Servings : Serves 6
Haleem (Khichra) is a thick yummy and filling dish that is made up of wheat, lentils and shredded meat. It’s normally slow-cooked to develop it’s excellent flavour and helps create it’s paste-like consistency. In E/Africa, the dish is more commonly known as Kichro or Khichro.
Ingredients
- 1/4 kg wheat grains (1 cup)
- 1/2 kg boneless meat (I mix goat and beef but you can use any)
- 1/4 kg onions (sliced and fried)
- 2 tbsp. tomato paste
- 3 fresh tomatoes, blended
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup lentils, you can mix masoor and channa daal or use just one of the two (soaked overnight, boiled then blended to a paste)
- 1/4 cup rice (soaked, boiled then blended to a paste)
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 cloves
- 2 elchi/cardamom pods
- 5-8 whole pepper
- 1/2 tbsp. garlic paste
- 1/2 tbsp. ginger paste
- 1 tsp. coriander powder
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
- 2-3 tbsp. blended green chillies with coriander/green chutney
- oil as required (I mix a bit of butter or margarine with the oil for better flavour)
- salt/red chilli flakes to taste
- hot water (keep it handy in a thermos flask or keep the kettle warmed up and ready)
- 1 tsp garam masala
Instructions
Wash and soak the wheat grains in water for 24-48 hours (1-2 days), making sure you change the water every 12 hours or so to keep it fresh. Then drain the water and boil the grains in a pressure cooker with a drizzle of oil and a little bit of salt until the wheat is very tender and soft. Allow the grains to cool then, using a food processor (or a blender can work too), grind the grains to a paste.
Boil the meat until very soft, then shred with your fingers or spoon. Once all is shredded, I like to make the meat very fine so I place bits of the shredded meat at a time on a metal plate, then using the back of a heavy mug, I pound it down until it is flat and delicate.
Reserve the stock left over from boiling the meat, you can later add this to the haleem during cooking.
Heat the oil in a pan, add the whole spices followed by half of the fried onions (keep half for garnishing). Fry these for a while then add the shredded/pounded meat. Fry again on low heat for at least 10 minutes whilst stirring all the time for the flavour of the meat to develop. Then add the ginger and garlic pastes, green chutney, half the lemon juice, followed by the tomato paste and blended fresh tomatoes. Add the turmeric powder, cumin powder and coriander powder. Cook these down until the tomatoes are well cooked and thick. Now add the blended channa/masoor daals as well as the rice. Cook these for a few minutes. Finally add the ground wheat and mix well.
You will have to keep stirring very regularly and keep it cooking on slow heat so the flavour develops well. Whenever you feel it has thickened too much, add some hot water plus the reserved stock and keep on stirring. A good khichra/haleem should take nothing less than 2 hours to cook, but you can speed things along if you are in a hurry. However if you want a good authentic flavour, let it take its time in cooking and you will enjoy the meal a LOT more.
Once you are satisfied with the results/colour/taste/texture, squeeze in the remaining lemon juice. Turn off the heat and sprinkle garam masala over the haleem but don’t stir it in. Then heat 3 tbsp. of oil separately and pour it over the haleem. The garam masala will immediately sizzle and give out a wonderful aroma.
Now you can mix it all in and your haleem is ready to be served! Garnish with fried onions and coriander, and serve with red chutney and lemon.
Enjoy!
Dear Fauzia!!
I am a huge fan of your website n keep a regular follow up..I want to ask you if we can use bareesh (broken wheat) instead of whole wheat?? will it give the same taste or somewhat similar??
Waiting for your reply
Thanks
Thanks Saher! Yes it would be fine, but instead of soaking the broken wheat for 48hrs, you can just soak it overnight. The rest of the recipe remains the same.
hey fauzia,ur haleem recipe is really awsome.i have some doubt regarding the recipe.shud we boil the beef only with salt and water no spices required,nd shud we fry 250gm of onions to dark brown as we put it on top of biriyani
Thanks, boil the meat with 1 tsp each of ginger, garlic, black pepper powder and salt. And yes fry the onions like for biryani, dark golden brown.
i tried ur haleem fauzia just now finished making it,nd its just awsome
salaam,
can we use brown rice instead of wheat?
W/Salaam, no this turns out best with wheat. Rice will give different results.
salaam can we use oats??
W/Salaam, have not tried this with oats.
Salam fauzia,
I have become big fan of your cooking now.How many people the above dish feed?JZK
Thanks
W/Salaam, thanks! It should serve 5-6 people.
Amazin work!! 🙂
Salaamz just wondering is masoor the orange ones? As theres also brown ones. Thanks
W/Salaam, yes the orange ones. 🙂
Thanks
Salaams Fauzia, thank you very much for your wonderful recipes! Im wondering what I can substitute for wheat if I am allergic to wheat. I was thinking perhaps barley would be a good substitute, what do you think?
W/Salaam, yes am sure barley would be a good substitute. Let me know how it turns out!
wowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww i try this today and be live me its turnout soooo good mashallah my husband and kids loved it,thanks a lots to sharing this recipe with us.
AOa!
I was wondering do we have to boil the pulses you mentioned or just blend it after soaking overnight?
W/salaam, yes you have to boil it after soaking overnight.
Hi! I really want to try this recipe but dont have a pressure cooker to boil the wheat in. Any suggestions? Thanks.
Hi, boil in a regular pan, keep topping up with water until the wheat is tender.
Assalaamualaikum.does. the wheat have to soak 48 hours.would it not work out if soaked overnight.I want tp make it,but the soaking hours feel like they never ending.ps, iv soaked some but its been 10 hours.
W/Salaam, the reason for soaking them that long is that they will cook faster. You can soak them for less time but it will mean they will take longer to get cooked when you boil them. 🙂
I want to try this recipe but what measurement is the following: 5-8 whole pepper?
And which pepper are you referring to? Also can the wheat grain be any one from local supermarket? Thank you
It means the whole round black peppers. You can use from FIVE to EIGHT depending on how much pepper you like in your food. And yes you can get wheat grain at any supermarket.
HI Fauzia,
Have you tried this recipe with bulgur instead of wheat?
Hi, no I haven’t.
going to try this today……!
can i use crushed wheat?
Yes you can.
Hey aoa ur doing a fabulous job by making things so esy so that we can cook any thing in an easy fashion with perfect blend of taste.I want to ask that if u. Could plz tell me the number of onions rather than kg.secondly can u help me find out the dif btn tomato paste and blended. Tomatoes.
Hi and thanks. It is hard to approximate the number of onions as sizes vary. I would say about 12 medium sized ones would be 1kg. Tomato paste is concentrated and is sold in supermarkets, sometimes known as puree.