How to Make a Meal Less Spicy
If you're cooking a dish and you need to make it less spicy, try adding cooling foods to help balance the spice. For instance, if you're making a soup or a dish with a sauce, you could add milk, cheese, sour cream, or heavy cream to the recipe to help cool the spiciness. You could also overpower the spice with an acid, like lemon juice, lime juice, or vinegar.
Add cream or milk to liquid or saucy recipes. Unlike solid foods that require toppings or dips, liquid-based recipes can often benefit in taste and texture from mixing dairy ingredients directly into the recipe to reduce spiciness. Heavy cream or low-fat milk can be added to many soups and sauces to reduce the spiciness. Broth-based soups should be taste-tested in small samples before adding cream or milk to cut the spice. If cream or milk is in short supply, a spoonful of sour cream for individual servings of soup can add both visual appeal and a cooling effect to many spicy vegetable or puree soups. Let cheese take away some of the heat. Like other dairies, the fats in the cheese can keep the spicy ingredients at bay when eating. Additionally, the cheese can bring an element of visual appeal to your finished dish. Add shredded cheese or even an entire slice of cheese (one per bowl) per serving can help temper the spiciness. Try cheddar cheese with a spicy potato and sausage soup and Swiss or provolone cheese with a beef-broth vegetable soup. Parmesan pairs well with many chicken broth soups and Italian soups, and soft mild cheeses pair well with tortilla soups and bisques. Blend nut milks and butters into the dish. Nut products are wonderful for their subtle flavor profiles while also adding a bit of creaminess. Try a little peanut butter in a gumbo to lessen the kick while tuning the flavor slightly. It also mixes well in Asian dishes such as pad Thai. Since many people cannot or do not partake in dairy, you can still achieve the same effects by simply swapping milk or cream for coconut or almond milk. Similarly, cheese can be swapped with a peanut butter or chia spread. Be sure to whisk the nut butter in well because they may separate from their oils when heating. This will help avoid clumps of butter in your dish. Try other neutral-flavor, high-fat ingredients to keep spice down. Avocados, eggs, or even tofu tend to be non-invasive flavor additions to a meal. Yet, the high fat content in them keep the spice from binding to your taste buds! Take a tip from Thailand and add acidic flavors. Many Thai dishes supplement hotter chili ingredients with citrus or vinegar to counteract the flavors. This does not block the heat in the same way as a fat, but it can still distract or overpower the heat. Spritzing lemon or lime juice over a dish will cause your tongue to taste tart more than heat. Mixing in vinegar with your recipe can be a little more subtle but is often just as effective. Play with white rice or champagne vinegar for the best results. Mix in new ingredients that fit the flavor profile of the recipe. Grains, vegetables, and meats can bulk up the flavor profile of many meals while simultaneously reducing their spiciness. This does not reduce the existing heat but can add tastes to overplay the heat. For Indian curry dishes, try adding potatoes, carrots, peas, onions, rice, coconut milk, or plain yogurt (unflavored Greek yogurt or sour cream will work as well). For Mexican food, try mixing in bell peppers, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, cheese, onions, corn, sour cream, or rice. Asian recipes can typically accommodate broccoli, onions, carrots, snow peas, bell peppers, cabbage, or rice. Serve the spicy food with a dairy-based dip or sauce. Capsaicin is the part of spicy foods we perceive as hot, and the fats in dairy are better at binding to it than say water. This will help to remove the heat from your mouth and tastebuds quicker. Sour cream, plain yogurt, and cream sauces can help tone down spicy meat and vegetable dishes such as Cajun chicken or curried potatoes and carrots. Try adding a cheese topping or butter sauce to temper the spiciness. If you prefer having a side dish, try small scoops of cottage cheese or a dairy-based dip as an optional fire-quencher that can be served with the spicy item. A dip or sauce also has the advantage of allowing guests to adjust the spiciness of the meal to their individual tastes. Offer milk-based or acidic drinks with the meal. Milk itself, or acidic drinks like lemonade or certain wines, can be quite effective at neutralizing a spicy bite. Be sure to give your pairings consideration. Lemonade would likely pair with a lighter meal for example, such as spicy grilled chicken tacos. Wine, on the other hand, goes with most anything! Get creative and find a cocktail (or mocktail) with orange or other citrus juice to complement the dish in a fun way. Add sugar, honey, or another sweetener to detract from the meal’s spiciness. Drizzle honey or sprinkle a small bit of brown sugar on the plate. Like fats, sugar can actually help keep the spice from binding to your taste buds. This may especially help in Asian-inspired recipes, chicken or pork dishes, or recipes with fruit or seafood. It is typically best not to cook the sweetness into your dish as this will more directly alter the flavor of the meal. Let each individual decide how much sweetness to substitute for spice. If you are nervous to change the main flavor of the dish with a sweetener, mix in a sample before applying the change to the remainder of the recipe. Cajun dishes tend to pair well with brown sugar as a sweetener whereas honey can be more effective on pizzas or kinds of pasta. Pick out the spicy ingredient if possible. Some recipes that call for whole or chopped spicy ingredients may have large enough flecks or chunks to manually pick them out of the dish. Even if some of the heat has spread to other ingredients, you will be much better off not biting into a pepper directly, for example. Be sure to remove them with a utensil to avoid getting the spicy oil on your hands. Even after washing your hands, the oil can remain and irritate the skin or eyes. 
Add cream or milk to liquid or saucy recipes. Let cheese take away some of the heat. Blend nut milks and butters into the dish. Try other neutral-flavor, high-fat ingredients to keep spice down. Take a tip from Thailand and add acidic flavors. Mix in new ingredients that fit the flavor profile of the recipe. Serve the spicy food with a dairy-based dip or sauce. Offer milk-based or acidic drinks with the meal. Add sugar, honey, or another sweetener to detract from the meal’s spiciness. Pick out the spicy ingredient if possible. 