Indian foods tend to feature ingredients that leave a sweet aftertaste, be it caramelised onions, carrots, peas, ghee, sugar, cardamom, fennel and cream. Some dishes are harder to balance taste-wise especially if they contain more than one dominant flavour.
Some simple ingredients and hacks can help you balance the sweetness in your dish. Let's have a look!
Try Diluting First
Diluting gravy doesn't always work when you want to cut down on sweetness, especially if the gravy is thicker. However, that should be your first recourse. Sometimes we overestimate the sweetness in a curry; diluting the base gradually starting with a quarter cup of water can sometimes balance out a gravy to an extent so toning down its sweetness becomes easier with a pinch of salt.
Don't Stick To The Recipe
If you're making slow-cooked recipes like saag aloo, chana masala, navratan korma or coconut fish, don't go by the recipe's listed amount of sugar, especially if you have switched up some ingredients. Both salt and sweeteners can be added gradually in recipes that take longer to cook. This helps you moderate the taste better.
Consider Yoghurt
Stock unsweetened, whisked yoghurt handy in your pantry. It has a potent sourness to it and can cut through the sweetness of any dish and even help with its consistency. It's important to use room-temperature yoghurt so it doesn't curdle when you put it in the pan.
Use Cayenne Pepper
Although it's not commonly found in Indian kitchens, cayenne pepper has a subtle smokiness and actually works in Indian recipes as well. It has a mild aroma that does not take over the dish and can be gradually added to counteract the sweetness. Use it to balance dishes that are high in flavour and have roasted or grilled vegetables and meats.
Swap Lime Juice With Orange Juice
Orange juice is a common solution to cut down on a dish's sweetness, but orange juice would work on dairy-heavy numbers since it works more subtly. Certain North Indian dishes already use orange juice for flavour so using it to balance out sweetness can work better than lime juice. White wine vinegar can also be a good choice and brings a tartness but test it out in a smaller batch first.
Use Tobasco Sauce Instead Of Red Chillies
Red chilli paste is quite potent and not always a good idea if all you're looking for is toning down the sweetness. Kashmiri mirchi, on the other hand, is too mild and is mainly used for aromatic purposes. A hot sauce like Tobasco is a great way to go if you're looking to balance the sweet notes in a dish. Tobasco has a vinegar base and a slight saltiness, which blends in with Indian recipes. It's also a thin sauce so it will not mess with the consistency of a gravy