Recipe

Haute cuisine it ain’t. But this multicultural melting pot of a meal is popular, tasty – and cheap.
Variously described as a porridge, soup or curry, haleem’s liquidity means it could be used as baby food, albeit for spice-loving infants. A rich stew of lentils, whole wheat and meat beef, mutton, lamb, chicken or a mixture the dish originated in Persia in the sixth century. When the Muslims conquered the area a century later, it spread throughout the Middle East and, ultimately, to the subcontinent.