Lamb Vindaloo Recipe (Goat Vindaloo)
By Swasthi on December 21, 2022, Comments, Jump to Recipe
This hearty Lamb Vindaloo is the ultimate Classic comfort food! It is packed with amazing flavors and perfect for a cold day. Lamb Vindaloo is an Indian dish of tender chunks of lamb in a delicious tangy & spicy thick sauce. It goes fantastically with Turmeric Rice, steamed fluffy Basmati Rice, Garlic Naan, Poee, Tandoori Roti, Pita bread or Artisan breads. For a complete meal, have some Kachumber salad and Cucumber raita or Chaas on the side. It’s best to make this ahead as the meat develops deeper flavors.
For the uninitiated, Vindaloo is a Goan dish that was derived from the Portuguese “Carne de Vinha D’alhos’ & tweaked by Goans to match the local taste buds. Carne de Vinha D’alhos translates to “meat marinated in wine-vinegar and garlic”.
During the 15th Century, Portuguese sailors who were exploring India brought with them wooden barrels consisting of pork meat marinated in wine-vinegar and garlic.
Since wine-vinegar was not available in India, Goans marinated their meat in coconut palm wine (toddy). Spices like cloves, cinnamon, black pepper etc were also used.
Vindaloo has travelled all over the world. Though pork is the Goans’ choice of meat, you will find numerous versions made with different kinds of meat like lamb, chicken, fish, shrimp and even eggs.
About Lamb Vindaloo
This Lamb Vindaloo is made in Goan style where meat is marinated with homemade vindaloo paste which is made of vinegar, garlic, ginger & other spices. It is later slow cooked until the meat is tender & succulent. Cooking red meat in vindaloo paste actually brings out tons of flavors which is not the same when it is made with other kinds of meat like chicken or seafoods.
My recipe will help you make the best lamb vindaloo at home! I have used boneless leg of lamb here, you may use lamb shoulder, goat or other red meat of choice. But do adjust the amount of liquid as required.
You may feel there are a lot of spices used, especially red chilli, garlic and ginger. But the dish isn’t too spicy or pungent at all. It has a lovely balance of all the tastes & flavors because it cooks down for long time. Vinegar and jaggery does all this magic!
More similar recipes you may like
Lamb Karahi
Goat Curry
Lamb Curry
Mutton Curry
Mutton Korma
Rogan Josh
Mutton Biryani
How to Make Lamb Vindaloo (Stepwise Photos)
Prepare Vindaloo Paste
1. For the paste, you will deseed 20 dried Kashmiri red chilies and soak them in ¼ cup Vinegar & ¼ cup hot boiling water until needed. If dried chilies are not available, you may use red chilli powder and skip the step of soaking.
2. Meanwhile gather the spices. Here is what you need
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 10 black pepper (or ¼ teaspoon ground)
- 6 cloves
- 2 to 3 inch cinnamon piece
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds or ground
- 25 grams garlic (peeled)
- 25 grams ginger (peeled and sliced)
- 1 teaspoon jaggery or brown sugar (I forgot to include)
3. To a small grinder jar, add coriander, cumin, pepper, cloves, cinnamon, mustard & salt. (By mistake I also threw in my turmeric here. Add it to the chicken later while marinating. Turmeric stains your grinder)
4. Make a fine powder.
5. Add the jaggery, ginger, garlic, red chilies and vinegar (chili soaked).
6. Make a smooth paste. Taste test and adjust salt as required. My red chilies were just not spicy at all, so I used 2 teaspoons more red chilli powder. It is up to you to add more.
Marinate Meat
7. Add the marinade to your lamb/goat and mix well.
8. Cover and rest in the refrigerator overnight or at least for 4 hours. I usually do it for 4 hours.
Make Lamb Vindaloo
9. When you are ready to cook the Lamb vindaloo, bring the marinated meat out of the refrigerator. Chop 1 medium onion very fine (about 1 cup). We want the onions to dissolve in the dish so keep them small. You will need 3 tablespoons oil and more salt and jaggery to adjust later.
10. Pour the oil and heat a heavy bottom pan /Dutch oven / a braiser. Add the onions and begin to saute them until golden.
11. It takes about 4 to 5 mins.
12. Add the marinated meat and saute on a medium high heat for 5 to 6 mins. If you double or triple the recipe, you have to saute longer. Cover and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on a medium-low heat. While you do this bring 1 cup water to a boil in a small pot.
13. Add 1 sprig fresh curry leaves & sauté for 2 mins. Leave them out if you don’t have.
14. Pour 1 cup hot water.
15. Mix well.
16. Cover and cook on a medium to medium-low heat until the meat is fork tender. You have to keep stirring every 10 to 15 mins to make sure the sauce is not burning at the bottom. Also add more hot water as you cook. Towards the end when there is not much water, reduce the flame to low.
17. For boneless leg of lamb I had to use 2 cups water totally (1+1) and it took 1 hour 30 mins. This changes with the quantity and kind of meat you use.
18. It should be fork tender when done. Do check it.
19. Taste test. Add more salt and 1 to 2 teaspoons jaggery or brown sugar to taste.
20. Vindaloo is a dish with thick sauce, so ideally I turn off when it reaches this stage. It thickens slightly even more after cooling down.
