There are a lot of ways dishes can end up too spicy: Maybe the recipe was developed using a milder version of a curry paste than what you ended up buying, or you used an especially spicy batch of fresh chiles, or you accidentally put in one tablespoon of hot sauce rather than one teaspoon, or perhaps you just dumped too much cayenne into your pot of chili.Relax! All is not lost. Even though you can’t take out the spiciness once it’s in a dish, there are things you can do to tone it down so the food doesn’t go to waste. Here are some of our favorite ways.
Add dairy.
Dairy is great at counteracting spiciness and can add a nice cooling effect. You can add milk, sour cream, or even a dollop of plain yogurt over each serving, but beware of adding and then cooking the dairy over higher heat, as it may curdle. Coconut milk technically isn’t dairy, but lends a great creaminess to dishes; plus it goes well with a lot of Asian flavors, if that’s the kind of dish you’re try to tone down.
Add 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of white rice, cook for 15 minutes. The rice will soak up the spices. If you don’t want the rice in the dish after it cooks, tie it loosely in a thin cloth or a couple of coffee filters and submerge in the water. Lift out the rice, water and extra spices after the rice is cooked. You’ll end up with about 1/3 to 1/2 cup of cooked rice, so plan the size of the packages accordingly.
Take this trick from Thai cuisine, which happily uses lots of chiles. To counteract spiciness, a lot of their dishes use a liberal amount of acid from citrus, vinegar, or even ketchup. A spoonful can really do wonders to balance out and counteract the spiciness.
Like acid, sugar or other sweeteners add a different element of flavor that can tame spiciness. This one comes with a caveat, though, as you want to add very small amounts and taste constantly so your savory dish doesn’t end up tasting like dessert.
You can cut raw potatoes/carrots in cubes and just put it in your gravies so it can takes all the spiciness
You can ribe some tomato into a paste consistency on your dish.
Apart that, you can use lemon, lil curd, few drops of vinegar to balance your spicy food
If a dish is too spicy, how can I neutralize the hot spice?
You may add sugar, honey or your favourite sweetener.
Add lime
Add vinegar of your choice (balsamic, apple cider, rice wine, malt etc.)
Add lemon
Add peanut butter ( or any nut butter you have at hand)
Add water,drain away the excessive fluid first then thicken with cornstarch).
Add Greek yogurt (or any alternative dairy)
Serve with plain boiled rice
