What To Do If A Dish Is Too Spicy

A good cook tips to be shared in this blog. What to do if a dish is too spicy. Don't simply throw it away as we can do some adjustment for the spicy taste.

Acid

Depending on the dish, try adding some citrus juice (lemon or lime work best with most flavors), vinegar, chopped pineapples or tomato juice or sauce.

Veggies

Add shredded carrots or cubed or shredded potatoes to temper heat. The sugar in them helps fights the heat while their porous texture may help to absorb some of the spice.

Nuts

It may sound nuts but adding peanut or almond butter or tahini (a sesame seed paste) can go a long way toward toning down that piquant dish.

Sweet

Sugar can help counteract the spice in a dish. try adding a teaspoon of granulated sugar, a spoonful of honey or even a squirt of ketchup to tone down the heat.

Broth

If the hot dish in question is a chili, sauce or anything that can take being thinned down the add a ladleful of broth or other mild liquid. This will spread out the heat more per serving, thus diffusing it.

Dairy

Dairy tempers spice. Stir in a tablespoon at a time of yogurt, sour cream, milk, coconut milk and/or a mild cheese like Parmesan to counteract overly hot flavors.

Make More

If you have extra ingredients on hand and don't mind a double batch, you could add more of every ingredient except the spicy one to diffuse the heat. The same amount of spice in a bigger dish will be less.

** for those who really love to cook...