Mutton Haleem

Here is what happened. A cold chilling day, and a craving for a dish of hot spicy haleem. I soak the burgul and dals. Defrost the meat and Lo! Behold! the box of haleem masala is almost empty. (I normally buy ready made masala pack, never had the guts to try making from scratch.) So I go like, lets try.  I scan the list of ingredients mentioned on the box, estimate the amount minus all the preservatives and chemicals and tada! The ready dish of haleem turns out to be better than all my previous ready masala haleem.

For making haleem I use broken wheat /burgul. It soaks in no time and cooks faster than whole grains. 

Use the dal mixture of your preference or whatever is available in your pantry.  All these beautiful dals serve as powerhouse of proteins.

Dry roast all the spice mixture till fragrant and powder them in a grinder.

For those of you who like chicken just substitute the meat.

This recipe serves 8 people.   Each serving of haleem gives approximately 385 calories and 25g of proteins.

Here is what you’ll need:

½ kg mutton

1 cup broken wheat (burgul)

¼ cup red dal

¼ toor dal

¼ cup urad dal (mash dal)

¼ cup any dal of your choice (optional) (channa dal)

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

3-4 tbsp oil/ghee

4 tbsp chopped Coriander

½ tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder

½ cube maggie stock (optional)

Fried onions (for garnish)

Lemon (for garnish)

Whole Spices:

1 tsp whole cumin (jeera)

1 tsp whole coriander (dhaniya)

½ tsp whole black pepper

4 cardamoms (elaichi)

1 cinnamon stick (dalchini)

1 bay leaf (tej patta)

4 cloves (lavang)

10 curry leaves 

1 tsp onion seeds/ kalonji/ nigella seeds

Method:

1. Wash and soak the dal and broken wheat in lukewarm water for 1 hour.
2. Dry roast all the whole spices on low flame till fragrant. Once cooled, grind it into a fine powder.
3. In a pressure cooker, heat ghee/oil and fry the ginger garlic paste till the raw smell goes. Add turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
4. Add the cleaned mutton and the powdered spices.To this add 4 cups of water and pressure cook on low flame for 20-30 minutes till all the meat falls off the bones.
5. Separate the meat and bones and shred the meat finely.
6. In a pressure cooker, cook the burgul and dals with 10 cups of water for 20 minutes.
7. Once cooked, add the mutton pieces and soup of the mutton to the dal base.
8. Adjust salt and add  stock (optional). Add the chopped coriander.
9. Let the haleem cook till desired consistency.
10. Garnish with fried onions and coriander leaves. Squeeze in a slice of lemon.

Learn to make perfect fried onions/Birista in the The Kitchen Counter.

Recipe by Zohra Sada