4 cups) | Tue, Thu |
| Onions | 6 medium | All week |
| Tomatoes | 6 | Wed, Thu, Fri |
| Potatoes | 3 medium | Tue |
| Cauliflower | 1 small | Tue |
| Eggs | 10 | Wed, Sat |
| Chickpeas, tinned | 2 x 400 g tins | Thu |
| Chicken, bone-in | 500 g (1 lb) | Fri |
| Yogurt | 300 g (1 1/4 cups) | Fri, plus extra |
| Mixed vegetables, frozen peas, carrots | 300 g | Sat |
| Ginger, garlic, green chillies, coriander | 1 bunch/pack | All week |
Pantry spices assumed: salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin, coriander powder, garam masala, oil or ghee. If you are building that shelf from scratch, read the first kitchen pantry starter list.
Prep that pays back
On Sunday evening, 30 minutes of prep saves time on every night:
- Make a batch of onion-tomato masala base and freeze it in 3 portions. The onion-tomato masala base guide has amounts.
- Cook 400 g (2 cups) of rice for Monday, and cool the rest quickly for Saturday. Rice should be cooled within about an hour and kept no more than a day in the fridge for safety, so for Saturday, cook fresh or freeze, as in cooling and reheating rice safely.
- Chop onions for Monday to Wednesday and keep them in a covered box in the fridge.
Leftover logic
Cooking daal for two on Monday gives you a second portion. Use it Tuesday as a thick soup lunch. Chana masala on Thursday makes a filling for Friday lunch sandwiches. The idea is not to eat the same dinner twice, but to plan one extra portion that becomes lunch.
Swaps
| If you eat | Swap |
|---|---|
| No chicken | Paneer or a second chickpea dish |
| No eggs | Paneer bhurji or tofu scramble |
| Prefer rice less | Roti on more nights; buy more atta |
| Not into cauliflower | Okra or beans |
Costs and waste
We do not quote prices because they vary by country and week. The trick is to buy per-week quantities of perishables and larger packs only of dry goods, as in our weekly grocery budget guide. A one-person variation is in cooking desi food for one.
If the plan breaks
Plans break. If you are too tired on Wednesday, swap with Saturday's fried rice, which takes 15 minutes. If you buy takeaway, push that night's vegetables to the next day and move on. Cauliflower and cabbage last 4 to 5 days; leafy greens last 2.
Sunday review
| Question | Action |
|---|---|
| What is left in the fridge? | Plan Monday around it |
| Which night was hardest? | Swap it for something faster |
| Which dish was a hit? | Repeat it in two weeks |
Degchi can hold this list as your shopping list, mark what you already have, and suggest dishes from the pantry; the pantry sandbox lets you try it without signing up. If you cook with a partner, the who cooks which night post helps share the work.
