Indian Keema Aloo is a traditional one-pot dish of spicy ground beef and tender potatoes. Seasoned with cumin, ginger, coriander, and turmeric.
This Dinner Recipe is sure to be a new favorite with its wonderful flavors from around the world. For another one-pot Indian recipe try Indian Butter Pot Roast next.
INDIAN KEEMA ALOO (GROUND BEEF AND POTATOES)
Keema Aloo is a classic comfort food popular in Pakistan and India. “Keema” means meat and “aloo” is referring to the potatoes. These two simple ingredients come together with a variety of mouthwatering spices to make the signature flavor of Keema Aloo. It’s the perfect comfort food, especially for colder seasons when the spices will help warm you right up.
In this recipe you cook the ground beef, potatoes, tomatoes, and peas all together. So, you already have your main dish and some sides covered. It’s always great to find dinner recipes, where you don’t have to worry about cooking up vegetables or anything else separately. However, if you want to whip up some Indian Raita, it will only take about 5 minutes. Raita is a cooling sauce that you can put over most classic Indian recipes. It’s great to have on your table in case the dish is too spicy for anyone, they can add a bit of this cooling sauce over the top. Other than that serve it up with some white rice or naan, and your dinner is ready to go.
Like most Indian dishes, Keema Aloo is somewhat spicy, but it’s not anything extreme. The spices all balance each other out nicely, and the potatoes help mellow the recipe. You can always taste it as you go to make sure it’s nothing you can’t handle. If you’re still worried it will be too spicy, cut back on the hottest ingredients like jalapeño and cayenne pepper. One of the things that makes Keema Aloo such a great recipe is that you can adjust the ingredients to your taste.
MAKE-AHEAD INDIAN KEEMA ALOO
Keema Aloo is a great dish to make in advance and store in your freezer. Once the Keema Aloo has cooled, put it in serving sized airtight containers. It will be ready to take with you as a packed lunch or quick dinner. The ground beef and potatoes should keep well for up to 3 months.
Take your serving of Keema Aloo out of the freezer the night before you plan to eat it, and let it defrost in the fridge. You can reheat it in the microwave or in a pan on the stovetop. The meat and potatoes will have absorbed more of the spices to be even more flavorful.
MORE TRADITIONAL INDIAN RECIPES
Indian Butter Chicken
Indian Aloo Gobi
Indian Lamb Curry
Slow Cooker Indian Butter Chicken
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VARIATIONS ON INDIAN KEEMA ALOO (GROUND BEEF AND POTATOES)
- Meat: Instead of using ground beef you can follow the same recipe using ground chicken, lamb or pork.
- Potatoes: While this recipe calls for russet potatoes, there are plenty of others you can use in Indian Keema Aloo. Try Yukon potatoes, red potatoes, or purple potatoes. You could even add in some sweet potatoes to the recipe.
- Veggies: Try adding in some extra vegetables to cook along with the peas and tomatoes. Chopped eggplant, cauliflower, or carrots would do nicely.
SLOW COOKER INDIAN KEEMA ALOO (GROUND BEEF AND POTATOES)
- Mix together the onions and spices.
- Add the onion mixture, tomatoes, beef, potatoes, and other ingredients to the crock pot. Put in everything except the green peas.
- Set the crock pot to low and let it cook for 8 hours.
- 30 minutes before Keema Aloo is done add the peas to the slow cooker.
INSTANT POT INDIAN KEEMA ALOO (GROUND BEEF AND POTATOES)
- Set the Instant Pot to sauté. Add the oil and begin to cook the onion. Continue to sauté until the onions are lightly browned.
- Mix in the spices and a splash of water. Stir it with the onions for another minute or so.
- Add the beef and brown it for 6-8 minutes.
- Combine the rest of the ingredients in the instant pot and mix them well.
- Seal the lid and set the instant pot to pressure cook for 10 minutes.
- After the Keema Aloo is cooked, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes then manually release the rest.
HOW TO STORE KEEMA ALOO (GROUND BEEF AND POTATOES)
- Serve: Don’t leave Keema Aloo at room temperature for more than 2 hours, after it’s cooked.
- Store: Once it’s cooled, store the ground beef and potatoes in an airtight container. They’ll keep well in the fridge for 3-5 days.
- Freeze: Store your Keema Aloo in the freezer for up to 3 months. Let it thaw in the fridge before reheating the dish.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 yellow onion , chopped
- 1 pounds lean ground beef
- 4 cloves garlic , minced
- 1 jalapeno , minced
- 1 tablespoon ground coriander
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 28 ounces diced tomatoes , do not drain
- 3 russet potatoes , peeled and diced into 1/2" cubes
- 1 cup frozen green peas
Instructions
- Add oil and onion to a large pot on medium heat.
- Cook onions, stirring occasionally, 6-8 minutes until translucent.
- Add in coriander, garam masala, cumin, salt, turmeric, ginger and cayenne and stir well, then cook for 1 minute.
- Add in beef and cook, breaking it apart and stirring occasionally, until it is cooked through, about 6-8 minutes.
