Easy and delicious lamb curry

Succulent, flavorsome lamb curry cooked low and slow to ensure tender lamb in a rich, aromatic curry sauce is the perfect make-ahead dinner recipe.

If you’re cooking on a budget, curries and stews are the best money-saver dishes out there as stewing cuts of meat usually the most affordable. You can also use relatively little meat and just bulk the dish up with vegetables, which adds nutrition and flavour. That’s what I’ve done with this lamb curry. You could use less meat if you please but with this amount it’s quite a generous portion for 4 and if there’s left over, you could always make yourself a home-made bunny chow for lunch the next day.

As with most of my recipes, the vegetables in this lamb curry can be swapped and changed for anything you have in the house.. I used sweet potato instead of regular potato but butternut, pumpkin and potatoes would be great in this. You could also add more vegetables like green beans, peas and chunks of aubergine or courgette.

I like making my own blend of spices using coriander, chilli, cumin, turmeric and paprika but you could use any curry powder you can afford or that you have in the house. The flavour will be different if you use shop bought garam masala but you’ll still get that Indian warmth coming through. Once again, if you like making curry (any curry!) then I suggest you buy some spices (you can find some very good prices on spices at speciality stores) and experiment with the flavours.

You won’t be using a lot at one time so it’s good value for money and the amount of flavour and depth it adds to the curry is amazing. In fact, spices make all recipes a little better so it’s nice to have them on hand.

To bulk this meal up I made a small onion & tomato salad, which is optional, but if you have the ingredients in your house, why not? It adds another dimension of flavour.

600g stewing lamb
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
1tsp crushed ginger
2 carrots
3tbsn Garam Masala (or curry powder of your choice. I use a mixture of cumin, coriander, paprika, turmeric and chilli powder but I have all those spices in my house)
1 tin Chopped Tomatoes
2 tins Water
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped (about 2 cups)
2 cups rice, cooked

• In a large pot, brown the meat all over and set aside.
• In the same pot, fry the onion, carrots, garlic and ginger until the onions are translucent. Add the garam masala and add the meat back in. Stir to coat the meat in all the spices and veg and add the tomatoes and water.
• Lower the heat and allow to simmer gently until the lamb is tender (about 30 minutes)
• Add the sweet potato and cook for another 20-30 minutes until the sweet potato is cooked.
• Serve with the cooked rice and tomato and onion salad.