Kheema Mattar: Indian Spiced Beef with Peas

palatablepastime

9 years ago

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Kheema Mattar: Indian Spiced Beef with Peas is saucy spiced mince beef and peas, and makes an easy comfort food meal served with rice.

Kheema Mattar: Indian Spiced Beef with Peas

Sue Lau | Palatable Pastime

Wow! Has it been a month since I last posted with the Secret Recipe Club? It has been a sad month with the passing of my brother and my SRC recipe I chose to make I did at my Dad’s home out of town. I might say that we didn’t feel much like cooking, or eating, but it was good to have a delicious recipe to fall upon when we needed nourishment most.

And August has been busy with various things, among them a cooking event I do in a foodies group that is called Culinary Quest (and is still ongoing). We get to make lots and lots of ethnic food in that.

For this month, my assignment was to choose a recipe from Nora at Natural Noshing. Nora has a ton of recipes to choose from that are naturally healthy, many of them vegan or grain free and dairy free. But not all of them, so there truly is something for everyone. With lots to choose from, I almost made her Slow-Cooker Moroccan Chicken Stew, which is essentially a tagine in a crockpot, but still being a bit down with the passing of my brother, I opted for a very easy to make comfort food dish called Kheema: Indian Ground Beef with Peas.

Kheema is traditionally a Persian/Iranian middle east dish based on Gaimeh or Gormeh/Quorma (meaning minced) which can be made into a khoresh type stew (as it is here) or into a sabzi (dry) pilaf dish where the rice is mixed in (such as the Indian type pilaus and biryanis). Mattar is the Indian word for “peas”. I first had this type of dish back around 1980 as a Persian dish which was made with ground lamb and green beans in a tomato sauce. The spicing is a bit different in the Persian dish as it relies more on the aromatic spices like cinnamon (compare to the garam masala) and less on the spicy pepper.

As far as Indian foods go, this kind of thing is a Northern dish popular among Muslim Indian peoples, as obviously, Hindus and Buddhists do not go out for beef. However, that being said, I think this recipe would easily translate into a nice vegetarian meal using Veggie Crumbles, or another option, to omit the meat all together and opt for things such as cooked potato or paneer cheese along with the peas.

It is quite easily and quick to put together no matter what you choose to use, and except for a few small changes, I have mostly adhered to Nora’s recipe.

I hope you enjoy the recipe, and do stop by her blog, Natural Noshing, to check out all of her other offerings.

As well, the other Secret Recipe Club (SRC) bloggers have joined together in a linky party to make it easy to browse through their choices for this month. Click the link below to see all the choices, and be sure to pin the ones you want to save for later.

~Sue

Kheema Mattar: Indian Spiced Beef with Peas

Servings: 4-6
Time: 30mins
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger root
1 pound lean ground beef
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 (16 ounce) can fire roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup water
1/4 cup chopped cilantro or coriander leaves
sliced green chilies (optional)
steamed white rice or warmed flatbreads (roti, naan, paratha)

Method:

Heat oil in a large skillet and cook onions until soft.
Add beef, garlic and ginger and cook until beef is browned and crumbled; drain off any excess fat.
Stir spices into meat and cook briefly until aromatic (about 20 seconds), then add tomatoes with juice, vinegar, peas, salt, pepper and water.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, adding water as needed to maintain a saucy consistency and cooking until tomatoes are partially broken down and worked into the sauce.
Remove from heat and stir in the cilantro.
Serve with rice, garnished with sliced green chilies as desired.

From the kitchen of palatablepastime.com

via naturalnoshing.wordpress.com