Lebanese hashweh combines ground meat and rice with pine nuts, allspice and other spices to make a wonderful side dish, or a flavorful stuffing for chicken or turkey. An easy one-step recipe can be made in a Pressure cooker, the Instant Pot Gem, or stovetop.
One of my favorites is Hashweh, a Lebanese rendition of meat and rice. Traditionally this dish calls for ground lamb or lamb chunks. But it’s difficult to find lamb where I live, so I improvise with ground beef. If you can find ground lamb though, I’d definitely urge you to try that.
Whether you’re talking about making chicken biryani, Hainanese chicken rice, Lamb Dum Biryani, or Hashweh, every culture has some combination of ground meat and rice dishes.
I have this extremely popular Ground Beef shawarma with rice recipe that is well-loved by all who have tried it. Babies and young children seem to be particularly fond of it, which makes me very happy. I think the best thing about it—apart from the ease of making it—is that really, who doesn’t love a meat and rice dish?
HOW TO MAKE ONE STEP LEBANESE HASHWEH
I have a new toy, which is the Instant Pot Aura Pro. It’s not a pressure cooker like my regular Instant Pot. Rather it’s a multi-cooker that can do many different things.
- The Instant Pot Aura Pro can Sauté/Sear by reaching temperatures as high as 425F
- It can be used as a stand-alone oven and allows you to bake in it
- It has an automatic Rice cooker function
- It has a slow cooker function
- It can roast, steam and stew
- It has a delay start option that makes timely meals that much easier
This Lebanese Hashweh was the first thing I made in my Instant Pot Aura Pro. For this recipe, it allowed me to sauté and brown the pine nuts, onion, garlic, and meat on its Sauté/Sear function.
After that, I was able to use the Automatic Rice cook function and just walk away.
Okay let’s be honest, I didn’t want away. I stood there like a nervous mother watching that baby, wondering if I had done things right? Would the pot stop cooking on its own? Were things burning?
But really, I needn’t have worried. The non-stick interior makes it unlikely things will burn and the pot appears to know what it is doing. I will provide instructions for making this Lebanese Hashweh Ground Beef and Rice dish for the Gem as well as for the Instant Pot below.
EQUIPMENT YOU MAY NEED TO MAKE THIS INSTANT POT GEM OR PRESSURE COOKER LEBANESE HASHWEH
- Instant Pot Mini Duo, or Instant pot 6 quarts, or Instant Pot 8 Quarts OR
- Instant Pot Aura Pro
- Measuring Cups
- My favorite Cutting Board
- Good set of Kitchen Knives
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoon (2 tablespoon) Oil, or ghee
- 1/4 cup (33.75 g) pine nuts, (or nuts of your choice)
- 1 cup (160 g) Sliced Onions
- 1 tablespoon (1 tablespoon) Minced Garlic
- 1 pound (453.59 g) Lean Ground Beef
- 4-5 (4) Cardamom Pods, or 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1.5 teaspoon (1.5 teaspoon) Ground Allspice
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Ground Cinnamon
- 1/4 (0.25) Ground Nutmeg
- 1 cup (185 g) Basmati Rice, rinsed and drained
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Ground Black Pepper
- 2 cups (500 ml) water for Gem/Stovetop OR
- 1 cup (250 ml) water for Pressure Cooking
For Finishing
- 1/4 (0.25) mix of cilantro/Parsley/mint, any one or mix
Instructions
- Heat your Instant Pot Gem or Pressure Cooker on sauté. When it’s hot, add butter. To the melted butter, add pine nuts. Sauté 1-2 minutes.
- Add minced garlic and onion. Mix well.
- Add ground beef and break up the ground beef.
- Add all spices and mix. Add rice.
For the Gem Multicooker
- Add 2 cups of water.
- Set your Gem on Rice Cook. It will automatically start and stop cooking when the rice is done.
- Fluff up the rice and sprinkle with garnish. Serve hot with a side of tzatziki.
For the Pressure Cooker
- Add 1 cup of water.
- Cook on high pressure for 4 minutes. Let the pot sit undisturbed for 10 minutes. Then release remaining pressure.
- Fluff up the rice and sprinkle with garnish. Serve hot with a side of tzatziki.
Watch The Video
- Nut Allergy: Add 1/4 cup raisins and omit pine nuts
- Cinnamon Allergy: Omit cinnamon, double up on ground allspice
- Vegetarian: Use paneer or queso fresco in place of ground meat
- Vegan versions:
- Use oil rather than butter, add in one of the following:
- 2 cups of mixed vegetables
- 2 cups drained, rinsed chickpeas or red kidney beans
- Sliced seitan or tempeh
- Soaked, drained soy curls
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Melanie McLaughlin
Better than could’ve hoped for! Perfect. Doubled everything. Browned beef separately to drain fat, and flavor is still perfect. Added some extra browned onions at the end.I and my family say it’s a keeper!
Ali
I don't cook a lot to be honest. I LOVED this dish. It will be in my top 5 dishes rotation. It is so easy and uses ingredients we usually have anyways. 5 stars!!
Nikki
Overall, I like the idea and flavor of this recipe though it came out too bland and dry. I ended up having to add a cup of chicken broth to it and put it under pressure again at 0 minutes and let it do a natural release for a few minutes then a rapid release. I love this type of food so was eager to try it though I was disappointed with the results. I am not a big salt fan though I did also add a bit more salt when I had to cook it a bit more with a cup of chicken broth and that did seem to help. The aromatics are wonderful, however.
JEfromCanada
Question: how many grams are in a "serving". I was served Hashweh at a restaurant. The serving size was 258 grams and I'm trying to break down the nutrition.
Amanda A.
Can I use regular long-grain rice?
Amanda A.
Also, on the stove top, do I still leave it undisturbed, or will it be better to make rice separate, and then combine?
URVASHI PITRE
Yes you can
samantha
I know that this is for the instapot but do you think this would convert to one pot cookstove and if so, would I essentially do everything the same except cooking the rice for the amount of time rice cooks on a stove?
URVASHI PITRE
Yes exactly that way and I think it will work really well too
Lisa
This looks great. . Could I use brown basmati rice and would the cooking time or amount of water (for Instant Pot) change? I've been cooking from your book since I got my IP and everything has been delicious!
URVASHI PITRE
Brown rice takes 22 minutes and I’m a little concerned the meat will be mush by then.
Rheyn
I used brown Basmati with 1-1/4 c water, 17 minutes HP with 10 NPR, stirring halfway through - this was partly to check that the meat wasn't getting sad, and partly to give the drier grains of rice their turn submerged in liquid; it cuts the long cook time a little. The meat (90% lean lamb) was still divine, and the rice was chewy, not mushy.
Meagan
This was so easy to make in an Instant Pot! Really only took a few minutes of my time. I used both slivered almonds and raisins in place of the pine nuts since that was the only ingredient I didn't have on hand. Turned out great!
URVASHI PITRE
So glad to hear! The “only took a few minutes but tastes great” is my trademark and what I’m after with all my recipes 🙂
Mary Lee Kopen
About how long did the automatic rice setting take to cook on the Gem?
URVASHI PITRE
I should have timed it but I was too distracted with the newness and wondering if it was cooking etc. if I had to guess I’d say about 15 mins?