Keema matar (spiced beef and peas)
A warmly spiced Indian beef and pea curry that simmers down thick and fragrant, spooned over fluffy rice.
- 50 min total
- 35 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 4
- About $2.61 a serving
- 610 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1½ cups long-grain white rice
- 1 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 lb 85/15 ground beef
- 2 tsp ground coriander
- 1 can diced tomatoes
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1½ tsp garam masala
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
- ½ cup plain yogurt (optional)
From your pantry
- 2¼ cups water
- 1¼ tsp salt, divided
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp paprika
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
Each serving has about 610 calories, 30 g protein, 71 g carbs and 22 g fat, and costs about $2.61 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No long-grain white rice? Jasmine rice or basmati rice works.
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No 85/15 ground beef? 90/10 ground beef works.
- No diced tomatoes? Crushed tomatoes work.
- No frozen peas? Frozen mixed vegetables work.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
- No plain yogurt? Plain Greek yogurt works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the rice until the water runs mostly clear. Put it in a with the water and ¼ teaspoon salt and over high.
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn to low and cook 18 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 18 min
While it cooks, the onion, the garlic and grate the ginger.
Finely chop. Finely chopping means cutting food into small pieces, a little bigger than minced, about the size of a lentil. Small pieces spread their flavor through the dish and cook quickly.
How you’ll know: Nothing is bigger than a lentil, and the pile looks like confetti rather than paste.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Heat the oil in a large over medium, add the onion, and cook 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 8 min
Dolly’s tip: Take the onion all the way to golden. It’s the base of the whole sauce.Stir in the garlic and ginger for 1 minute.
Medium heat
Turn the heat to medium-high, add the beef, and cook 7 to 8 minutes, breaking it into fine , until no pink is left. Spoon off any pool of fat.
Crumble. Crumbling means breaking food into small, rough bits with your fingers or a spoon, like feta or ground meat in the pan. Small bits spread through the dish, so there’s some in every bite.
How you’ll know: The pieces are small and uneven, about pea-size, with no big clumps left.
Medium-high heatTimer: 7 min 30 sec
Food safety: Ground beef, pork and lamb are done at 160°F. When it’s cooked through there’s no pink left anywhere in the pan.
Stir in the coriander, cumin, turmeric, paprika and cayenne for 1 minute, until they smell toasty.
Medium heat
Dolly’s tip: Frying the spices in the fat for a minute wakes them up. It’s called blooming.Add the tomatoes with their juice and 1 teaspoon salt, turn the heat to low, and 10 minutes, stirring now and then, until thick.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 10 min
Stir in the peas and garam masala and cook 3 minutes, until the peas are hot.
Low heatTimer: 3 min
Serve over the rice with cilantro and a spoonful of yogurt.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
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