Authentic Pakistani Haleem Recipe: Easy and Flavourful Homemade Delight

Introduction

It’s now November and my heart is calling our for this traditional haleem recipe. I love this rich luxurious slow cooked stew like dish. It’s packed with lentils and meat that has fallen off the bone. All the liquid from the bone broth is kept in the haleem adding to the flavour and nutritional value. This really is a great dish to have on those cold winter months and also in Ramadan due to it’s filling, nutritious ingredients.

Haleem has been traditionally always classed as a labour of love where the whole day is needed to slow cook the haleem. However, this haleem recipe is so incredibly easy to make. I use a pressure cooker which makes everything super speedy. You will save at least an hour of cooking time with a pressure cooker, so I would definitely recommend it. However I have also put full details of how to cook this Pakistani haleem recipe using a saucepan too.

History of Pakistani Haleem as we know it today

Haleem has Arab origins, in particular it more specifically emulates the Arab dish Harisaa. Harissa is a simple which made with wheat meat and spices. This is essentially what any haleem is to this day.

Harissa was eventually introduced to the Mughals, who took it to India. The Indian influence involved the adding of lentils and ghee or butter. This is more in keeping with how Pakistani Haleem is eaten today.

Haleem became very popular in Hyderabad, which results in the next step of evolution of the dish; garnishing. For Hyderabadi’s garnishing could include fried onions, mint, and lemon, and sometimes dry fruits and nuts. This Pakistani haleem recipe gives a gentle nod to the Hyderbad influence by garnishing with fried onions and lemon.

Haleem is a great dish to serve on Eid, you can definitely make this your Eid haleem recipe and wow your guests!

Tips

Haleem recipes tend to always involve hours and hours of graft to have that gorgeously nutritious thick, soup like texture. I have written below notes on how to make it using a saucepan. However by using a pressure cooker you save a lot of time and the taste is not at all compromised in the process. As mum of two, when it comes to cooking, I always like to streamline the process.

Haleem should always have a little bit of texture, it should not be totally smooth consistency. I love the texture of the shreds of meat against the lentils, it really is divine. You can use a hand blender or a food processor to help get the lentils and meat to a texture of your liking, just be careful not to over blend.

This haleem recipe does make quite a large batch, I usually keep half the batch to eat during the week I made it, and the other half is frozen. If you want to just make enough for the week, you can half the ingredients accordingly. If you do half the ingredients, you should be able to cook your lentil ingredients and meat ingredients in the same pan or pressure cooker. This will reduce the cooking time substantially. However it might be a bit more fiddly to remove the bones.

If you want to streamline the cooking process further, you can always use boneless meat. However the flavour is always that bit better with meat on the bone. Not to mention the added nutritional value by cooking with meat on the bone.

Haleem Recipe ingredients

There are quite a few ingredients needed for haleem, the majority you will most likely have in your cupboard. The lentils you will be able to find from any half decent South Asian grocery shop. The pearl barley you should be able to find in any large Western supermarket, I actually could not find this in my local South Asian grocery shop.

How to serve this Haleem Recipe

Haleem is always been served with sliced green finger chillies, lemon wedges and julienne ginger. I always like to have a good squeeze of lemon on haleem before eating it. However my husband recently visited Pakistan and mentioned that his khala (maternal aunt) had served haleem with fried onions and lime wedges; which he loved. He was obviously telling me this for me to introduce these garnishes into our household! It is definitely something you can experiment with to your preference.

As haleem is not quite as runny in texture and say a tarka daal, it’s best to serve it with chapati or naans. I personally would not serve haleem with rice, it just does not work for me texture wise.

Sometimes I just eat bowls of haleem alone, it’s very filling and really is the most nutritious soup like dish you can eat.

If cooking via pressure cooker, sometimes the lentils will catch on the bottom of the pan. Remove the unburnt mixture at each stage and wash the pressure cooker before starting the next cooking stage. This will ensure that the flavour of the haleem is not ruined.

