Once when I was cooking this, my curious daughter who saw me preparing it for the first time, asked me, “are you preparing Dal?!” When the meat and lentil dish was served at the dinner table, she was surprised to see the final dish, not only that, she ate bowl after bowl and polished off three bowlfuls!
Haleem is a popular stew that is enjoyed across South Asia, the Middle East, and Central Asia. It is typically made with a combination of wheat or barley, lentils, and meat. In this recipe, I use mutton as the meat of choice. To prepare the dish, the meat is boiled with a mixture of onions, ginger garlic paste, and whole garam masala spices. Meanwhile, wheat and a mix of lentils are also boiled separately. These components are then combined with a mixture of onions, tomatoes, and spices, and cooked on low heat until the flavors meld together. The dish is garnished with fried onions, mint leaves, and lemon juice before serving.
Haleem is a special delicacy that is commonly enjoyed during the month of Ramadan. The variety of ingredients used in this dish make it a complete and filling one-pot meal. With its rich flavors and hearty texture, it is no wonder that my daughter enjoyed it so much!
Haleem
Ingredients
For the Dal mixture:
- Broken Wheat: 250gm
- Chana Dal: 100gm
- Urad Dal: 2 tsp
- Masoor Dal: 2 tsp
- Moong Dal: 2 tsp
For the Mutton:
- Goat Meat: 600 gm
- Ginger Garlic paste: 3 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Turmeric: 1 tsp
- Red chili powder: 1½ tsp
- Dhaniya powder: 1½ tsp
- Garam masala: 1½ tsp
- Cinnamon stick: 3 piece
- Cardamom: 2 piece
- Black paper: 1 tsp
- Clove: 6 to 8
- Cumin seed: 1 tsp
- Onion: 3 (make birsta)
- Tomato: 3 Piece
- Coriander leaves and Mint leaves
- Lemon juice
Method:
- Cook mutton with onion, ginger-garlic paste, salt, turmeric and whole garam masala. Add water and boil it.
- Soak wheat overnight and boil it with salt and turmeric.
- Wash the dal and boil it with salt & turmeric.
- Heat oil in a big vessel, add cumin seeds, cinamon, cloves, black paper, bay leaf and saute till fragrant.
- Add onion and saute till it turns golden.
- Then add ginger, garlic, green chilli, tomato, mint and saute well.
- Add chilli powder, turmeric, coriander powder and garam masala.
- Pour a little water and mix well.
- Now add boiled mutton and saute for a few minutes.
- Mix the boiled wheat and boiled dal well.
- Cook on low flame for 15 to 20 minutes.
- Garnish with fried onions, mint and lemon.
Watch this recipe here – Haleem
Perina is a food blogger, born and brought up in a small town of Gujarat, now settled in Dubai since the last 15 yrs. She loves to innovate and create new recipes while experimenting with her cooking with her family. She believes cooking is constant experimentation and should be indulged in with love and care. She has participated in various cooking competitions and won several awards and recognition from eminent personalities including chef Sanjiv Kapoor.
Translations and detailed descriptions are provided to give a better understanding of the story to people from different cultural backgrounds across the globe.