Indian meals are defined as much by their accompaniments as by their main dishes. Raita is a yogurt-based side, the most common being cucumber raita: yogurt mixed with grated cucumber and toasted cumin. Yogurt appears throughout Indian cooking as a cooling element, a marinade, and a sauce base. Achaar, or pickle, refers to spicy oil-based pickles eaten in tiny amounts alongside the meal. Raw mango achaar, made with salt, chili, mustard oil, and spices, is one of the most traditional.
Sweets, often called mithai, are typically reserved for the end of the meal, festivals, or celebrations. They share a common base of milk, sugar, ghee, and nuts, and are flavored with defining aromatics like cardamom and saffron. Gulab jamun are deep-fried milk-solid balls soaked in sugar syrup. Jalebi is pretzel-shaped fried batter soaked in syrup. Rasgulla are spongy cheese balls in light syrup, and rasmalai adds cheese discs to a saffron- and cardamom-flavored milk. Barfi is a fudge-like sweet of milk solids and sugar, laddu is a round sweet ball in many varieties (besan laddu being made from roasted gram flour), kheer is a rice pudding scented with cardamom, and gajar ka halwa is a rich carrot pudding slowly cooked down in milk.
The beverage landscape is equally distinctive. Masala chai is tea brewed with milk, sugar, and spices such as ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, clove, and black pepper, and is drunk throughout the day. Lassi is yogurt blended with water, served either sweet (sometimes with mango pulp) or salted. Thandai is a festive milk drink with nuts, seeds, and spices, especially associated with Holi. During meals, water or buttermilk (chaas) is the usual drink, with chai before or after.
Indian meals also end with small digestif customs. Mukhwas, a fennel-seed-based mixture, is chewed to freshen breath and aid digestion. Paan, a betel leaf wrapped with various fillings, is a traditional post-meal treat. A small spoonful of pickle at the end of a meal is thought to aid digestion as well.