Storing Haleem

Haleem will keep very nicely in the fridge for 3 days in an airtight container. It does tend to solidify more once cooled. So I would advise adding it to a pan with some water and heating it gently to regain that liquid texture again before eating.

You can also freeze haleem for 3 months. When wanting to eat it, let it defrost in the fridge and then heat up in the same method mentioned above. This is a great meal to prepare in advance for a dinner party. All this effort will not be missed by your guests, and it takes one dish off list of things to make on the actual hosting day.

See my video on Youtube, Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this dish.

Ingredients for Haleem Recipe

Preparation: 10 minutes

Cook time in pressure cooker: 1 hour and 20 minutes for chicken haleem, 1 hour and 30 minutes for lamb haleem

Cook time in saucepan: 1 hour and 50 minutes for chicken haleem, 2 hour and 25 minutes for lamb haleem

Feeds 14-16

Lentil Ingredients

• 1/3 mug/ 100 grams moong washed daal
• 1/3 mug/ 95 grams urid washed daal
• 1/3 mug/ 95 grams chana daal
• 1/3 mug/ 85 grams red split daal
• 1/3 mug/ 90 grams pearl barley
• 1/3 mug/ 100 grams of basmati rice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1.75 litre of water

Ingredients for meat

• 1kg meat, lamb, chicken or mutton on the bone
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 tbsp ginger powder
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 tsp garlic
• 1 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp red chilli powder (to taste)
• 1.75 litre of water

Ingredients after lamb and lentils have combined in pan

• 250 grams unsalted butter
• 1/2 tbsp garam masala
• juice of 1 lemon

Garnishing Ingredients

• lemon or lime wedges
• 1 onion, finely sliced and fried until golden brown ( you can buy these from the supermarket or fry your own, you can also use an air fryer for a healthier touch)
• green chillies, finely chopped
• julienne ginger

Method

• Wash all the lentils, rice and pearl barley until the water runs clear.

• In a pressure cooker, add all the lentil ingredients and add water to cover the the top of the lentils. Around 1.75 litres of water should be sufficient. Stir through and cover with the pressure cooker lid and turn the heat on the hob to high. Once you hear the whistling from the pressure cooker, turn the heat down to medium and cook for 15 minutes. (If cooking by saucepan, this will take 30-40 minutes)

• Once the 15 minutes has elapsed, allow the steam to escape from the pressure cooker slowly before removing the lid. Then use a hand blender to roughly blend the lentils (you could also use a food processor to do this). You do not want an entirely smooth texture, a little bit of un blended texture should be kept.

• Transfer the lentils to a large bowl or sauce pan and leave to one side.

• Next add all the ingredients for the meat to the pressure cooker, cover with water, place the pressure cooker lid on and turn the heat to high. Once you hear the whistling of the steam escaping, turn the heat down to medium/low. Cook for 15 minutes if chicken, cook for 25 minutes if lamb and turn the heat to medium. (If cooking by saucepan, 30 minutes for chicken and an hour for lamb). The meat should be falling off the bone after this time.

• Shred the meat with a fork or metal tongs and remove the bones from the pan. Then add the contents of the lentils bowl to the meat pan. Add in the butter and simmer for 30 minutes on low heat.
  • (The lentils may have stiffened as it has sat in the bowl, however there should be lots of liquid in the lamb pan for you to stir together with the lentils, this will loosen it up again).
  • Keep stirring to make sure the the haleem is not catching on the bottom of the pan.
  • You may want to use the hand blender again to blitz any chunkier pieces of lamb.
• Taste for salt and chilli at this point, you can add in more to your taste. Finally add the garam masala and lemon juice.
• Serve with a garnish of fried onions, green chillies, julienne ginger and lemon/lime wedges.

See my video on Youtube, Instagram or TikTok to see how to make this haleem recipe.