Haleem without the hassle

For those who aren’t familiar with Haleem, I’d liken it to a thick savoury porridge. Well, ham and pea soup with less soup, no ham and a goodly variety of split peas? Plus exotic curry flavours. Served with flaky parathas. What’s not to like?

serves 4

½ jar Charmaine Solomon’s Korma curry paste

¼ cup fine cracked wheat

½ cup toor dhal (split pigeon peas), or chana dhal (split chickpeas)

½ cup urid dhal

¼ cup barley

350g lamb shoulder chops, bones retained

1 litre water.

Wash dhals to make sure the lentils are clean and free from small stones or foreign matter.

Place lentils in a rice cooker with the lamb, korma curry paste and water. Set to start cooking, and when the cooker switches to ‘keep warm’, carefully lift the lid- water will run off the inside of the lid.  Stir well to make sure the lentils haven’t stuck on the base of the inner bowl. If the lentils are very liquid still and not thoroughly softened, set the switch to ‘cook’ again.

If using a saucepan, make sure it is on a low heat, barely a simmer for 2 hours. If you have a gas cooktop, I recommend using a simmer pad and stirring frequently towards the end of cooking to make sure the lentils haven’t caught on the base of the pan.

Take the lamb pieces out of the lentils, dispose of the bones and mash the meat with a fork. Return the meat to the lentils.  

With either cooking method you may need to add extra water and cooking time.  When done, the lentils have the consistency of a thick pea soup, with tender shreds of meat throughout.

Serve with freshly cooked, flaky parathas and garnishes such as crisp fried onions, thinly sliced chillies (or whole ones for the brave at heart), matchsticks of peeled, fresh ginger, chopped coriander and mint, thin natural yoghurt and wedges of lemon.