A Zelda Dinner Party: Three Courses for Four or Six

Turn Breath of the Wild dishes into a three-course dinner: creamy carrot soup, chicken curry with rice and warm buttered apples. Here are the quantities, shared shopping list and kitchen plan for four or six guests.

Make the soup and curry the day before, cook the rice fresh and bake the apples while you eat. This gives a Zelda themed dinner a clear rhythm without three dishes competing for the oven. The recipes below are NerdSpot’s editorial adaptations, not dishes we have kitchen-tested; times are estimates and the doneness checks matter.

What comes from the game, and what changes in the kitchen?

The references are Veggie Cream Soup, Poultry Curry and Hot Buttered Apple from Breath of the Wild. The English names identify the game dishes; they do not make these official Nintendo recipes. Our version adds practical seasoning, measured liquids and ordinary supermarket ingredients. No connection to dishes in a film is claimed.

Nintendo’s Eldin feature documents curry built around rice, Goron Spice and poultry. Thonky’s recipe catalogue identifies the soup and apple combinations. Here, mild curry powder stands in for a fictional spice and cow’s butter replaces goat butter. Neither substitution reproduces a canonical flavour.

Portions, equipment and time

This is a sit-down meal for four or six adults: a small soup bowl, a substantial curry-and-rice plate and one apple each. Use the four-person quantities first; the six-person amounts appear in parentheses throughout. Ingredient weights are edible weights, and rice is weighed dry. A scale avoids the differences between US cups, rice-cooker cups and other household measures.

You need one oven, three burners, a 3-litre soup pot, a wide 5–6-litre curry pot, a rice saucepan with lid, an immersion blender, a food thermometer and a baking dish that holds all the apples upright in one layer. Allow about 90 minutes of work on the previous day and 75 minutes before the first course on the evening. These are planning allowances, not recorded test results. No specialist merchandise is necessary.

Shared shopping list

The list covers the chicken menu, without optional drinks or toppings. Also have water for the curry, baking dish and rice. In US stores, a 13.5-fl-oz coconut-milk can is about 400 ml; for six, measure 600 ml rather than rounding down to one can. One 14.5-oz tomato can supplies more than the 200 or 300 g needed. Reserve the remainder for another meal. Choose mild curry powder rather than a salted curry sauce mix.

Starter: creamy carrot soup

Ingredients: carrots 400 g (600 g), onion 100 g (150 g), butter 15 g (22.5 g), dry rice 20 g (30 g), stock 500 ml (750 ml), milk 200 ml (300 ml), salt and pepper. Keep the remaining carrots, onion and rice for the curry course.

1. Slice carrots about 5 mm thick and dice the onion. Melt the butter over medium-low heat; soften the onion for about 5 minutes without browning.
2. Add carrots, rinsed rice and stock. Cover and simmer gently for 20–25 minutes, until both carrot and rice crush easily. If needed, add a little water and continue; firm vegetables will not blend into a smooth soup.
3. Remove from the heat and blend with the immersion-blender head submerged. Stir in milk, warm gently and season. Add water in small splashes if it is too thick. Divide into four (six) modest bowls.

The rice is our thickener, not an assertion about the game’s ingredient list. Small portions leave room for the main course. Do not use decorative raw carrots as soup garnishes.

Main course: mild chicken curry with rice

Ingredients: chicken 600 g (900 g), onion 200 g (300 g), carrots 200 g (300 g), garlic 10 g (15 g), ginger 15 g (22.5 g), oil 30 ml (45 ml), curry powder 12 g (18 g), coconut milk 400 ml (600 ml), tomatoes 200 g (300 g), water 100 ml (150 ml), rice 280 g (420 g), salt and pepper.

1. Cut chicken into roughly 3 cm pieces, carrots into 1 cm pieces, and finely chop onion, garlic and ginger. Keep raw poultry and its tools separate from ready-to-eat ingredients.
2. Heat the oil in the wide pot. Soften onion for about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and ginger for 1 minute, then curry powder for 30 seconds; reduce heat if it catches.
3. Add chicken and stir for 3–4 minutes to coat. This does not cook it through. Add carrots, coconut milk, tomatoes and measured water. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover loosely and cook for approximately 20–25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Check several thick chicken pieces with a thermometer: they must reach 74°C/165°F. If the sauce is thin, simmer uncovered briefly; if thick, add water a tablespoon at a time. Season after reduction.
5. Cook the reserved main-course rice with water and resting time specified on its packet. Serve curry beside the rice. Curry powder and rice varieties vary, so neither spiciness nor absorption can be fixed by the clock alone.

Vegetarian version without a second menu

Omit all the chicken. For four (six), use 480 g (720 g) drained canned chickpeas and 400 g (600 g) cauliflower florets, plus the original curry carrots. Add cauliflower with the liquids; simmer until almost tender, then add rinsed chickpeas for the final 10 minutes. Keep the same sauce quantities, adding water only as needed. This is a vegetable-curry adaptation; chickpeas are our addition. Weigh drained contents rather than counting cans. For mixed diets, make the whole curry vegetarian to avoid managing a fourth burner and a separate meat pan.

Dessert: warm buttered apples

Ingredients: 4 (6) medium apples, butter 40 g (60 g), brown sugar 40 g (60 g), cinnamon 2 g (3 g), water 150 ml (225 ml). Choose similarly sized firm baking apples, such as Braeburn, so the tray cooks evenly.

1. Heat the oven to 190°C/375°F, conventional heat. Scoop out each core and its seeds, leaving a base about 1 cm thick. Do not pierce through the bottom.
2. Mix softened butter, sugar and cinnamon; divide between the cavities. Set apples in one layer in the baking dish and pour the measured water around them.
3. Bake for an estimated 30–45 minutes. Check at 30 minutes with a small knife: flesh should yield while the apple holds its shape. Larger or firmer fruit may take longer. Rest 5–10 minutes before serving with the pan juices.

This uses the game’s apple-and-butter idea; the sugar, cinnamon and oven method are our kitchen choices. An apple already collapsing should come out before the others.

A one-oven schedule for a 7 pm dinner

The menu reserves a one-hour dinner window, 19:00–20:00. The apple oven window is 18:55–19:40, up to 45 minutes, not a promise that every apple takes that long. If cooking everything the same day, begin around 16:30 and finish the soup and curry first; do not squeeze all preparation into the reheating slots.

Storage, guests and the table

Follow FDA’s temperature chart (PDF) for poultry and reheated leftovers. The FDA’s handling guidance supports prompt chilling: use shallow containers, refrigerate within two hours and keep the refrigerator at 4°C/40°F or below. Cook rice fresh for this plan.

Check guests’ requirements before shopping: soup and apples contain milk products; stock and spice blends may contain other allergens. For a dairy-free version, use unsweetened oat drink in the soup and a suitable plant-based butter alternative in soup and dessert; check labels, especially for gluten restrictions. Coconut remains in the curry. These changes affect flavour and texture.

Plain bowls, a green cloth and a handwritten menu are enough. Keep controllers and cables away from serving dishes. For a different kind of shared evening, our Over the Garden Wall food and evening plan offers a separate menu rather than more courses for this one.

Keep the evening centred on the food

Choose the guest count and curry version before shopping, separate the soup rice from the main-course rice, and make the two stovetop dishes ahead. That leaves fresh rice, one apple tray and the pleasure of recognising a game’s food at a real dinner table.