Menus & occasions · 3 min read ·
A Ramadan Iftar Menu Planner, With a Make-Ahead Timeline
Plan a Pakistani iftar without spending the whole fast in the kitchen: a classic iftar menu, what to prepare in the morning, and a timeline for the last hour before sunset.
The hour before iftar is the busiest of the day in a Pakistani kitchen. Pakoray need frying, chaat needs assembling, the sharbat needs ice, and everyone is fasting, tired and hungry. The way to keep it calm is simple: do as much as possible in the morning or the night before, so the last hour is only frying and finishing.
Here’s a typical iftar menu and a timeline for making it without stress.
What a Pakistani iftar usually includes
The table varies from family to family, but it tends to follow the same pattern:
- Dates and water to break the fast, following the Sunnah.
- Something cold and sweet to drink: Rooh Afza, imli aloo bukhara sharbat, shikanjvi or a date shake.
- Fried snacks: pakoray, samosas, spring rolls.
- Something tangy and fresh: fruit chaat, chana chaat or dahi bhallay.
- Chutneys: imli and green chutney.
Some families then pray Maghrib and eat a full dinner later; others make iftar the main meal. Either way, you don’t need every dish every day. Pick one fried snack, one chaat and one drink, and rotate them through the month.
The night before
- Soak chickpeas for chana chaat if using dried ones.
- Make the chutneys. Imli chutney keeps for weeks in the fridge; green chutney for two or three days if you add lemon juice straight away.
- Make the sharbat base and chill it.
- Make dahi bhallay if they’re on the menu. The bhallay can be fried and soaked a day ahead.
In the morning (or after sehri)
- Boil potatoes and chickpeas for chaat and samosa filling.
- Chop the pakora vegetables (onion, potato, spinach) and keep them covered in the fridge. Don’t salt them yet; salt draws out water and makes a soggy batter.
- Fill and fold samosas, and keep them on a tray under a damp cloth in the fridge. Or make them in bulk before Ramadan and freeze them.
- Cut the fruit for chaat, except bananas and apples, which brown. Keep the cut fruit in a covered bowl in the fridge with a squeeze of lemon.
The last hour: a timeline
| Time before iftar | Job |
|---|---|
| 60 minutes | Mix the pakora batter and leave it to rest. Put oil on to heat. |
| 45 minutes | Fry samosas on medium-low heat; they take longest. |
| 30 minutes | Fry pakoray in small batches. Keep fried food warm on a rack in a low oven. |
| 15 minutes | Assemble chaat and fruit chaat; add bananas and chaat masala now. |
| 10 minutes | Pour sharbat over ice. Put out dates, water, chutneys. |
| 5 minutes | Turn off the stove and sit down. |
Keeping fried food crisp
Drain pakoray and samosas on a wire rack rather than paper towels, so steam can escape from underneath. If you have to fry early, re-crisp them for 5 minutes in a hot oven just before iftar rather than in the microwave, which makes them soggy.
Lighter iftar ideas
A month of fried food is heavy, especially in summer. Some ways to lighten the table without losing the iftar feeling:
- Swap one fried snack for chana chaat, which is filling but not fried.
- Make fruit chaat the centre of the table, with a smaller plate of pakoray alongside.
- Air-fry or bake samosas brushed with oil.
- Drink water and lassi rather than several sugary sharbats.
Planning the whole month
Ramadan is easier with a little preparation before it begins. In the last week of Shaban, many families freeze samosas and spring rolls, make a big batch of imli chutney and grind their spice mixes. Our guide to freezing desi food explains what keeps well. For sehri, the meal before dawn, see our sehri ideas, which focus on food that keeps you going through a long fast.
