• 36 ideas
  • Checked October 2026

What to Eat with Roti

Dal, butter chicken and aloo gobi first, then Trinidad's curried duck, roasted eggplant mash and sweet fried roti.

What to Eat with Roti

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  1. Butter chickenMild and creamy. Keep the sauce loose enough to drag the bread through.
  2. Cauliflower and potatoes (aloo gobi)A dry dish, so pinch it up between a torn piece and your thumb.
  3. Mango picklePress a torn piece of roti onto the pickle and eat the two together.
  4. Chicken curry with potatoesMop up the gravy with torn pieces, then pick up the chicken with the last one.
  5. DalKeep it thick enough to stay in a folded piece of bread.

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All 36 ideas

Dal, beans and chickpeas 4

  • Curried chickpeas and potatoes (channa and aloo) Spoon it down the middle and fold the sides over.
  • Dal Keep it thick enough to stay in a folded piece of bread.
  • Fried beans over cut-up chapati (kikomando) Slice the bread into strips and spoon the hot beans on top.
  • Red kidney beans in gravy (rajma) Mash a few beans into the gravy so it clings to the bread.

Vegetable dishes 13

  • Cauliflower and potatoes (aloo gobi) A dry dish, so pinch it up between a torn piece and your thumb.
  • Curried eddoes Soft and starchy. Use them in place of potato in a wrap.
  • Curried mango A spoonful beside the main curry is enough.
  • Curried pumpkin (pumpkin tarkari) Sweet beside a hot curry. Spoon it into the same wrap.
  • Green jackfruit curry It pulls apart in shreds. Wrap them in the bread.
  • Long beans, fried or curried (bodi) Cut them short so they fold into the bread without poking out.
  • Mustard greens cooked with spices (sarson ka saag) Serve it with a corn roti and let a knob of butter melt on top.
  • Paneer stewed in a karahi Thick enough to cling to the bread. It needs no second dish.
  • Peas and paneer in tomato sauce (matar paneer) Take one cube of paneer and a few peas in each piece of bread.
  • Potatoes and peas in tomato gravy (aloo matar) Crush a potato into the gravy to thicken each scoop.
  • Potatoes slow-cooked in sauce (dum aloo) Break each small potato in half so the sauce gets inside.
  • Roasted eggplant mash (baigan chokha) Smoky and soft. Spread it on the roti like a dip.
  • Roasted pepper mash (pepper chokha) Strong stuff. Take a little on the corner of each piece.

Meat, seafood and egg dishes 10

  • Butter chicken Mild and creamy. Keep the sauce loose enough to drag the bread through.
  • Chicken curry with potatoes Mop up the gravy with torn pieces, then pick up the chicken with the last one.
  • Chicken karahi Bring the pan to the table and scoop straight from it.
  • Curried conch Chewy and mild. Wrap it up with potato so the sauce stays in.
  • Curried duck Rich and dark. Pull the meat off the bone and wrap it in a piece of roti.
  • Curried shrimp Fold a few into the bread with a spoonful of the sauce.
  • Omelette rolled up in a chapati Lay the omelette on the bread, add sliced tomato and roll it tight.
  • Slow-cooked meat stew (nihari) Top it with slivers of ginger and dip the bread in the gravy.
  • Spiced scrambled eggs (egg bhurji) Pile them on a hot roti and roll it up for breakfast.
  • Vegetables and egg, fried with chopped roti (kottu) A second life for yesterday's roti. Cut it small before it goes in the pan.

Ghee, raita and pickles 4

  • Chili and shallot relish (lunu miris) Fiery and salty. Dab a little on a thick coconut roti.
  • Cucumber raita A cool spoonful on the side when the curry is spicy.
  • Ghee Brush it on while the roti is hot so it soaks in.
  • Mango pickle Press a torn piece of roti onto the pickle and eat the two together.

Sweet ways to eat it 4

  • Cotton candy rolled up inside (roti saimai) Roll a few strands in a thin roti and eat it before they melt.
  • Crushed roti with sugar and ghee (churri) Crumble a warm roti by hand and mix it while the ghee is still soft.
  • Grated cheese and chocolate sprinkles Scatter both over a hot fried roti and cut it into squares to share.
  • Sliced banana and condensed milk Fold the banana inside a fried roti and drizzle the milk over the top.

Drinks 1

  • Pulled milk tea (teh tarik) Sweet and frothy. Sip it between bites of a plain fried roti.

How it works

What do you eat with roti? Dal, a curry or a cooked vegetable, picked up with a torn piece. These 36 ideas run from North Indian vegetable dishes to Trinidad's curries, Uganda's rolled omelette and sweet fried roti.

Read the full guide

How roti is eaten, from Punjab to Trinidad

In India and Sri Lanka roti is commonly eaten with dal, and in Punjab a corn roti is served with mustard greens. A traditional Trinidad breakfast roti comes with roasted, mashed eggplant or peppers. In Suriname the usual partner is curried chicken, and in Uganda an omelette is rolled up in a chapati.

What to eat roti with for a full plate

Choose one dish with gravy to dip into, such as dal or a curry, and one dry vegetable dish to pinch up. Ghee on the hot bread, a spoonful of raita and a small piece of pickle round it off. For a wrap, pick a thick curry that will not run.

  • Keep the stack wrapped in a cloth so the last roti is as soft as the first.

Questions and answers

What do you eat roti with?

With a dal, a curry or a vegetable dish, and a pickle on the side. Nihari and chicken karahi are often served with roti, and red kidney beans in gravy sometimes come with chapati in place of rice.

What vegetables go with roti?

Thick or dry ones that stay on the bread: cauliflower and potatoes, potatoes and peas, peas and paneer, or mustard greens. Trinidad's roti plates add curried pumpkin, long beans and curried mango.

What goes in a roti wrap?

A thick curry. In Trinidad, where the wrap began, the fillings include chicken, conch and shrimp, and chicken is the most established. Potato or chickpeas are regular additions, and pumpkin can go in too.

Can you eat roti with something sweet?

Yes. In parts of Thailand a fried roti is commonly eaten with banana, sugar or condensed milk, and in Indonesia sweet roti is topped with cheese and chocolate sprinkles. In Punjab, crushed chapati mixed with sugar and ghee is called churri.

What do you drink with roti?

Without alcohol: teh tarik, a pulled milk tea with a frothy head. In Malaysia it is the traditional partner of roti canai at breakfast, and in Uganda chapati may be eaten with tea in the morning.

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