16 Easy Light Desserts After Curry (with Videos)

You just finished a curry meal—but you aren’t ready to pack it in for the night.

What you need is a light dessert that doesn’t upset your stomach but still manages to satisfy your sweet tooth.

We’ve got 16 light desserts after curry that will help you keep going through the night, from lemon sorbet to golden milk pudding, and everything in between.

Check out the recipes below!

16 Light Desserts After Curry

Don’t feel like you have to be bogged down after a great curry.

You can have the best of both worlds: light and tasty!

Here are 16 desserts that won’t make you feel like you have to unbutton your pants and lay down for a nap:

1. Mango sorbet

This recipe, which comes from Minimalist Baker, is easy, requires no churning, and uses only three ingredients: maple syrup, frozen mango, and lime juice.

And it’s ready to eat in five minutes!

It’s as simple as putting everything in a food processor and blending it until smooth.

Then you can enjoy your sorbet right away or freeze for a few hours for a firmer consistency.

When you’re finished, if you want more sweetness, drizzle on some honey or maple syrup (or just don’t tell us).

This sorbet is sure to refresh your taste buds after that heavy meal.

And now you can enjoy the rest of your evening—which may or may not involve watching TV in bed while eating ice cream straight out of the carton. (But if it does… well, we won’t tell.)

2. Chocolate-covered strawberries

If you’re in the mood for a light dessert after your next curry dinner, check out this recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch for gourmet chocolate covered strawberries.

This recipe uses fresh strawberries and milk chocolate to create a tasty treat that’s healthy and easy to make.

Here are a few tips:

• Don’t wash your strawberries until right before you use them; washing them too early will cause them to go bad faster.
• Melt your chocolate using a double boiler: Fill a saucepan with an inch of water, then set a heatproof bowl over it. Bring the water to a boil, then reduce heat so it simmers.
• Put your chocolate in the bowl and stir until melted, then remove from heat.

3. Vanilla ice cream with no toppings

If you’re looking for a simple solution that’ll help you cool down after a spicy meal, look no further: we recommend 3-Ingredient No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream.

It’s easy to make, requires simple ingredients, and is ready in no time at all.

It basically has no downsides!

We think this specific recipe is great because it doesn’t require an ice cream maker, so you can make it without any special equipment.

And since the recipe only calls for three ingredients—sweetened condensed milk, heavy cream, and vanilla extract—you don’t have to run around searching for some hard-to-find ingredient that you probably won’t need again.

The recipe author also gives some great pointers that’ll help you make this dessert even better than the competition’s: use the whisk attachment on your mixer to avoid overwhipping the cream, and use a loaf pan instead of a square one to create taller scoops (and get more out of each scoop).

4. A small bowl of fresh berries

Curry is delicious.

But it can also be pretty heavy, and sometimes you want to follow it up with something a little on the lighter side.

That’s why we’ve chosen this recipe for Berry Fruit Salad from Kristine’s Kitchen: It’s made with fresh strawberries, cherries, blueberries, lime juice and honey.

The result?

A light-but-satisfying dessert that’s just right after your curry dinner.

When buying berries, look for those that are plump and firm with a rich color—especially if you’re planning to use them within a week.

And second, if you’re making this salad in advance (which we totally recommend!) store it in an airtight container in the fridge!

5. Chocolate pudding

The Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Pudding recipe is smooth, creamy, and decadent without feeling too heavy after a spicy meal.

It also has a subtle chocolate flavor that doesn’t overwhelm your palate—which is great when you’re craving sweets after chowing down on some delicious curry.

To make this recipe, you’ll need unsweetened cocoa powder, egg yolks, sugar, whole milk, and chocolate extract.

1. Mix together the cocoa powder and sugar in a heat-safe bowl or pot and whisk in the milk until smooth.
2. Then add the egg yolks and mix well before pouring the mixture into a medium saucepan over medium heat and whisking continuously for about 15 minutes.
3. When the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of your spoon, remove it from heat and pour into small bowls or cups.
4. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving!

6. A small handful of popcorn

Popcorn is salty, crunchy, and sweet all at once.

You basically get the best of all three worlds in a single bite.

Plus, it’s incredibly quick and easy to prepare—you can just pop some corn kernels in a pot on the stove.

And did we mention how easy it is to make it your own?

Whether you choose to add butter or not is up to you, and you can also experiment with different types of salt or even make your own caramel coating!

