Indian Lamb Curry made in an hour with and easy homemade curry spice mix and creamy tomato sauce, simmered on low heat until fall apart tender.
Indian Recipes have been a HUGE hit on the site including the fan favorites Slow Cooker Butter Chicken, Chicken Biryani, Easy Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Korma.
Indian Lamb Curry
Anytime we order in Indian food we stick to our classic options like Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Biryani, naan, Saag Paneer and Indian Raita but when we go an Indian restaurant with a lunch buffet my husband makes a bee line for the lamb curry.
Lamb is an interesting protein here in the US. Outside the United States people enjoy lamb dishes far more often, but here it gets the reputation for being really gamey.
What is the gamey taste in meat?
For wild meat, like venison or lamb, you may notice a stronger meat taste. This is due to the difference in diet most wild animals have. Just as cows are fed a mostly corn diet, many wild animals eat different plants and foods which allow for the meat to have a much stronger flavor.
If you find you want the meat to be less flavorful, I recommend trimming as much of the fat as possible as most of the gamey flavor is concentrated in the fat.
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If you’d prefer to make your Indian lamb curry with coconut milk, you can swap out the greek yogurt at the end of the recipe for ½ cup of coconut milk. Then allow it to simmer for an additional five minutes so the sauce can thicken again as the coconut milk is runnier than the greek yogurt.
This Easy Lamb Curry isn’t going to take you all day to prepare or all day to find the ingredients. I avoid some of the more traditional hard to find ingredients like black cardamom or even cinnamon sticks because in testing I found we maintained great flavor with the easier swaps.
If you have these ingredients you’re welcome to use them:
- swap ground cardamom for one black cardamom pod
- swap cinnamon for one cinnamon stick
Just be sure you remove these ingredients before serving as they are not palatable to eat. I don’t worry too much about the cloves or the black peppercorns as they sort of melt away into the lamb curry during cooking.
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Indian Lamb Curry in the Slow Cooker
You can easily make this recipe in the slow cooker by adding all the ingredients except the greek yogurt into the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6 hours. Then add in the greek yogurt, stir and cook on high, for 30 more minutes before serving.
The house will smell delicious!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 whole cloves
- 10 black peppercorns
- 2 yellow onions chopped
- 2 pounds boneless lamb cut into 1 pieces
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced
- 1 tablespoon garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon cardamom
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoons coriander
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 cups water
- 1/2 cup tomato puree
- 1/2 cup greek yogurt
- cilantro for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- To a large skillet or dutch oven add the oil on medium heat with the bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns and onions and cook, stirring, for 8-10 minutes.
- Add in the lamb, ginger, garlic, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, turmeric, coriander and garam masala cooking and stirring for an additional 8-10 minutes.
- Add in the water and tomato puree and let simmer on medium-low heat for 45 minutes, adding in the yogurt just before serving.
Nutrition
Made this for dinner and it was delicious! Will definitely make it again. I think it would be good with chicken too. Thanks for an easy and yummy recipe.
Very nice and tasty
It was good, made it in the slow cooker, followed recipe.
Absolutely loved it!
This is my go-to recipe for lamb curry. So flavorful! Sometimes I grind a little sanf (fennel seed) and cumin seed and add.
I love this recipe, unfortunately I only cook for one on a daily basis.
It would be fabulous if a recipe book by you was COOKING FOR ONE INDIAN RECIPES.
G.
This recipe was delicious, easy and will be on rotation at our house! I added some curry leaves that I happened to have but other than that, it was pretty much as written. Great recipe, thank you!
Easily one of the best non curry powder recipes I loved it, thanks
I have used your curry recipe using chicken and love it!
In my area lamb is not often available in my stores. However, today I found ground lamb. I would love to try this recipe using lamb.
Do you have any experience with ground lamb versus lamb chunks? And do you think it is a reasonable swap for this recipe?
Thank you in advance, I love your recipes!
Absolutely delicious! I forgot to add the yogurt in the end, but I didn’t missed it. Thank you for sharing this recipe with us. I will be trying more recipes from you, no doubt.
Great flavor! This was my first time cooking with lamb… will definitely make it again.
Would have loved to watch a video of you making it
I made this for my lunch this week. To make it more heartier I added veggies. Mushrooms, butternut squash, kale, garbanzo beans. I made the recipe as is with these additions. I have enough for lunch each day this week. I tasted it while it was cooling down to store it is great! Thank you for this awesome recipe
Thank you, I am glad you enjoyed!
Excellent recipe! My family loves this. We do low glycemic, so complement this with coconut flour naan.
Thanks, Kylan!
