A delicious Keema Wrap that's totally meat-free and vegan, but you'd find it hard to tell the difference. Bonus-- it's heart healthy too and packed with veggies.
Here's a perfect recipe for a weekend brunch or lunch. It's delicious, meaty albeit meatless, and so waistline-friendly that you will find yourself floating on the air. Literally.
Keema or kheema, in India, is a mince usually made with lamb and sometimes beef. It is almost always cooked with spices into a dry curry. I've shared with you delicious but meatless keema recipes, including Vegan Keema Biryani, Vegan Keema Masala and Vegan Keema Samosa.
For my meatless keema, I use TVP-- an ingredient that stands in perfectly for meat because it has great texture and absorbs spicy flavors so beautifully. You could feed this wrap to a meat-eater and they'd find it hard to tell the difference.
The wrap is whole-wheat and healthy, the TVP is packed with protein and fiber, and to top off all this goodness I made some cooling tofu raita -- also protein-rich-- by blending up some tofu with a few herbs. Then, like my parents always did, I added to it some onions and some tomatoes.
This is not just a delicious recipe-- it's an incredibly healthy one. There are a ton of veggies in the keema, and you can layer on more veggies on the wrap. Each one of these babies packs a ton of vitamins A and C, 13.5 grams of heart-healthy protein and nearly 7 grams of fiber (and I'm not including fiber and nutrients from any additional veggies you might add to your wrap).
I called this a Keema Wrap because it brought to my mind a Vegetable Frankie-- a popular Bombay street food consisting of a wrap stuffed with meat or vegetables or both. But this could very easily be a taco-- in fact, try it for your next Taco Tuesday or Taco Thursday or whatever alliterating taco event you have on your calendar. You will come out looking Terrific, I swear.
I've been nursing a headache today with all of this humidity floating around, so I am gonna run, make myself a cup of hot tea and then curl up with an I Love Lucy rerun. Maybe she'll do the Vitameatavegamin one. That'll get me feeling happy and peppy in no time!
But first, here's the recipe.
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Keema Wrap
Ingredients
For vegan keema
- 1 ½ cups TVP or textured vegetable protein. If you're in India, you will want to use the soy granules of the Nutrela kind.
- ½ cup tomato puree or 2 medium tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon grated ginger
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 medium onion, finely minced
- 3 medium potatoes, chopped fairly small but not minced. You want some texture in your wrap.
- 1 large carrot, chopped fairly small but not minced.
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 1 cup frozen green peas
- 1 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoon smoked paprika, use regular if you can't find this
- 1 teaspoon cayenne, optional
- 2 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ cup coconut milk
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- Salt to taste
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup finely chopped coriander or mint leaves
For the wrap
- 2 cups whole-wheat durum atta flour, use regular whole wheat if you don't have this
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Water to knead into a stiff dough.
For the tofu raita dressing
- 14 oz block of extra-firm tofu
- ½ cup almond milk or soy milk
- Juice of ½ to 1 lemon, adjust per your love for tartness.
- 2 green chillies
- 1 teaspoon toasted cumin seeds
- 2 tomatoes, chopped
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Make the keema
- Soak the TVP granules in boiling water for 30 minutes. Drain.
- Heat the oil, add the onions and a pinch of salt and saute until brown spots start to appear.
- Add the ginger and garlic, saute for a few seconds, then add the coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric and tomato puree.
- Stir well to mix, add the garam masala, cayenne, if using, and paprika.
- Saute until the tomatoes turn a couple of shades darker and bubble at the edges.
- Add the carrot and potatoes. Cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes, then add the green bell pepper. Stir to mix.
- Add the TVP granules and the coconut milk. Bring to a boil, cover, and cook over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender and cooked. Add the green peas and mix. The keema should be dry. If there's any liquid, turn up the heat and let it evaporate, but keep a close eye-- don't let the keema burn.
- Sprinkle on the coriander leaves. Stir to mix.
Make the wrap
- Mix the flour and salt and use enough water to knead to a stiff dough.
- Set aside for 30 minutes to let the dough rest.
- Divide the dough into 12 balls.
- Roll each ball into a thin wrap, about six or seven inches in diameter. The thinner you can roll this the better, so you'll have a flaky wrap.
- Heat a griddle over medium-high heat. Place a wrap on the griddle and cook until brown spots start to appear on the underside. Flip over and cook until spots appear on the other side. Spray lightly with some oil.
Make the tofu dressing
- Place the tofu in a blender along with the milk, green chillies, lemon, cumin seeds and salt to taste. Blend into a very smooth paste, adding more milk if needed.
- Remove the tofu yogurt to a bowl and add the tomatoes and onions. Mix well.
Put the wrap together
- Layer on some leafies or cabbage on the wrap, add the keema, and drizzle on some tofu raita. Avocados would be divine here.
- Dig in!
PABLO
GRACIAS VAISHALI POR TODAS TUS MARAVILLOSAS RECETAS. Y POR ACERCARNOS CON TU ENTUSIASMO. .TE TENGO SIEMPRE PRESENTE CON MUCHO APRECIO Y RESPETO.
