A delicious family-friendly curry
This slow cooked lamb curry is simple to make, and the results are really delicious. I have given instructions for making this dish in a slow cooker, and there are also instructions on cooking it in the oven. The slow cooker does the hard work, so you can prepare it quickly and then leave it to do its job (whilst you go off and do yours)! Leaving the lamb curry to cook slowly for hours enables the flavours of the dish to develop slowly, creating a wonderfully, flavoursome dish.
The ingredients for my slow cooker lamb curry form part of my staple store cupboard, therefore they can be used time and again in alternative recipes. I have added chickpeas to this curry as they are an excellent source of protein (with the added benefit of being a cheap and filling protein). The chickpeas aren’t essential in the dish if you dislike them, however they do make the dish go further. If you wanted to cook the curry without them – I would recommend using and additional 500g of lamb instead.
Make one freeze one!
When I use my slow cooker, I usually make more than I need for one meal. The quantity of ingredients in this recipe will make 2 batches of curry (each batch feeding 4-5 people). However, if you are serving it to a crowd with a tray of Indian style starters, rice and naan, it will easily stretch to serve 12.
Can I make it without a Slow Cooker?
Yes! This recipe can be made without a slow cooker. Here’s how:
Follow the Method below to the end of number 4 and using the coconut milk tin, also add a tin of water and stir. Then place the curry in an casserole or ovenproof dish (with a tight fitting lid or cover tightly with tin foil). Place in a preheated oven for 3 hours at 140c / Gas mark 2. Remove from the oven to add the drained chickpeas (you may need to add a splash of water if it looks too dry) and place back in the oven for a further 30 minutes. Serve!
Do I need to pre-fry the ingredients?
If your slow cooker has a ‘saute or fry’ function then brilliant – I would recommend searing the meat, onions and spices as per the method below as frying the spices does help the spices to mellow in the dish. If you have a basic slow cooker without this function, and you are pushed for time (or can’t be bothered to dirty a frying pan, you can skip the frying stages and put all the raw ingredients in the slow cooker and it will still taste lovely (I have tested it).
Slow Cooked Lamb Curry
- Serves 8 – 12
- A great dish to feed a crowd
- Melt in the mouth lamb
- Freezable
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
- 1.5kg diced lamb shoulder (if not using chickpeas, increase to 2kg)
- 2 onions finely diced
- 1 tbsp garlic paste
- 1 tbsp ginger paste
- 2 tbsp medium curry powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 4 tbsp tomato puree
- 1 chicken or lamb stock pot / stock cube
- 400g tin coconut milk
- 2 x 400g tins of chickpeas (optional)
- Salt and Pepper
Method
1. Warm 1 tbsp of the oil in a large frying pan and add half of the meat to seal it (5 minutes should be long enough for it to turn from red to brown). Spoon the lamb into the slow cooker and repeat with the second batch of the lamb.
2. To make the curry sauce add the remaining 1 tbsp oil to the empty frying pan and fry the chopped onions, garlic paste and ginger paste for 5 minutes until they begin the soften. Then add the curry powder and paprika to the onion mixture and fry for 1 minute.
3. Add the tomato paste, stock pot (or stock cube) and the tin of coconut milk. Stir until combined and leave until it starts to bubble.
4. Empty the pan of sauce into the slow cooker with the lamb and stir until well combined. (Slow cookers require less liquid than cooking in other ways so don’t worry about there not being a lot of sauce – it will develop during the cooking time!)
5. Set the slow cooker to ‘LOW’ and leave for 8 hours.
6. After 8 hours quickly add the drained chickpeas, and season with salt and pepper. Taste and add more seasoning if it requires it. Put the lid back on quickly so that the heat doesn’t escape and leave for a further 1 hour.
7. Serve with rice or naan bread, or if you are hungry both!
