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Qorma, salan & curries

Aloo Keema Recipe

آلو قیمہ بنانے کا طریقہ

Dry, well-fried beef keema with soft potato cubes, finished with green chillies and coriander: a quick weeknight salan that packs well.
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Illustration of Aloo Keema

Prep

15 min

Cook

40 min

Total

55 min

Serves

4

Difficulty

Easy

Spice

Medium hot

Aloo keema is one of the most common weekday dishes in Pakistani homes: beef mince fried with onion and tomato until every grain is separate and browned, with potato cubes cooked in the same pan. It is a dry salan, so the masala should cling to the mince rather than sit in a gravy. Good keema depends on frying the mince long enough to drive off its water before the spices go in.

Ingredients

4 servings

For 4 servings

Measures

To finish

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a wide pan on medium heat and fry the onions until golden.

    ⏱ 7 min

  2. Add the mince and ginger-garlic paste. Turn the heat up and keep breaking the mince with the spoon until it loses its pink colour, the water it releases has dried up and it starts to brown.

    ⏱ 10 min

  3. Add the tomatoes, salt, red chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric. Bhuno on medium heat until the tomatoes break down and oil separates.

    ⏱ 7 min

  4. Add the potatoes and water, stir, cover and cook on low heat until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife.

    ⏱ 15 min

  5. Uncover, raise the heat and stir gently until any remaining water dries up and the masala clings to the keema and potatoes.

    ⏱ 4 min

  6. Add the garam masala, green chillies, ginger and coriander. Cover for 2 minutes on the lowest heat, then serve.

    ⏱ 2 min

Tips for the best result

  • Ask the butcher to mince the beef once, not twice. Single-minced keema keeps a better texture and does not turn pasty.
  • A tablespoon of yogurt added with the tomatoes softens tougher mince and rounds out the flavour.

Common mistakes

  • Adding spices while the mince is still wet and pink. They stew instead of frying, and the keema smells of raw meat.
  • Cutting the potatoes too big. In a dry keema they need to be small enough to cook in the little water there is.

How to serve

Serve with hot roti or paratha and a bowl of raita.

Storing and reheating

Keeps 3 days in the fridge and reheats well in a pan. Freezes for up to 1 month.

Nutrition and cost

Worked out from the ingredients, not measured in a lab. Treat both as a rough guide.

Per serving Estimate

Calories
625kcal
Protein
26g
Fat
44g
Carbs
34g
Fibre
5.3g
Sodium
970mg

Estimated from USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain values for the raw ingredients (100% of the recipe by weight had data). Deep-frying oil is counted at 20%; bones and water lost in cooking are not subtracted, so bone-in and fried dishes can read high. Not medical advice. Method

Cost per servingEstimate

≈ Rs 200

Whole dish ≈ Rs 795 · 97% of ingredients by weight priced

From the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics weekly SPI, week ended 29 Oct 2026. Spices, herbs and some vegetables are not in the SPI and are left out unless you add your price, so the real cost is a little higher. How this works

Aloo Keema: questions people ask

Why does my keema smell?

Usually it was not fried long enough before the tomatoes went in. Fry until the mince is dry and browned, and the ginger, garlic and garam masala will cover any meaty smell.

Can I use chicken or mutton mince?

Yes. Mutton mince works the same way. Chicken mince cooks in half the time and releases less fat, so add a little more oil.

Serve it with, and similar recipes

All salan and qorma recipes

Read this recipe in Urdu: آلو قیمہ بنانے کا طریقہ

https://handi.danixsoft.com/recipes/aloo-keema · Handi, DanixSoft