PABLO, DESDE ARGENTINA
Laura
Sorry, but how can readers choose to NOT receive notification of comments? I want to continue to be a subscriber; I just don't want to receive comments (or notifications of them). Thank you.
Vaishali
Hi Laura, you must have checked the "notify me of follow-up comments" box when you left your first comments, which is the reason you are getting notifications. Wordpress won't let me go in and unsubscribe you, but there should be a link in the email notifications you receive that will let you do so.
marystestkitchen
This looks most EXCELLENT! I will make this for sure! I love the combinations of spices and fresh foods you are using here.
I also only buy organic (and coincidentally, non-GMO) TVP and other soy products. But actually, ALL the stores around me (big box, co-op. and small grocers) carry soy products that are clearly marked as non-GMO. Therefore, I was quite surprised to see the reaction in the comments here.
The biggest consumers of GMO products are actually the MEAT and DAIRY industries. Makes sense as these industries consume about 85% of the world's soy. So to avoid GMO's, a great start is to avoid meat and dairy.
abc
Very well said Mary
Vaishali
Second that!
Vaishali
Hi Mary, you're so right. Like Mukta just said, well said!
Ellen Lederman
This sounds excellent. I am not very confident about trying to make the wraps myself (tempted to buy ready-made naan for it or just put everything on a pappadum (I know it would make it very soggy!), but I will try. I don't have a griddle, but do have cast iron.
I agree that a little TVP every few months won't cause health problems. But I would hate to buy some since it would mostly just be sitting there and I do prefer using whole foods. I like grinding up mushrooms to use as ground meat like for tacos or meat sauce. I also like to do the same with walnuts. And recently I saw a recipe where you can use ground up cauliflower and walnuts to sub for meat. Think these could work?
Hope your headache goes away! The Lucy episode sounds funny. I never watched much of that show, but I heard a line the other day that was from an episode where Lucy decided to always tell the truth. Another woman was wearing a very ugly hat and asked Lucy what she thought of it. Lucy replied, "If that's the look you were going for, you sure got a great one!"
Vaishali
Hi Ellen, you're right, the poppadum will get soggy, but naan or even a tortilla wrap from the store would work great here. And any cast-iron pan is fine, really, you don't need a griddle.
I too grind up mushrooms sometimes for mince dishes, but I don't like the idea of cauliflower as a meat substitute because it has no body or "chew." Cauliflower tends to get too mushy when cooked and is not a good replacement for meat.
It's so funny about that Lucy hat joke-- I was listening to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me over the weekend and I heard that one too! I remember that episode where Lucy tells the truth all the time. Hilarious, as ever-- I think I've watched every episode a hundred times and they are still funny.
Ellen Lederman
I too listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, which was how I heard about the Lucy episode. (WE have a lot in common---vegan, love of Indian food, love of animals, married no kids, and I was a writer as well.)
I think you are mostly right about the cauliflower, but I did recently make cauliflower jerky in the oven and it was a little chewy. Will just stick with mushrooms.
Janel
I've always loved Keema, but never tried a vegetarian version. Sounds like a yummy lunch!
Vaishali
Hi Janel, I hope you do. It's really delicious and a great meat replacement without the calories and cholesterol. 🙂
sarojinididi
Wow, that looks so delicious! I don't often use TVP because of how it's processed here (using petrochemicals, I believe) but we can also get an organically grown and processed TVP. Like you, we have it once every 6 months or so.
Vaishali
Hi Sarojinididi, agreed! It helps to be careful.
Gita Jaishankar
That wrap looks absolutely delicious....way too tempting. Btw, I tried your Moroccan lentil stew a couple of days back and it was a big hit, I couldn't get to take any pictures to send you. By the time I finished cooking, the little ones came from school and were hungry, thanks Vaishali 🙂
Vaishali
Hi Gita, so glad you tried the stew-- the fragrance is just amazing, isn't it? Even happier the kids liked it. 🙂
Raquel @ My California Roots
Wow, that looks so great, especially those homemade wraps and that tofu riata! Can't wait to try!
Vaishali
Thanks, Raquel, hope you try! 🙂
Jane
Hello, I love your recipes. But it would be nice to incorporate non fom products. Most tvp comes from Gmo soybeans. I am going to try this with tempeh or seitan.
Vaishali
Hi Jane, thanks for your kind words. And yes, there is some controversy about TVP but you can buy TVP that's made from non-GMO soybeans. By all means, use tempeh or seitan-- I think seitan would work better. Hope you like it!
Laura
Hi Everyone,
Just FYI, TVP is NOT a safe thing to eat! It is made with GMOs, so definitely needs to be avoided. Maybe using organic tempeh instead would work as well.
Vaishali
Hi Laura, thanks for your concern. TVP is not always made with GMO beans-- you can buy non-GMO versions of it. Also, most of us don't eat it all the time-- I probably cook with TVP once in six months. The flavor of tempeh would not work very well here, but you can definitely substitute with seitan or even better, one of the vegan sausage meats available at Whole Foods. Enjoy!