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You are here: Home / beef / Kheema With Springtime Greens

Kheema With Springtime Greens

May 21, 2010 By Laura 8 Comments

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While my sister was visiting, we went to my local farmer’s market together. Josie is always up for a good farmer’s market, and for our town size (and even one bigger really), ours is excellent. While we were browsing through my favorite produce stand, we were discussing what to make while she was here. Ever since she had her Indian food revelation (that she liked it!) I like cooking Indian food for her. So when I saw that they had mustard greens, I gravitated towards them.


I love mustard in Indian food.

She does not like mustard greens.

She wanted kale.

I do not like kale.

I ended up buying both. There is a lesson in here somewhere about trying foods and deciding you don’t like something after just 1 or 2 preparations, because I loved that kale in a fried rice I made, similar to this one, and Josie loved the mustard greens in this kheema.


There is also a lesson here about worrying about individual ingredients in certain preparations, where everything kind of blends together to create a new whole. That is definitely the case with this kheema, where the mustard greens, spinach, green garlic and cilantro are blended together. (It is also true for the cilantro, if you are a cilantro hater–blended and cooked cilantro in Indian food is entirely different from cilantro in a Mexican salsa.) At that stage they smelled like a new wonderful something, but still pungent from the mustard greens. After cooking in the kheema with the yogurt however, that pungency was toned down into a decidedly yummy new something yet again.

Would I be putting this recipe on the blog, my sister inquired? 🙂


Kheema With Springtime Greens

Recipe by The Spiced Life

10 oz spinach, roughly chopped
10 oz mustard greens, roughly chopped
1/2 cup chopped green garlic (scallions may be subbed)
2/3 cup chopped cilantro
1-2 T vegetable oil (use more oil if your meat is very lean)
2 heaping t dark mustard seeds
2 heaping t cumin seeds
2 T minced ginger
2 T minced garlic
2 onions, sliced
1 t ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t turmeric
1/2 t cayenne or paprika
2 lbs ground beef (can sub half turkey, chicken, pork, etc)
1 1/3 cup whole milk yogurt
1 1/2 t garam masala
1 T dark brown sugar
1 t amchur powder (sub the juice of one lemon or lime if you do not have)

Begin by heating a large wok or chef’s pan, anything with a lid, over medium heat. Add about 2 inches of water, and when it comes to a boil, add the spinach and mustard greens and cover with a lid. Tossing occasionally, let the greens cook until they are soft and wilted, but still bright green. Transfer them to a blender with some of the water (enough to make them blend easily). Add the green garlic and cilantro, and blend until smooth (it may be quite runny, which is fine). Set aside.

Heat a large Dutch oven over medium high heat, adding the oil when it is hot. Add the mustard seeds immediately and cover the pot loosely. The mustard seeds will pop much like popcorn–when they slow down, add the cumin seeds and stir for 10-20 seconds, until the cumin seeds are darkened and fragrant–do not let them burn. Add the onions with a hefty pinch of salt.

Cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until they are dark and caramelized. Keep water by the stove to add if the onions seem to be sticking or scorching. This will take 10-15 minutes. Toward the end, add the garlic and ginger also. When the onions are dark enough (how dark they will get depends on the kind of onion you use, but they should be quite caramelized), add the ground cumin, coriander, turmeric and cayenne or paprika. Stir briefly and add the ground meat with another pinch of salt. Break the clumps up and stir fry the meat until it loses all pink.

Begin adding the yogurt, 2 tablespoons at a time, and stirring well after each addition. When all of the yogurt has been added, turn the heat down to medium and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the reserved blended greens. Cook another 5 minutes and then add the garam masala, brown sugar and amchur powder (or lemon/lime juice if need by). Taste for additional salt and serve over basmati rice with a sweet, sour and spicy chutney (I used a plum chutney from our farmer’s market).

Filed Under: beef, greens, ground beef, Indian recipes, keema/kheema, spinach Tagged With: curry, greens, ground beef, Indian, kale, keema, kheema, leafy greens, minced meat

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Comments

  1. Eliana says

    May 21, 2010 at 7:59 pm

    What an interesting recipe. Thanks so much for sharing.

    Reply
  2. Tangled Noodle says

    May 21, 2010 at 9:00 pm

    I love kheema, although I've only ever made it with pre-mixed spices. This would be a great way to try and make it from scratch, not to mention a good reason to try mustard greens! 😎

    Reply
  3. Kathy Gori says

    May 22, 2010 at 2:18 am

    This looks great. I bought some ground lamb for kheema . I was going to make it with peas..but now you've given me a great alternative.

    Reply
  4. Joanne says

    May 22, 2010 at 5:33 am

    You are now getting me motivated to try all sorts of new things! I love how green this is…never fails to appeal to me.

    Reply
  5. Monet says

    May 22, 2010 at 2:06 pm

    What a great and different recipe. My husband and I have just started making food using Indian spices, and I can't wait to give this a try!

    Reply
  6. Josie says

    May 23, 2010 at 6:23 pm

    It. Was. So. Good.

    I gotta check out my local greens selection and make this again. I wonder if I could convince the parents to try it??

    Reply
  7. DailyChef says

    May 24, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    I've had this in restaurants before but have never figured out how to make it. Thanks so much for the recipe!

    Reply
  8. emiglia says

    May 26, 2010 at 3:08 am

    I've never seen anything like this before, but it looks awfully tempting…

    Reply

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Hi! I’m Laura and I am a recovering history major who has re-channeled all of my passion for learning about the history of different countries to learning about their food culture. That doesn’t mean every dish on here is strictly authentic, but it does mean that even my adaptations are not undertaken lightly. My goal is to show you–by doing–that these dishes are possible in your kitchen. Including desserts because I have quite the sweet tooth! Read More…

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