The most-made recipe on NYT Cooking in all of 2025 wasn't a slow braise or a weekend project. It was a 20-minute weeknight dinner that home cooks couldn't stop talking about — and once you understand where it comes from, you'll understand why.
This dish draws directly from Persian koobideh kebab: spiced ground meat pressed flat, cooked over fierce heat until deeply caramelized on the outside and just barely done in the center, served over something cool and creamy to balance the char. It's a technique that's been feeding people across the Middle East and Central Asia for centuries. The smash method is just a skillet-friendly adaptation of the same idea — and it works extraordinarily well.
What makes this a natural fit for the MAHA kitchen is what it's always been made with: real beef, real spices, and a fat that handles high heat without breaking down into inflammatory compounds. We cook ours in ghee — the same clarified butter that Ayurvedic tradition has used for thousands of years as its primary cooking fat. Rich, nutty, stable at 485°F, and better for the crust than any vegetable oil on the market.
Twenty minutes. One pan. No seed oils. Let's get into it.
Why the Smash Technique Works
Pressing seasoned ground beef flat into a screaming-hot skillet is the same science that made smash burgers a phenomenon. Maximum contact between meat and pan means maximum Maillard reaction — the chemical process that creates the deeply browned, intensely savory crust you can't get any other way. The outside caramelizes while the inside stays juicy, and the rendered beef fat bastes everything as it cooks. You'd need a charcoal grill to replicate this in a traditional koobideh setup. A cast iron skillet gets you there on a Tuesday night.
The spice blend is doing serious work too. Cumin, coriander, allspice, and cinnamon are the backbone of Middle Eastern meat seasoning — and they're the same spice traditions explored in depth in Savor Spices by Savannah Ryan, which covers the ancestral spice routes that connect Persian, Indian, and North African cooking. These aren't exotic flavors. They're some of the oldest culinary combinations on earth.
Ingredients (Serves 4)
For the beef: 1 lb ground beef (80/20 — the fat percentage matters, don't use lean) · 1 small onion, grated and squeezed of excess moisture · 3 garlic cloves, finely grated · 1 tsp ground cumin · 1 tsp ground coriander · ½ tsp allspice · ½ tsp cinnamon · ½ tsp chili flakes · 1 tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper · ⅓ cup walnuts, roughly chopped · ¼ cup raisins (or dried cherries, chopped apricots, or medjool dates) · 2 tbsp ghee
For the cucumber yogurt: 1 cup full-fat whole milk yogurt · ½ cucumber, finely diced or grated and squeezed dry · 1 small garlic clove, finely grated · Salt to taste · Handful of fresh mint, torn
To finish: Pomegranate molasses for drizzling · Fresh mint leaves · Warm flatbread or steamed rice
Instructions
Make the yogurt first. Combine yogurt, cucumber, garlic, salt, and mint in a bowl. Stir well, taste, and refrigerate while you cook the beef. Cold yogurt against hot spiced meat is the whole point of this dish — don't skip this step or rush it.
Mix the beef. Combine ground beef, grated onion, garlic, all spices, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Mix thoroughly with your hands until the spices are fully distributed throughout — not just on the surface. Don't overwork it, but be thorough. This is your flavor foundation.
Get the pan ripping hot. Heat ghee in a large cast iron skillet over high heat until shimmering and just starting to smoke. This recipe does not work on medium heat. High heat is what separates a caramelized crust from gray, steamed ground beef.
Smash and leave it alone. Add the beef mixture to the hot pan in one or two large pieces. Press down firmly and evenly with a spatula — maximum contact, maximum crust. Do not touch it for 3–4 minutes. The meat will stick at first and release cleanly once the crust has formed. Trying to flip it early is the only way to ruin this dish.
Break, add, finish. Flip and break the beef into large, irregular pieces — craggy and rough, not finely crumbled. Add the walnuts and raisins to the pan. Cook another 2–3 minutes until the beef is cooked through, the walnuts are toasted, and the dried fruit has plumped in the rendered fat.
Assemble. Spread cold cucumber yogurt generously across a serving platter. Spoon the hot beef directly on top. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses, scatter fresh mint, and serve immediately with warm flatbread or rice. The temperature contrast — hot, spiced, charred meat against ice-cold creamy yogurt — is everything.
What Makes This a MAHA Dish
Traditional Persian and Middle Eastern cooking never used industrial seed oils. They used animal fats, olive oil, and clarified butter — exactly what MAHA cooking calls for today. This dish isn't an adaptation. It's a restoration. The original is already clean.
Ground beef cooked in ghee with warming spices and served with full-fat fermented yogurt is also one of the most nutrient-dense weeknight meals you can put together. Grass-fed beef provides conjugated linoleic acid, heme iron, B12, and zinc. Ghee delivers fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Full-fat yogurt brings probiotics and protein. Walnuts add omega-3s. The pomegranate molasses provides polyphenols. This is not health food masquerading as comfort food. This is comfort food that happens to be excellent for you.
For more recipes built on this philosophy — real ingredients, ancestral fats, global flavors — browse the MAHA recipe collection on the blog. And if Middle Eastern and spice-forward cooking is a direction you want to explore further, Savor Exotics and Savor the World are both built around exactly these flavor traditions.
Recipe Notes
Fat percentage is non-negotiable. 80/20 ground beef is the minimum. The fat renders into the pan during cooking, bastes the meat, and gives the walnuts and raisins something to toast in. Lean beef produces a dry, flat result with none of the caramelization that makes this dish work.
Pomegranate molasses is worth tracking down. It's available at Middle Eastern grocery stores, Whole Foods, and most well-stocked supermarkets. A bottle lasts months and it's one of those pantry ingredients that improves everything it touches — drizzled over roasted vegetables, whisked into salad dressings, or stirred into braising liquid.
The dried fruit is not optional. Raisins, dried cherries, or chopped apricots seem like an unusual addition to a savory meat dish, but this sweet-savory combination is fundamental to Persian and Moroccan cooking. It's what makes the dish feel complete rather than just well-seasoned ground beef. Trust the tradition.
Cast iron preferred. A cast iron skillet holds the sustained high heat this technique requires better than any other pan. If you don't own one, use your heaviest skillet and make sure it's fully preheated before the beef goes in.
Browse more on the blog: World Cuisines — Ingredient Spotlights — Seed-Oil-Free Cooking
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