How to plan an iftar menu: thirty evenings of good food on the table

Cooking one iftar is not hard. Thirty evenings in a row is, especially when you do not eat all day and can only start after work. The problem is almost never that you are short of a recipe. It is that at four in the afternoon you have to decide what goes on the table tonight, at exactly the moment your head is least up to it.

That is why a menu helps more than a recipe. Not to fix everything in advance, but so the decision is already made before the day gets heavy. Below you will find how an iftar is built up, a weekly menu you can copy, and what to do when ten people suddenly join the table.

How an iftar menu is built up

Almost everywhere an iftar follows the same order, and it is that fixed shape that makes planning easy. You fill in the same four places every time.

• Breaking the fast itself. Dates and water, or a glass of milk. Small, sweet and straight away.
• Soup. In Turkish cooking, çorba is the real start of the meal. Mercimek çorbası (red lentil soup) is the classic, ezogelin çorbası (lentil soup with bulgur) a bit heartier, yayla çorbası (yoghurt soup with mint) lighter.
• The main course. Usually a sulu yemek, a stew with sauce, with rice or bulgur alongside. This is the part that really fills you up.
• Something sweet and tea. Often later in the evening, not straight after the main course.

Think of those four places as boxes. Each evening you only have to choose what goes in them, and that saves more time than any recipe.

A weekly menu for iftar

Seven evenings, each with a soup, a main course and something alongside. This is not a prescription but a rhythm that works: one evening without meat, one light chicken evening, and the fullest table on the night guests come.

• Evening 1. Mercimek çorbası, then etli kuru fasulye (white beans in tomato sauce) with pirinç pilavı.
• Evening 2. Yayla çorbası and imam bayıldı (aubergine in olive oil, no meat), with bread.
• Evening 3. Ezogelin çorbası with İzmir köfte and taze fasulye (green beans).
• Evening 4. A light evening: tavuk şiş with pilav and salad.
• Evening 5. Sulu köfte, meatballs in broth, where the soup and the main course sit in one pan.
• Evening 6. Etli güveç (stew from the oven) with rice. The dish that takes reheating best.
• Evening 7. The evening guests often come: adana kebab, bamya (okra in tomato sauce) and biber dolması (stuffed peppers), with baklava after.

Repeat this rhythm four times and your month is covered. Swap one or two evenings each week and it stays new without you having to plan again.

How many people are you cooking for?

This is where most iftar plans fall apart. Not because the cooking fails, but because the number of mouths differs per evening: four on weekdays, suddenly ten at the weekend.

A few rules of thumb that keep it simple:

• Count one main course and one bowl of soup per person. On our menu one dish is one portion, so counting is simply adding up.
• Scale rice, bulgur and bread separately. They disappear faster than you think when the group is bigger.
• Plan one extra dish when guests come, not bigger portions. More variety on the table feels more generous than more of the same.
• Keep one evening empty. There is always an evening when you eat at family or it simply does not work out.

Cooking ahead or having it delivered fresh

There are two ways to get through thirty evenings, and both are good.

Cooking ahead works best with stews. Etli güveç, kuru fasulye and soup are often better once they have stood for a day, and they reheat without the texture suffering. Cook two big pans at the weekend and freeze portions. What works less well: fried things, fresh salad and anything that has to stay crisp.

Having it delivered fresh saves you the planning and the washing up. We cook everything chilled fresh, 100% halal and never from the freezer, and you reheat it in five minutes. In practice most people combine the two: cooking yourself at the weekend, reheating on weekdays. Have a look at the whole menu or read how to arrange an iftar without cooking yourself.

Whatever you choose: settle it before the first day. Nobody manages to invent a new system halfway through the month.

Iftar with guests

The evening with guests is a different kind of evening. Not harder, but built differently: you want something on the table that gets shared, and you want to sit at that table yourself.

Three things that make that possible:

• Put meze out at the breaking of the fast. Stuffed peppers, bamya, olives and bread are already there when everyone walks in, so there is something to share straight away.
• Choose a main course that can wait. Stews hold well on a low flame; grilled meat goes cold and tough.
• Keep dessert small. Baklava and tea, later in the evening. After a full table nobody eats a second dessert.

If you want to plan the whole month ahead instead of evening by evening, read our Ramadan weekly planning. And for the other end of the day: suhoor ideas that keep you going until the evening.

Frequently asked questions

What do you put on an iftar menu?

An iftar starts with dates and water, followed by soup, then a main course with rice, bulgur or bread, and later in the evening something sweet with tea. That fixed order makes planning easy: every evening you fill in the same four places.

How do you put together an iftar menu for the whole month?

Make a weekly menu of seven evenings and repeat it four times, swapping one or two evenings each week. That way the decision is made before the day starts, and there is still variety.

How much food do you count per person at an iftar?

Count one main course and one bowl of soup per person, and scale rice, bulgur and bread separately. If guests are coming, plan an extra dish instead of bigger portions.

Which dishes can you make ahead for iftar?

Stews and soups suit it best: etli güveç, kuru fasulye and mercimek çorbası can be made a day in advance and reheat well. Fried dishes and fresh salad are better made on the evening itself.

What is a good iftar menu when you have little time?

Combine the two: cook one or two big pans at the weekend and reheat on weekdays. A fresh meal delivery service can take over the weekday evenings, so all you do is reheat.