This savory and spicy be’f dish acts a replacement for minced beef while bringing similar flavors and richness to be combine with other dishes.
Total Cooking Time:

Pie and Tacos often used a ground beef mixture at their filling or case. But, as someone who cannot eat meat, I don’t like how this works. So, I decided I would take the recipe into my own hands and make it vegetarian friendly. Now that I think about it, I pretty sure that this recipe is Vegan friendly as well. This is one of my new favorite dishes, it’s fully of flavor and creates a moist and tender meant base which is absolutely irresistible.
Ingredients

There are quite a few ingredients that go with this recipe. I went to Stacey’s recipe from the Great British Bake Off for inspiration. From her recipe, I grabbed the idea of pine nuts, onion, cinnamon, ground allspice, and red chili flake. Of course, there was salt and pepper to taste. For my modifications, I added a beef substitute, cumin powder, vegetable stock, and tomato paste.
Process
01
Pre-Cooked Ingredients
There are two ingredients that I cooked before doing the main dish. This was because I wanted to have the fully cooked and I didn’t think that would be accomplished in a giant pan of “meat”. The first ingredient I cooked was the pine nuts. This was more a dry roasting to get some color on the nuts. They’re so pale! After they were perfect, I set them aside.
The next ingredient that gets some ahead of time cooking is the onion. For this, I diced the onion and then sautéed it in some of the sunflower oil. I let them cook on low for a long time to give them a soft texture. I really wanted to make them soft and golden. After that, I transferred them into a heatproof dish as I wanted to reuse the big pan for doing some big cooking.




02
Throwing Everything into a Pot
I started by adding the remaining sunflower oil and putting all of the ground be’f into the pan. I had given the “meat” a decent amount of time to defrost but it looks like that still wasn’t enough! So, there was still a little icy water residue on the “meat”. I cooked it over a medium to high heat to get a good heat running through the dish. I wanted to get a light brown on it but it’s hard to see since the meat is effectively just frozen and not raw.
The next thing to get mixed in was the spices. Sometimes I follow the recipe. Sometimes I eyeball the ingredients and just assume it will go okay. This is very much the later situation. And I added way too much chili powder. In the original recipe, there was no cumin, but I needed it in order to cut the spice. I legit almost started crying (I know, I can’t handle spice. I’m a terrible Indian). I kind of loved the new taste because it felt like I was eating Keema (or Kheema, however you prefer to spell it). It’s a dish I haven’t been able to eat since I went vegetarian 17 years ago. It was weirdly nostalgic in a way.
The next thing to go into the pan was the tomato past and the cooked onion. I stirred everything in to get it nice and evenly distributed. At this point, I should mention that the meat substitute doesn’t act like meat in terms of moisture. The dish felt almost dry. So here is another are where I had to go off script. Instead of adding a ½ cup of stock, I ended up adding 2 cups. This was really to add some moisture back into the dish and help soften the “meat” to become nice and tender. I let the vegetable stock come to a boil before reducing the heat to low and allowing the dish to simmer. The “meat” really absorbed the stock during this process so much so that I didn’t really have much left to evaporate.
The final touch was stirring in the pine nuts! And it’s ready for eating. This dish could be used for many things, but I used it as my filling for a shortcrust savory pie.



Reflections
This really has become a nostalgic dish for me. I haven’t been able to eat Keema in years and years and I really enjoyed having that taste again. While I was changing a lot of the original recipe on the fly, it turned out amazingly well. This is definitely a dish that I will revisit in the future because I’m honestly hungry for more.
Lessons
The Difference in Oils
Type of Oil | Smoking Point | Best For | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Extra-Virgin Olive Oil | 320°F | Drizzling, Salad Dressing, Dips | Flavor ranges between buttery, fruity, earthy, or bitter |
Olive Oil | 465°F | Sauteing, pan-frying, salad dressings | Neutral nose and palate |
Coconut Oil | 359°F | Baking, Low heat roasting or sauteing | Good substitute for butter in baking |
Sesame Oil | 410°F | Sauteing or pickled salads | Nutty taste, strong in flavor |
Peanut Oil | 440°F | Sauteing, Pan-frying | Strong peanut taste |
Vegetable/ Canola/ Corn Oil | 450°F | Frying, Deep Frying | No flavor |
Grapeseed Oil | 420°F | Emulsified recipes, low-heat sauteing | Good for making sauces, dressing, and mayonnaise |
Avacado Oil | 510°F | Grilling | Buttery flavor |
Sunflower/ Safflower Oil | 440°F | Frying, Deep Frying | Buttery flavor |

recipe
Ground Be’f Filling
Ingredients
- ⅓ Cup Pine Nuts
- 2 Tbsp Sunflower Oil
- 1 Onion finely chopped
- 6 Cups Ground Be'f
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tbsp Ground All Spice
- 1 Tbsp Dried Red Chili Flakes
- 1 Tbsp Ground Cumin
- 2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
- 2 Cup Vegetable Stock
- Salt and Pepper to Taste
Instructions
- In a dry frying pan, over low heat, toast the pine nuts until just colored. Set aside.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a medium pan, add the chopped onion, cover and cook over low heat for about 5-10 minutes or until very soft and golden brown. Transfer to a heat-proof dish and set aside.
- Add the reaming oil to the pan and set toa medium to high heat. Once the oil is heated, add the ground be’f and stir until lightly brown.
- Stir in cinnamon, all-spice, chili, and cumin. Season with salt and pepper.
- Add the paste and cooked onions. Stir in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
- Reduce to a low heat, cover, and let simmer for about 10-15 minute or until the meat is soft.
- Uncover and cook until the liquid has almost evaporated. Stir in pine nuts.
- Enjoy!!
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