7. A handful of marshmallows

A handful of marshmallows is the perfect solution—light and airy, but still sweet enough to satisfy your craving.

They won’t make you feel overstuffed and bloated, which is crucial after a big meal like curry.

Plus, they’re super fun to eat!

You can pop them in one at a time, or throw them in your mouth all at once for an explosion of sugar.

It’s up to you!

Just make sure not to burn your tastebuds by eating them right off the stove (though that does taste good).

8. Baked apple slices

Baked apple slices may not sound like they’d make much of a dessert—but we’re here to tell you that they’re actually amazing!

All you have to do is slice up an apple, sprinkle some cinnamon on top (if you like that sort of thing), and stick it in the oven for a few minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

It’s that easy! You’ll be left with a delicious dessert that satisfies your sweet tooth without weighing you down.

And hey: if baked apples aren’t your thing, there’s always the tried-and-true combination of ice cream and chocolate syrup!

10. Yogurt popsicles

Yogurt popsicles!

Not only are they easy to make (you can buy popsicle molds from most stores), but they’re also inexpensive, and you can make them in bulk so that you don’t have to worry about making them again for a few weeks.

1. To make these tasty treats, all you need is some plain Greek yogurt, some fruit of your choice, and a little bit of honey.
2. Mix the ingredients together, pour them into your popsicle molds, and stick them in the freezer.

In a few hours, you’ll have a deliciously refreshing treat that perfectly complements any spicy meal!

11. Fruit Salad

With fruit salad, you can enjoy the fresh flavors of your favorite fruits—apples, pears, oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes—alongside the sweet and tangy flavors of your favorite tropical fruits like mangoes, pineapples, and kiwis.

Fruit salad is also a great way to cool down that last bit of heat from dinner.

So if you’re looking for a light dessert that’s full of flavor and will help quench the heat from dinner, we recommend fruit salad!

12. Frozen Grapes

We have a really great recommendation for your next meal: frozen grapes.

Here’s the thing, if you’re ever having curry, it’s likely that you’re going to want a light dessert (because curry can be heavy, and the last thing you’ll want is something heavy after eating it).

But this is the trick: most light desserts are so sweet that they’ll overpower the taste of your curry in a very unpleasant way.

This is why we recommend frozen grapes.

They’re light, and they will not overpower your meal.

Plus, they won’t leave you with any fancy dishes to clean up afterwards.

13. Watermelon Slices

When it comes to light desserts after curry, we can easily recommend watermelon slices.

There’s a reason this is the go-to dessert for every summer cookout you’ve ever been to: it’s just that good.

Even if you’re not a huge watermelon fan, this is the one time of year when you really should dig in.

Watermelon is so sweet and juicy that it can feel like eating an actual dessert, but with only a fraction of the calories and fat.

Our advice?

Make sure you’re getting as ripe a melon as possible.

Look for one with a nice yellow spot where it was resting on the ground while growing, and test it by seeing if there’s any give when you press your thumbs into the end opposite from where it was resting (the flower end).

And watch out for seeds!

If you don’t want to deal with those, try using a seedless melon or slicing the melon into wedges and removing them yourself before eating.

14. Chia Pudding

When you’re in the mood for a light dessert after a meal of fiery curry, chia pudding is the perfect choice.

Chia seeds are full of fiber and good fats, so you’ll feel satisfied but not stuffed when you finish eating.

And the addition of coconut milk makes the pudding especially creamy, so you won’t miss heavy dairy products.

1. Just soak 1/2 cup of chia seeds in 4 cups of coconut milk overnight to get started.
2. When you’re ready to serve, add in your favorite flavorings—we like extra cinnamon, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt to round out the flavor.
3. Top with fresh fruit or nuts before serving!

15. Cookies

Cookies are the perfect dessert when you want something a little lighter to follow your meal.

With their crispy, crunchy texture, they provide a satisfying contrast to the creaminess of curry.

And because they’re so light, they won’t fill you up too much before you have to go to sleep or, if you’re like us, head out for that late-night run.

You can also dunk them in milk or coffee for an extra-sweet treat!

16. A shot of espresso with a dollop of whipped cream

A shot of espresso with a dollop of whipped cream is just the thing you need to cool down and refresh your palate after a good curry.

You get that bitter flavor to contrast with all the rich spice, plus some dairy sweetness, without overloading on sugar.