What is Keema Rice Made Of?

Keema Rice is made with lamb mince, basmati rice, (preferably cooked the day before) spices and herbs. ‘Keema,’ means mince meat or ground meat. It can be made with beef or chicken mince but traditionally Keema rice is made with lamb mince.

What is Keema Meat?

Keema is usually made with lamb or mutton, but can sometimes be substituted with beef mince in communities where beef is acceptable to eat. 

Keema Rice Ingredients

Keema rice is most often made with lamb mince, basmati rice, spices, green chillies, freshly chopped coriander, garlic, ginger, chopped tomato and onions.

Is Keema Rice Spicy?

Keema Rice can be considered to be medium hot as it contains both chilli powder and fresh green finger chillies. Many restaurants or home cooks consider it as 6/10 in terms of heat.

How Many Calories in Keema Rice?

1 Serving of Keema Rice will generally contain 115g total carbs (106g net carbs) around 21g fat and around 775 calories. This is of course depending on how much oil you add as well as the fat ratio of the lamb mince. 

Is Keema Rice Gluten Free?

Keema Rice is gluten free! Rice does not contain gluten. All natural forms of rice whether they are white, brown or wild are naturally gluten free. Great news for those who sadly suffer from Celiac Disease or gluten intolerance in general.

Keema Rice Recipe

Keema Rice Ingredients

• 3 tbsps vegetable oil or ghee (Indian Clarified Butter)
• 2 medium onions – finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic – peeled and finely chopped
• Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger peeled and finely chopped
• 2 Finger chillies (Indian Green Chillies) – finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons Madras curry powder (more if you like it hot)
• 500g Minced Lamb (you could use minced chicken or use paneer if you want to go vegetarian – vegan mince is also a good option)
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp Chilli powder
• 1/2/tsp Turmeric
• 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds 
• 1/2 tsp Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Ground Fenugreek (Methi Leaves)
• 150g Spinach finely chopped
• 150ml tomato puree (substitute this with half a beef tomato finely chopped if you like)
• 384g or so (3 cups) of precooked cooled Basmati rice (day old cold rice is perfect here)
• A pinch of Freshly Ground Sea Salt to taste

How to Make Keema Rice

1. Heat the vegetable oil or ghee in a pan at medium-high heat.
2. Add the chilli powder, ground coriander, turmeric, cumin seeds, black pepper. 
3. Cook the spices in the oil for a couple of minutes and then add the garlic, ginger and green chillies. Don’t let anything burn or it will taste bitter.
4. Add the Madras Curry Powder and then the minced lamb.
5. Brown the meat for a couple of minutes and then add the tomato puree/chopped tomato and spinach.
6. Stir in the cold cooked Basmati rice and allow it heat up and take on the flavours in the pan.
7. Add Garam Masala, Freshly Ground Sea Salt to taste, and freshly chopped coriander.

Top Tips for Keema Rice

Make sure you use rice that has been cooked the day before – alternatively cook your Basmati rice and then pass it through cold water for some time in a sieve.

Use mince that is around 80/20 in terms of fat. This kind of ratio is perfect for Keema Rice.

You can use long grain rice if you have nothing else, but basmati rice will work best for an authentic keema rice recipe.

Chicken Keema Rice

Although Keema rice is usually made with minced lamb, chicken is an easy substitute if you are wanting to cut down on red meat consumption.

Make it the same way as the directions above and just use minced chicken instead of minced lamb.

If you enjoyed this article you could try my article on Mei Fun Singapore Noodles with Curry Powder here:

Related Asian Recipes

• Singapore Mei Fun Noodles
• Chicken Korma Indian Restaurant Style
• Lamb Vindaloo Recipe Authentic Restaurant Style

For another great article on Keema Rice try here:

https://khinskitchen.com/easy-keema-rice/