Keema, a saucy, spiced, ground meat dish with peas, is comfort food that takes minutes to make in an instant pot! Serve hot with aromatic basmati rice.
What is Keema?
Have you ever had keema before? It’s like an Indian spaghetti sauce, only with fewer tomatoes and way more flavor. Oh, and peas.
Am I crazy for making that comparison? Someone tell me that you agree with me. I mean, it’s essentially an Indian spiced bolognese. You can eat it over pasta if you want, I mean, why not. Normally though, we eat it with plain basmati rice or an Indian flatbread.
I think keema mattar is a good “gateway” dish into Indian cuisine (that and Butter Chicken, of course). It’s a simple, comfort-food dish that you can make with any ground meat, lamb, goat, beef, turkey, chicken, etc.
It’s economical and can be stretched out with peas or potatoes. I always make it with peas, but I’m sure potatoes would be great too – though you’d have to reduce the cook time to 5 minutes, so the potatoes wouldn’t turn to mush. Hey, look at me, giving those of you who actually read what I write an extra recipe!
I’ve also included directions on how to use my onion masala to make this dish even easier. Just check out the notes in the recipe below. 🙂
Keema Ingredients
- Ghee or Oil
- Onion
- Garlic
- Ginger
- Serrano pepper or Green Chilli
- Spices: coriander powder, paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, cayenne, ground cardamom
- Ground Meat
- Canned Diced Tomatoes OR Onion Masala
- Peas
- Cilantro
5 Reasons to Love Keema:
- Easy: this dish is so simple to make, especially if you have my Onion Masala on hand (highly recommend). You can get this dinner started in the Instant Pot in minutes if you have that prepared in advance.
- Everyone loves it: including kids! This is one dish that my whole family enjoys – as I said above, it’s similar enough to Indian spiced spaghetti and a lot of kids like spaghetti.
- Economical: a filling meal made with easy protein: ground meat. Add potatoes to stretch it out even more if you’d like.
- Versatile: eat it with basmati rice, serve it with pasta for kiddos (or yourself), use it to stuff samosas (just saute it to dry it out a bit more first).
- Freezes Well: I almost always make a double batch and freeze half for a rainy day. It freezes and thaws well and is a great meal to prep in advance.
Serve keema with plain Basmati Rice or Jeera Rice. You can also use it as a stuffing in samosas or parathas.
More Indian Main Dish Ideas:
Instant Pot Keema
Instant Pot Keema
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons ghee or oil
- 1 onion finely diced
- 4 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 teaspoon minced ginger
- 1 Serrano pepper or green chili minced
Spices
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 pound ground meat of choice
- 1 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes OR ½ cup onion masala*see notes
- 2 cups fresh or frozen peas
- Cilantro garnish
Instructions
- Press the sauté button, add the ghee and onions and stir-fry for 8-10 minutes, or until the onions begin to brown.
- Add the garlic, ginger, Serrano pepper and spices to the pot. Stir-fry for 30 seconds, then add the ground meat and cook until it is mostly browned.
- Add the diced tomatoes (OR ½ cup onion masala) and peas and mix well
- Secure the lid, close the pressure valve and cook for 10 minutes at high pressure.
- Open the valve to quick release any remaining pressure.
- Press the sauté button to reduce or boil off any extra liquid if needed.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve.
Notes
- If you are following my onion masala series and would like to use it in this recipe, you can use ½ cup onion masala in place of the onions, garlic, ginger, and tomatoes — just toss in the frozen onion masala when you add the peas in step 3. You can also reduce the cook time to 5 minutes if using onion masala.
Cyndi Miller says
I had some lamb from a local farm and needed a place to use it. This was easy and delicious, as always. Honestly, I’ve never tried a bad recipe here. Your recipes are reliably delicious.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Cyndi, that’s great to hear – I’m so glad you liked it! And thank you for the kind words 🙂
Summer says
Hi, if I need to omit the tomatoes, would I need to add water or anything before setting the pressure cooker? Would you change anything else in the recipe to compensate for the lack of tomatoes? Thank you for any guidance on this!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi Summer, I haven’t tried making this without the tomatoes so I’m not sure – I think it would change the flavor quite a bit. If you’re unable to eat tomatoes, I would suggest trying my “nomato masala” as a substitute.
KAnthi says
THANK you so much for this recipe. It was delicious. My family ate it without a fuss and that’s a huge win.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
That’s awesome to hear! Thank you for letting me know how much your family liked this 🙂
Anjali says
My dad used to call it Indian Sloppy Joes for our Pennsylvania neighbors. I’ll be trying this with TVP for a vegetarian version. Will let you know how it goes.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Haha I like the name! Can’t wait to hear how it goes 🙂
Colleen says
Easy to make especially with the pre-made onion masala. It very good and simple
I didn’t have cardamom powder and I feel like it’s missing something so I will get some cardamom and try it again.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Colleen, happy to hear that you liked it! And yes, definitely try it with that 🙂
Yang says
This is fantastic. Easy to mix all the spices. The directions were easy to follow. Fast with the instant pot. I used ground bison and snap peas which turned out fine. Very practical for a busy mom with small kids. The kids loved it so much that we did not have any leftovers and adults had to avoid seconds for the kids. They usually don’t tolerate spicy food but they loved this dish. Definitely will make it again. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
That’s awesome to hear! I’m so glad everyone liked it 🙂
Lata says
Hi, how do you convert the amounts of minced ginger and garlic in your recipes to store-bought garlic ginger paste? For example, this recipe calls for 4 tspns minced ginger and 1 tsp minced ginger. How much ginger-garlic paste would that be? 5 tspns seems like a lot! Thanks!
Ashley - My Heart Beets says
Hi Lata, you can try starting with 2 or 3 tsps and see how that tastes? I’m not familiar with the potency of storebought paste so maybe another reader can chime in. Let me know how it goes!