Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Haleem
A thick, slow-pounded porridge of shredded beef, wheat, barley and lentils, crowned with crisp fried onions, ginger and lemon.
Pakistani · advanced · serves 8
prep 30 min · cook 210 min
~562 cal · 31g protein · 46g carbs · 28g fat · 8g fiber · 5g sugars · 14g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Haleem is Pakistan's great Ramadan dish, a thick, savoury porridge of shredded beef cooked down for hours with wheat, barley and a mix of lentils until the grains dissolve and the meat pulls into fine strands you can no longer tell apart. It descends from the Arab wheat-and-meat harees, reworked in the subcontinent with ginger, garlic, chilli and a heavy hand of .
The two elements are cooked separately and then married: the beef is browned and simmered until it falls apart, while the soaked wheat, barley and lentils are boiled to a soft mush in a second pot. Combined with the meat and its , the whole mass is then pounded and stirred, the labour-intensive ghutai, with a wooden masher until it turns silky and cohesive with just a few visible threads of meat.
In Lahore whole streets fill with steaming deghs of it through Ramadan, ladled out at iftar and finished at the table with crisp mahogany fried onions, raw ginger, green chillies, fresh coriander and mint, a dusting of chaat masala and a firm squeeze of lemon over the top.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally egg-, nut- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
1.5 lb boneless beef (shank or shoulder), in large pieces
1 cup cracked wheat (dalia), soaked overnight
1/2 cup pearl barley, soaked overnight
1/4 cup chana dal (split chickpeas), soaked
1/4 cup masoor dal (red lentils)
1/4 cup moong dal (split mung beans)
1/2 cup
4 large onions, thinly sliced
3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1/2 cup plain yogurt, whisked
3 tbsp haleem masala or
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
to taste salt
1 bowl fresh ginger julienne, green chillies, coriander, mint and lemon, to garnish
Instructions
1
Brown two of the sliced onions in half the ghee until deep golden, then add the ginger-garlic paste, half the masala, turmeric, chilli and salt and fry for a few minutes.
2
Add the beef and turn it in the spices over high heat for 10 minutes, stir in the yogurt, then add hot water and simmer, covered, for about 2 hours until the meat is falling apart.
✎ Chef’s note
Browning and frying the beef well before any water goes in is what gives haleem a meaty depth rather than a flat, dal-heavy taste.
3
Meanwhile boil the soaked wheat, barley, chana dal, masoor dal and moong dal in a second pot with water and the rest of the masala for 2 to 3 hours, topping up with hot water, until everything collapses into a soft mush.
4
Lift out the beef, shred it finely with two forks, then return it to its stock and tip in the cooked grains and lentils.
5
Pound and stir the mixture hard with a wooden masher for 15 to 20 minutes until it turns thick, smooth and stranded, adding hot water if it stiffens too much.
✎ Chef’s note
This pounding, the ghutai, is what separates haleem from a plain stew. Work it until the meat and grain read as one silky mass with only a few threads of beef showing.
6
Fry the remaining onions in the rest of the ghee until crisp and mahogany, then serve the haleem topped with the fried onions, julienned ginger, green chilli, coriander, mint and a squeeze of lemon.
Pakistani Ramadan tradition, Lahore.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Lahore (Punjab). A good deal of what Lahore now eats arrived in 1947. Kashmiri families displaced from Amritsar settled around Gawalmandi and opened shops in the front rooms of their houses, bringing gram-flour battered fried fish, hareesa and Amritsari sweets that the old city has long since claimed as its own.
🗺️
Pakistan. Nihari is a night-long stew, its name taken from the Arabic for day because it was eaten at dawn after cooking overnight, and it is still a breakfast dish in Lahore and Karachi rather than a dinner one. The pot is often never fully emptied, a little of yesterday's held back as the starter for today's.
🌍
Asia. A grain line runs across the continent. Rice dominates the wet south and east, wheat the drier north and west, and the tools follow it: the wok and the steamer where rice is milled, the tandoor and the griddle where wheat is ground. Tea travels the other way, drunk green, black, salted, buttered or with milk depending how far it got from China.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Pakistan
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Chapli KababFlat, spiced minced-beef patties studded with tomato and pomegranate, shallow-fried crisp, a Khyber specialty.
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Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Stews and braises keep 3 to 4 days refrigerated and often taste better the next day. Reheat gently, adding a splash of water if it has thickened.
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Frequently asked questions
What is Haleem?
A thick, slow-pounded porridge of shredded beef, wheat, barley and lentils, crowned with crisp fried onions, ginger and lemon.
Where does Haleem come from?
Haleem is a Pakistani dish from Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan.
Can Haleem be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Haleem recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Haleem safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Haleem take to make?
About 240 minutes total (30 minutes prep, 210 minutes cooking), serving 8.
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