Qeema Matar is a delicious dish made with minced cauliflower and fresh green peas. The vegetarian dish is a great substitute for the original meat curry.

Qeema or Keema is typically an Asian meat dish where the lamb meat is minced and cooked with peas and potatoes. Since we are vegetarians we obviously look for similar dishes but with a vegetarian substitute. When we talk of vegetarian Qeema we somehow understand it would be soya granules, right? Well, how about a Gobhi ka Qeema?

Since years we have been making minced cauliflower and it is a typical Sindhi dish, we call it Chithiyal Gobhi, but a few months back I was in a restaurant and they had Qeema Matar Samosas! The restaurant served Awadhi Cuisine and I assumed the samosas to be a part of non-veg starters, but on reading the description I realized that the Qeema was of cauliflower. We ordered the samosas and they were par excellence while eating these I immediately related them to the Chithiyal Gobhi that the Sindhi’s cook. I modified the recipe and now it is called Qeema Matar. I even tried Qeeme Ke Parathe which were really appreciated.

The dish has finely chopped onions and finely chopped cauliflower. The chopping has to be really fine and that is what gives the real taste to the dish. Follow this recipe and I bet you will fall in love with this vegetarian dish.

Qeema Matar is my dish with the alphabet Q for the A to Z series and where I have picked the theme – Pick one state and make three dishes. This month’s state is Uttar Pradesh.

Qeema Matar

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil + 1 tbsp ghee
4 onions, finely chopped
1 cup cauliflower, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 green chillies
2-3 tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp coriander leaves
1/2 cup green peas, boiled

Method

Add oil to a pan and heat it.
Add the chopped onions, stir for a minute and add the chopped cauliflower.
Do not mix!
Sprinkle salt and turmeric powder and simmer the flame.
Cover the pan with a lid with edges.
Pour some water over the lid.
Let cook for 8-10 minutes.
Carefully remove the lid, check if the cauliflower is done.
If not then sprinkle some water over the cauliflower and cover and cook.
Once the cauliflower is cooked, add ginger garlic paste, green chillies, tomatoes and all the dry spices, except garam masala.
Mix everything very well and now increase the flame to full.
Cook on full flame till the moisture from tomatoes is completely gone and you can see the oil separating.
Now add boiled green peas and ghee.
Mix once again, finally add some garam masala and drizzle a tsp of ghee.
Garnish with coriander leaves.

Print Pin

Qeema Matar

Qeema Matar is a delicious dish made with minced cauliflower and fresh green peas. The vegetarian dish is a great substitute for the original meat curry.

Course Dinner, Lunch

Cuisine Indian Cuisine

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 50 minutes minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp oil + 1ghee
• 4 onions finely chopped
• 1 cup cauliflower finely chopped
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 green chillies
• 2-3 tomatoes finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp red chilly powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 tsp coriander leaves
• 1/2 cup green peas boiled

Instructions

• Add oil to a pan and heat it.
• Add the chopped onions, stir for a minute and add the chopped cauliflower.
• Do not mix!
• Sprinkle salt and turmeric powder and simmer the flame.
• Cover the pan with a lid with edges.
• Pour some water over the lid.
• Let cook for 8-10 minutes.
• Carefully remove the lid, check if the cauliflower is done.
• If not then sprinkle some water over the cauliflower and cover and cook.
• Once the cauliflower is cooked, add ginger garlic paste, green chillies, tomatoes and all the dry spices, except garam masala.
• Mix everything very well and now increase the flame to full.
• Cook on full flame till the moisture from tomatoes is completely gone and you can see the oil separating.
• Now add boiled green peas and ghee.
• Mix once again, finally add some garam masala , and drizzle a tsp of ghee.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Notes

Check out what my BM buddies are doing here.