Keema Matar: Ground Meat Curry With Green Peas
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This easy Keema Matar recipe has savory ground meat and sweet green peas cooked in a traditional Pakistani style. It’s rich and full of flavor, but the spices are balanced perfectly so they don’t overpower the dish. It’s a simple, high-protein meal that’s great for any night of the week.
What Is Keema Matar?
You want to cook Keema Matar when you feel like having curry, but you don’t want to stand for a long time in the kitchen to cook. It is a simple, flavorful, and delicious dish.
Keema Matar literally means ground meat and green peas. It is one of the classic curries in Indian/Pakistani cuisine and a staple on many household menus.
You’ll know why this dish is very popular when you try it.
Keema Matar is a dry type of curry. Its savory meat is cooked with well-balanced spices, making a good combo with the green peas, which add sweetness to the dish.
Although the dish is often served with roti/ chapati or naan bread, it is also popular to enjoy with plain Basmati rice.
It is a dish that offers delicious comfort. And it is surprisingly easy and quick to make. Unsurprisingly, it’s a must-have recipe for most Pakistani families, and every household will have its own version of keema matar.
The recipe I’m sharing here is rooted in the one I learned from my sister-in-law. With a little tweak, so that the dish is not too spicy and will be mild enough for the little ones in the family. But if you prefer your Keema Matar to have more kick, you can replace the paprika powder with red chili powder. Or with my favorite Kashmiri red chili powder.
What to Serve With Keema Matar
You can enjoy this keema matar with plain white Basmati rice. But it’s equally lovely to have it with chapati, pitta bread, or naan bread. So, it’s your personal choice.
My household sometimes has the following menu when I cook this minced meat curry with green peas. At other times, we would have it with one vegetable curry.
- Lamb keema matar.
- Chicken and peppers curry, chicken tikka, or chicken kebab patties.
- One vegetable curry, such as Aloo Palak or Aubergine curry.
- Green salad.
- Yogurt chutney.
- Plain Basmati rice, and/ or chapati/ roti, naan bread.
What You Need to Make It
You will need ground meat (minced meat), green peas, onion, ginger, garlic, spices, tomatoes, and cooking oil.
You need 7 individual spices and 1 spice mix for this recipe.
Turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, ground/ coarse black pepper, Kashmiri chili powder, cloves, and whole black peppercorns. And garam masala spice mix.
There are so many types of chili powder with different levels of heat. So you may want to put in as much chili as you like.
If you use Kashmiri chili powder for this recipe, your keema matar will be moderately spicy. Just a tingling heat to entertain your appetite.
When you make this dish for the whole family, including your little ones, you may want to use Paprika powder so your curry will taste mild.
When it comes to meat, you can choose any meat. Lamb, mutton, beef, or even chicken. Because keema means ground/minced meat anyway.
But in this recipe, I used lamb keema.
As for the tomatoes, you can use either fresh or tinned. You will only need 3-4 tablespoons of tinned tomatoes for this recipe when you use the latter one.
How to Make Keema Matar
This recipe uses a one-pot cooking method, so it’s very easy.
Firstly, you put all ingredients in a cooking pot/ pan except the green peas and the oil. Give it a good stir and put the lid on. Cook it at medium-high heat until the meat is cooked and the liquid is almost completely gone. Take care and watch it to ensure it doesn’t burn at the bottom of the pan. And stir it now and again.
When the meat is thoroughly cooked and the juice has almost evaporated completely, add the green peas. Stir well and continue cooking with the lid on. This time, you can turn the heat down.
Lastly, add the cooking oil to your minced-meat and green-pea curry. Give it a good stir, then cook for 10 minutes, until the oil separates from the gravy.
Top Tips to Make the Best Ground Meat Curry With Peas
- Choose the meat with a little bit of fat. If you choose lamb, the shoulder or leg of lamb is the best option. If you use beef, chuck beef is a good choice.
- Cook the keema with the spices until all the meat juices have evaporated before adding the oil. You can speed up the process by cooking it over moderately high heat.
- Try to break and mash the tomatoes as you cook the keema. Or, you can blend it in a blender before adding it to the meat.
Storing Matter
You can cook your keema matar in bulk and keep it in the fridge/ refrigerator for 4-5 days. And you can also freeze it for up to 2 months.
Take it out and leave it in the fridge overnight before you want to eat your frozen curry. And make sure you reheat it until it is piping hot. Consume it within 3 days. Once it has thawed, do not refreeze it.
Keema Matar
Equipment
- Cooking pan with lid
Ingredients
- 1.3 lbs lamb minced meat.
- 1 ½ cups green peas frozen or fresh
- 1 medium-size brown onion chopped.
- 2 cloves garlic minced.
- ½ inch ginger minced.
- ⅓ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder.
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder.
- ½ teaspoon ground/ coarse black pepper.
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder or Paprika powder see the note.
- 5 cloves
- 7 whole black peppercorns
- 2 medium size tomatoes chopped
- ⅓ cup cooking oil.
- Coriander leaves optional
Instructions
- In a cooking pot, put the minced meat in, add the chopped onions, garlic and ginger paste, the chopped tomatoes, and all the spices. Mix and stir well. Cook it at medium heat with the lid on. And keep mixing every now and again.
- After a while, you can see that the mixture will have juices released from the meat and the vegetables.
- Then add in your green peas. Stir well again and leave to cook with the lid on. Continue cooking and stirring until all the liquid almost disappears.
- When you find that the water evaporates, but the meat still looks juicy, add in the cooking oil and stir well.
- Put the lid back and cook further for about 10 minutes. Take care not to let the meat get too dry. If it looks too dry, you can add a little bit of water.
- Your Pakistani lamb keema matar should be ready when you can see the oil kind of mixed well and the minced meat looks juicy and yummy.
- Put the keema in a serving bowl. Garnish the dish with chopped coriander leaves.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- You can use either red chili pepper powder, cayenne pepper powder, or paprika powder. Or you can mix both chili and paprika by adding ½ teaspoon of each spice respectively. Just remember that every chili powder has its own different heat level, so you’d want to put as much chili according to your preference.
- You can use tinned tomatoes instead of fresh ones. 3-4 tablespoons of tinned tomatoes are more than enough for this recipe.
- I personally use rapeseed oil or sunflower oil for my curry dishes. So you can use whichever oil you like.
- This dish freezes well. I often make it in bulk and store it in my freezer. They’re such a keeper when things are too hectic for me to cook.
Nutrition
Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.
Made this with Vivera plant based mince and it was delicious! So it works as a vegan dish as well as with meat… it really was “so yummy” 🙂
Aww…thank you for sharing, I’m glad that the recipe worked for you.