- Add in garlic and jalapenos, then cook for 1 minute.
- Add in the tomatoes along with the tomato juices and potatoes and stir well.
- Bring to a simmer, then cook for 10-12 minutes until potatoes are tender.
- Add in frozen peas, stir and serve.
Nutrition
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This dish is delicious and so quick to make. Thanks!
Delish I added garbanzos and extra peppers. I cut my potatoes smaller than the 1/2 inch and do not know how you got yours to cook it 15 minutes. Next time I will pre cook the potatoes a bit before adding the tomatoes. The flavor was excellent thanks for the recipe
This was absolutely delicious!!! So good! I switched the russet potatoes for gold potato’s and used Kashmiri curry powder instead of cayenne powder and it’s the perfect amount of spice!
You are an intuitive cook! Enjoyed reading your feedback Lacey and thank you for the 5 star rating!
This was delicious, healthy, and easy to make. Thank you for this great recipe!
I made this recipe mostly as instructed. I left out the cayenne pepper. Deseeded and deveined the jalapeño and then, diced it very finely. Jalapeño adds a nice flavor even if you only add half a jalapeño !
At the end, I stirred in about 1/2 cup heavy cream. The cream balances the strong tomato flavor. Quite good! Can taste all the wonderful spices!
I give this a 5 because the flavors are wonderful. I just needed a milder version!
Sabrina- Absolutely delicious!! Pretty much doubled the recipe as i just had a hunch this was going to be so good, we’d have to have it two days in a row…and i was so right!
Followed instructions and maybe even added more quantity of dry ingredients- cooked in my slow cooker all day long. Topped with some Greek yogurt…Yum Yum Yum!!
I used your recipe tonight live in a cooking group I am in. I would love to give you credit, share your link or something. They want me to post the recipe.
It was very good. I omitted the jalapeño, because I’m a whimp
Feel free to use the recipe link to direct people to our website! And thank you, Julie!
Made this tonight. It was really good. My husband doesn’t like peas so I substituted broccoli and he really liked the dish as well. I didn’t use all the cyan pepper (omitted about 1/4 tsp) it called for and it was still spicy for me. My nose is still running as I speak lol. I used two cans Rotel tomatoes instead of tomatoes and then jalapeños. Other than those changes I used all other ingredients. I did add about a half a Rotel can of water to help the potatoes cook because the Rotels didn’t seem to have much juice. The potatoes did take a lot longer than 12 mins to cook. I will definitely try this recipe again.
This dish was excellent! We throughly enjoyed every flavorful bite. The recipe was easy to follow. I highly recommend this week night meal.
Very good and recipe is easy to follow . I will be making again
Sabrina, this recipe definitely says to add water at the same time as the tomatoes. Do you mean the tomato juice?
Hi Carolyn, Sorry it took me so long to get to your question. You are correct, that was a typo regarding adding water. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. The recipe has been fixed to read add the tomatoes along with the tomato juices and potatoes, stir well.
Delicious! I think I had 5th’s of this ? the only thing I’d change personally is use two russet’s instead of 3, mine were huge and it took a lot longer to cook. I also was unsure of the water from the directions, I added about a cup to help cook the potatoes.
Je viens de terminer de faire cette recette. Wow! J’ai seulement omis le piment jalapeño, mon estomac ne supporte plus le piquant? mais excellent quand même. Les effluves qui émanent de la cuisine son alléchantes… Déjà hâte de la refaire pour des invités.
I made this today exactly as the recipe calls for except, I didn’t have any turmeric but, both my wife and I enjoyed it very much! I did have to cook it about 20 minutes longer to get the potatoes tender and they were in 1/2″ cubes, as called for. I’m sure that I will be making this again!
I’m certainly not impressed with how you reply to someone who asked you a very good question about your recipe! They asked how much water, and you replied that the recipe does not call for any water and yet in your directions you say “add water”! I’m the beginner chief cook and bottlewasher in my marriage and I need to know the answer to their question!
Soon, please!
How much water do you add, the amount isn’t mentioned in the list of ingredients.
About 80% of the time, after I cook something, I’m like ah what a waste of time, energy and money lol. This spice profile didn’t taste anything like how it tastes when I buy it at the Indian restaurant but it’s probably just me!
I had to add a whole bunch more spice
This was very bland for Indian cooking
Excellent flavor! Even my 9 year old loved it. My only issue was the potatoes took a lot longer than 12 minutes. I ended up putting a lid on the pot and that helped the potatoes cook. Definitely will try again.
You mention water, but I do not see amount. Ive made this twice playing with small amounts. It is so good thank you
i think its the water of the can of tomato.
My hubby is allergic to peas. What other vegetable can I use in this recipe?
green beans, cauliflower, carrots? Any good vegetable to add volume to the recipe is good.
How much water do you add? It doesn’t say in the recipe.
Hi! This recipe doesn’t call for water.
Sorry, I had the same question it says add the water in step 6.
Yes in step 6 you say add water