Pakistani Lamb Vegetable Curry. Flavorful curry dish.
Pakistani Lamb-Vegetable Curry
Hi. It's Lois in the kitchen at Recipe Idea Shop, talking about Pakistani Lamb-Vegetable Curry...and my big FAIL! Never fear, I made it again and it's super delicious.
A few years ago my husband and I were hosting a young man from Pakistan, Ishaq, who was attending the Summer Peacebuilding Institute at Eastern Mennonite University. He was with us for about a month. After being here for awhile, Ishaq, a Muslim who keeps Halal, was missing meat and his traditional Pakistani foods. We went to Eastern Halal Gift Store in Harrisonburg to find some Halal meat. While there, Ishaq found a package of Shan Meat & Vegetable Curry Mix, the spice mixture his family uses at home.
Follow the Recipe, Girl
I decided to use lamb and make the recipe on the back of the package. It's a pretty simple recipe, but it is not written in a reader-friendly manner. In recipes in the U.S., the ingredients are listed in the order they are supposed to be put into the recipe and they are usually bulleted. Not so with this package. It was written in paragraph form, so you had to hunt for what to put in the recipe.
I would never say I was a detail person.
Major Fail, Girl
I read the recipe multiple times and could not find how much of the spice packet to add. So I figured it must be like the Knorr spice mixes here in the States, you add the whole package. That's what I did. Wow! What a mistake! It was so hot, my eyes burned.
Ishaq was kind, though. He ate two bowls of it. I'm sure he paid for it later. I took the leftovers to work and the JMU students who worked in my department ate it all up and raved about it.
Students will eat anything. Just sayin'.
Whew! We Got it Right the Next Time.
I have since adjusted the recipe to the proper amount of spice and tried it again (multiple times). Delicious! Ishaq is here for SPI again and Don made some yesterday. He only used lamb stew meat, onions, carrots and tomatoes for the basic stew. And he served it over rice. Here's what his version looks like:
Tools You Need
One of the tools you should have in your kitchen is a good Dutch Oven. I have a couple of them; mine are stainless steel, similar to this one:
But this Le Creuset Dutch Oven is what I really want:
Pakistani Lamb Vegetable Curry Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 pounds lamb stew meat (cut in small pieces)
- 1 onion (cut in bite-size pieces)
- 2 carrots (peeled and diced)
- 2 potatoes (peeled and diced; optional)
- 3 teaspoons Shan Meat & Vegetable Curry Mix
- 2-3 cups water
- 1 cup grape tomatoes (cut in half or 1 can diced, canned tomatoes with juice)
- 1 cup frozen peas (optional)
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a Dutch oven.
- Add the lamb and cook over medium heat until browned on the outside and cooked through.
- Add the onion and carrots and cook for about 5 minutes.
- Add the spices and mix to combine.
- Add the water, tomatoes (if using canned), and potatoes (if using), cover and cook on medium heat until the vegetables are tender (about 20-30 minutes).
- Toss in the peas and grape tomatoes and continue cooking for about 5 minutes until heated through.
- Serve with plain yogurt or sour cream, a salad and some crusty French Bread.
Nutrition
More Recipes To Try
- Lamb Curry with Leftover Lamb
- Chicken Curry
- Cardamom Curry Lamb
- Indian Pumpkin Soup
Lois Carter Crawford is an author, home chef, health advocate, and food coach who fought her way back from several debilitating health issues, including a moderate heart attack! She discovered that inflammation caused by the food she ate was the underlying cause of most of her health problems and developed a method and tools to help others research their food sensitivities.
Eileen Dight
This sounds delicious, but in the absence of a packet mix it would be good to know which spices to use.
In French supermarkets you can buy the equivalent of a Le Creuset dutch oven without the brand name, with its virtues, at a quarter the price. I bought them for all my family while living in France, and I couldn't have afforded that at Le Creuset prices.
Lois
Hi Eileen: The spice package is from Shan (Meat & Vegetable Curry Mix). It comes in a box with 3.5 oz spices (100 g). The spices are paprika, red chili, salt, cumin, carom, turmeric, ginger, garlic, coriander, black pepper, mace, clove, cinnamon, brown cardamom. I used 3 teaspoons in the recipe. I'm just guessing here because I haven't tried it, but I suggest: 1/2 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika, 1/8 teaspoon cayenne, 1/4 teaspoon cumin, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, 1/8 teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon coriander, 1/8 teaspoon mace, 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/8 teaspoon brown cardamom, plus salt (maybe 1/2 teaspoon) & pepper to taste and a clove or two of crushed garlic.
Warren Grasty
Hello Lois and Don,
We like spicy food and lamb, so we liked this recipe with one caveat- we found that the spices overpowered the lamb. I think the next time we do this, we will use another meat, maybe chicken, and save the lamb for the grill.
Lois
Hi Warren,
I'm glad you tried it. Do you think a little less of the spices would correct the balance for you? Our lamb was very flavorful, but it was quite fresh. We purchased it from the local halal store. So the spices seemed balanced for it. Ishaq said it was just like they eat it in Pakistan.
Lois
ar
Pakistani cuisine is NOT middle eastern. Its southasian! Please correct this. Its not nothign to do with the arab world, or persia.
Lois
Greetings. Sorry. My geography and cultural knowledge needs improvement. You are correct. I'll fix it.