I liked this recipe. The lamb wasn’t super tender but that’s on me. I think I added more salt than it called for but it tasted great to me. I will make it again!
Love this lamb curry recipe. Going to make it today!
Thank you. Your website is awesome.
Thank you for your support!
Looked for a lamb curry recipe and this one appeared to fit the bill.
Although there were a lot of ingredients to include, thoroughly easy to make and all the family gave it the ‘thumbs up’.
Will definitely cook again.
Hi Mickey! We love this recipe at home so I’m really excited that your family loved it too! Come back and try something new soon!
Thank you?
Could you tell me what cut of lamb do you use
I really enjoyed this so much with lamb! I don’t have any left though, could I use the exact same method for but just with chicken
Absolutely!
Are the peppercorns cardamom seeds and cinnamon added whole ?
The cardamom and cinnamon are ground, not whole.
I made this recipe, my family loves it.
The recipe calls for whole spices. Do we grind them before sauteeing?
Just a question: Are the black pepercorns left whole in the curry?
Yes though they’ll soften as they cook. I hope you enjoy the dish.
Delicious, was not sure of it, but everyone grabbed seconds. Did not have Greek yogurt and used “lacto” instead but it came out PERFECT.
Happy New Year Sabrina
I do not enjoy the taste of water cooked food can I use coconut milk?
I would say coconut milk would be a delicious substitute. It will be a little thicker with the cream unless you use lite coconut milk.
This is really good! I was a little worried when it wasn’t very thick, after the medium-low 45 minute simmer. However, letting it go another half hour while making the rice, made it just fine. Also, we used coconut milk instead of greek yogurt, as it’s what we had. And I mistakenly grabbed tomato paste instead of puree, but again, still delicious. Thanks for a yummy recipe!
I’m glad to know you enjoyed it, Kristin.
Mine doesn’t look the same as the picture. Maybe instead of saying chopped for the onions maybe puree in a blender or food processor. Smells great but it’s almost tasteless. I will not be making this again. Lamb ain’t cheap.
Unfortunately mine turned out the same way and I usually execute Indian recipe’s very well. Disappointed.
Not tasty enough. Added far more of the herbs and spices than the recipe called for. Disappointed
Delicious and best of all it was husband and kids approved! Definitely adding this dish to my regular lunches! Thank you!
You suggest this recipe as something to use from your leftover leg of lamb recipe… does that change cook time if lamb is already cooked?
This did not taste like an Indian curry to me. It was flavorful and tender but it is a lamb stew that covers up the wonderful flavor of lamb. It is missing acid and another flavor-perhaps peppers? It was tasty but not the Indian flavor I was looking for. If you added potatoes and carrots, it would be a really wonderful stew.
Absolutely delicious – what more can I say!
Thanks, Alison.
This is an EXCELLENT recipe! The first time I used regular diced lamb and a block coconut cream from a brand I don’t usually buy. It was ok and worth making again, but tonight I tried with lean diced lamb and a good coconut cream and it was HEAVENLY!!! Just absolutely DELISH and I will definitely make again! Thanks for sharing and don’t hesitate to try this! My only major sub this time was mild curry powder for Garson masala and cumin for coriander just cuz it’s what I had handy. All the other spices I already had because I love to cook Indian food, so that was a bonus as well! Thanks again for this! Cheers!
Yay!! Thanks for coming back to let me know how much you enjoyed it.
I have made this curry many times and shared the recipe with several friends. It is easy to follow, and if you can find the ingredients in the bulk section of your local store you can minimize the cost of the spices you may not use frequently. I have tried this with yogurt, coconut milk, or neither we love it either way.
So glad you have found this recipe to be such a good go-to! Thank you for leaving a review!
This recipe sounds very good, but for the life of me I can’t understand why you refer to lamb as a “wild animal”
Absolutely amazing recipe! Although the spices are a little difficult to come by and also a little pricey. I did add a little curry powder, increased the garam masala by a teaspoon, and a little more salt. Made Bombay potatoes on the side! My kids who are picky, loved it. Great recipe, looking forward to making it again!!
Sorry Sabrina this is not a curry, a curry without any chilli is not a curry its a soup. You have not recreated an authentic curry you have invented a lamb soup im afraid. Incorrect describing it as a curry, and if people like this then they are liking soup not curry. Anyone expecting an authentic curry will be disappointed with this recipe i think.
Yes; I agree; it did not taste like curry at all, I was very disappointed. It is very tasty however.
You could add your own pepper spice and then it would indeed be a curry. I usually make things without for my children but we add to our own dishes.
I love this recipe!! Thanks for sharing! ?