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Lebanese Hushwee – Ground Beef with Pine Nuts

    Hushwee (or hashweh) is a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine as a humble, flavor-packed dish made of ground meat cooked in clarified butter.

    Scooping Lebanese hushwee- ground beef with pine nuts.

    Lebanese Hushwee (or hashweh) is a simple, modest Middle-Eastern recipe made with ground meat, cinnamon, and toasted pine nuts. Every family has a staple, comfort food that they go to over and over. For my family? That’s Lebanese Hushwee or Ground Beef with Pine Nuts. Packed full of flavor, but done quickly, we use it in a handful of different dishes, but also enjoy it on it’s own!

    Ingredients

    • Clarified butter: Also called ghee, it has more of a roasted, nutty taste than normal butter, and also stores and lasts longer than typical butter.
    • Onion: I use a white onion, as it’s mild and palatable to most, but still adds great flavor.
    • Ground beef: I use ground sirloin, but you can use ground chuck or even a different ground meat that you have on hand!
    • Lebanese spice blend: My Lebanese spice blend is a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, salt, and pepper.
    • Pine nuts: Mild and sweet in flavor, and buttery in texture, they’re flavir is greatly enhanced when roasted or toasted.

    How to Make Lebanese Hushwee

    Sauteing onions in pan

    Start by melting your clarified butter over medium-high heat, then add in your diced onion and sauté until slightly translucent.

    Adding salt to ground beef

    Add your ground beef and season with some salt and pepper, breaking up with a wooden spoon or potato masher.

    Adding cinnamon to ground beef

    Add your Lebanese spice blend and continue cooking until ground beef is all browned and crumbled.

    Adding pine nuts and parsley to ground beef

    Finish by adding your toasted pine nuts and minced parsley (if you have it).

    Lebanese hushwee- ground beef with pine nuts.

    Serve with pita bread and brown rice, and enjoy your Lebanese Hushwee!

    Frequently Asked Questions:

    What is hushwee?

    Hushwee (or hashweh) is a one-pot dish full of warm spices and flavor that comes from the Middle-East. I make it the way my family did, which stems from Lebanon, but there are variations from many countries!

    What do you serve with hushwee?

    We love eating it with creamy, cucumber laban and a giant Syrian salad. To eat, ditch the fork and scoop up your bites with pieces of pita bread!

    What type of meat do you use with hushwee?

    This recipe works with any type of ground meat you have on hand, but I prefer beef sirloin, ground lamb, or a combination of the two.

    Recipes with Hushwee

    Lebanese Hushwee- ground beef with pine nuts.

    More MIddle Eastern Recipes

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    hushwee

    What family recipes always bring you back to special times in the kitchen? Lebanese Hushwee is one that we always come back to in my family.

    No fork required.

    Lebanese Hashweh with Toasted Pine Nuts

    Lebanese Hushwee – Ground Beef with Pine Nuts

    4.73 stars average
    Hushwee rice is a beef and rice mixture made with cinnamon, toasted pine nuts and rice pilaf cooked in clarified butter. An easy one-pan meal.
    PREP: 25 mins
    COOK: 35 mins
    TOTAL: 1 hr
    Save
    Servings: 8

    Ingredients
     

    • 1 tablespoon clarified butter (also known as ghee)
    • 1 medium onion (minced – use frozen diced onions to save time)
    • 20 ounces ground sirloin (lamb or bison work well too)
    • 2 tablespoons All Purpose Lebanese Spice Blend
    • ¼ cup pine nuts (toasted)
    • fresh minced parsley (garnish)

    Instructions
     

    • In a deep pan, melt butter over medium high heat then add the minced onion. Sautee until translucent, 4-5 minutes.
    • Add ground sirloin and spices. Cook 8-10 minutes or until meat is browned, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon to break up meat. Check for seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in toasted pine nuts and set aside.

    Toasting the Pine Nuts:

    • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. On a small cookie sheet place raw pine nuts and cook for 5-7 minutes or until they are at a light brown in color. Keep a careful eye on them as they can burn quickly.

    Recipe Video

    Notes

    To toast pine nuts simply spread in an even layer on a baking pan and bake at 350 degrees for 5-7 minutes or until golden brown.
    If you don’t wish to make your own clarified butter (also known as “ghee”), you can find it online or in most health stores.
    For lasting freshness, store pine nuts in the freezer to keep them fresher, longer.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 438kcalCarbohydrates: 44gProtein: 17gFat: 21gSaturated Fat: 9gCholesterol: 67mgSodium: 517mgPotassium: 307mgFiber: 2gSugar: 1gVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 49mgIron: 2mg

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    Liz DellaCroce

    Liz Della Croce is the creator and author of The Lemon Bowl, a healthy food blog. Since 2010, Liz has been sharing delicious recipes that just so happen to be healthy. By using real ingredients with an emphasis on seasonality, Liz has built a growing audience of loyal readers who crave good food for their families. Click Here To Subscribe to my newsletter:

    72 Comments

    1. My husband made this for our family tonight. My grandmother was Lebanese and I have missed the food immensely since I had to pack up my Lebanese cookbook several months ago. So glad I found you today; there’s no telling how mediocre our meal would have been without your hushwee! Thank you very much!

    2. My mom was pretty much a plain Jane when it came to cooking but was a wonderful baker. My favorite cookie of hers was the Brown Christmas cookie. It is a cutout ginger/molasses cookie. It was “brown” and made at Christmas time….thus the name!! I think my mom got the recipe from these little holiday cookbooks that the Michigan Consolidated Gas Company published WAY back in the day (like the ’50s and ’60s). I was the “froster” and even when I had moved out of the house and had a “big girl” job, I took a day off of work in December to perform my frosting job!! I miss those days!! I am making your hushwee recipe tonight and am thankful for the Beirut Baking in Redford, MI for scooping out some ghee from their giant can in the kitchen and putting it in a little container for me :) Serving it on hummus with pita bread and fattoush salad!!

        1. It turned out amazing and so easy to make! Everyone loved it! I posted it on Instagram if you are interesting (suebunton5)!!

    3. Liz,
      We’re getting one step closer to the ground meat and rice dish I’d get, along with some chicken shawarma and hummus, at the Lebanese butcher down the road from my son’s wheelchair basketball practice gym. It’s on the list of foods I crave since we moved to Ohio.
      I’ve got plenty of ground beef in the freezer (and leeks in the freezer too, wonder if they would sub for frozen onions) as well as a few more weekly trips to sled hockey (7 minutes away from the closest Costco, which is down in Cincinnati). This is on the list. Thanks!

      1. The biggest difference is the amount of clarified butter we use. ;-) Let’s just say she isn’t watching her waistline like I am these days – haha. Also she uses frozen onions which I swear make a difference but I never have them around (can’t find them!)

        1. Try chopping your onions first and soaking them in cold water until you need them. That might reproduce the mildness of frozen onions without any extra work. And none of us want any extra work.

          Thanks for the pine nuts tip. I needed that.

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