Serve Lamb Vindaloo with hot Turmeric Rice, plain steamed Basmati Rice, Naan, Poee, Pita bread or Artisan breads. Have some Kachumber Salad, cucumber raita or Chaas on the side. Refrigerate the left overs. Pour some water and reheat until really bubbling hot and tender.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Lamb Vindaloo Recipe (Goat Vindaloo)
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
- 1.25 lbs. (500 to 600 grams) lamb (or goat shoulder or boneless leg of lamb)
To grind & marinate (Vindaloo paste)
- 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 10 black pepper
- 6 cloves
- 2 to 3 inch cinnamon piece
- ½ teaspoon mustard seeds or ground
- 20 Kashmiri dried red chilies (or 1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder)
- 1 to 3 teaspoons Kashmiri red chilli powder (optional)
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt (+ ¾ more to adjust later)
- ¼ cup palm vinegar (or malt vinegar, cane vinegar, apple vinegar or rice vinegar)
- 1 teaspoon jaggery or brown sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 25 grams garlic (peeled)
- 25 grams ginger (peeled and sliced)
Other ingredients
- 4 tablespoons oil (preferably mustard oil)
- 1 large (1 cup) onion (very fine chopped)
- 1 sprig curry leaves (don't use dried, optional)
- 1 to 2 teaspoons jaggery or brown sugar or any sugar
- 1 ½ to 2 cups hot water (or as needed)
Instructions
Prepare Vindaloo Paste
- First deseed the dried red chilies and soak them in vinegar and ¼ cup hot water. If using red chilli powder in place of red chilies you may skip this soaking step. Keep this aside.
- Meanwhile add all the spices – coriander, cumin, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, mustard and salt to a small grinder jar. Make a fine powder.
- Add jaggery, ginger, garlic, soaked red chilies (or chilli powder), & vinegar. Grind to a smooth paste adding 1 to 2 tablespoons more water if required.
- Taste test this and add more salt or vinegar or red chilli powder to taste.
- Marinate the lamb with turmeric and this vindaloo paste. Cover and rest overnight or at least for 6 hours.
How to Make Lamb Vindaloo
- When you are ready to cook the vindaloo, take it out of the refrigerator and keep aside.
- Chop the onion very finely if using.
- Heat oil in a pan or a dutch oven or a braiser.
- Add the onions and saute them on a medium heat until golden.
- Add the marinated lamb and begin to saute on a medium high heat for 5 minutes. You will see the vindaloo paste begins to smell good & leave the sides of the pan. At this stage cover and cook for 3 mins on a medium to medium-low heat.
- Add the curry leaves and saute for 2 mins. Pour 1 cup boiling hot water and mix well.
- Let lamb vindaloo cook for 1 ½ hours or until tender. Keep stirring every 15 mins. You will need to add more hot water in batches after 40 mins.
- You know the lamb vindaoo is done when the meat is soft and fork tender. Taste test and add salt and jaggery (or brown sugar) at this stage and cook further without covering to evaporate the excess water.
- Vindaloo is a semi-dry dish with thick sauce. Check pictures in the post to see the consistency of the sauce.
- Lamb vindaloo tastes best the next day. Serve it over Basmati Rice, bread or with naans. If you are lucky enough to make or buy the Goan Poee bread, go for it.
Notes
- If using bone-in meat, you can use upto 750 to 800 grams (1.75 lbs.)
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
Discovered this recipe on a lark, and I can say with with dried spices, the flavor is amazing. Thank you for a new family favorite.
Absolutely delicious! The step by step was very very well done, made things very easy to follow along. Bringing to the Singhs for sharing at work tomorrow 🙂
Thanks again, so much.
You are welcome Steve. Glad to know you like it. Thank you
This was insanely good! I didn’t have any kashmiri peppers so I used chipotle instead.
Thank you so much for trying!
Wanted to try this recipe but what can I use instead of gur/jaggery?
use brown sugar or regular sugar
I love indian food i hope i can cook this for my family thanks for sharing your recipe have a great day thanks again
You too have a great day Mylene. Hope you enjoy this!
A fantastic recipe to explore your local Indian or world market and learn all about some familiar spices and experience some new flavors and combinations as well.
I doubled the quantity of everything to make a family sized batch and used a 4lb boneless leg of lamb.
I detest adding plain water so I used low sodium chicken stock as the additional liquid and it worked well.
I also cleaned and chopped about 2 cups of potatoes into bite sized pieces and added them during the last 40 minutes of cooking. Stretched the meal a bit further and varied the texture some. Our favorite local restaurant serves it that way and I see why.
Thank you for making cooking Indian food fun and easy with delicious results!
Thank you Ken for trying and sharing back how it turned out for you. Love the way you made it.
I found curry leaves at a local Indian market. After drying, I peeled the leaves off of the branches and stored them in a ziploc bag. For this recipe, should the curry leaves be fresh? I tossed in a handful and it’s cooking as we speak. I was curious as to why the recipe said to not use dried curry leaves. Also, when it’s done, do you just fish out the leaves and discard them like you do bay leaves? Thank you.
Hi Allen,
Actually dried leaves don’t impart the same flavors as fresh leaves and I feel they do nothing to the dish. Instead they can be left out. Yes we fish out while serving. If you want to store curry leaves you can fry them in ghee until crisp, remove from ghee and refrigerate in a glass jar. Leave it out of the refrigerator for sometime before using. This kind of curry leaves can be stored for a year and they are as good as the fresh curry leaves. You can find more details in this ghee recipe in the notes section.
Great Lamb Vindaloo recipe even better the next day thanks from Win Young in Sicily. I used left over cooked leg of Welsh Lamb .
Thanks for sharing back Win. Glad you like it.
How long does the vindaloo pasite keep in the fridge can you freeze it
It should keep good for a month in the refrigerator and 3 months in the freezer
I’ve been learning to make and adjust a lot of Indian dishes at home (food sensitivities suck), and have been missing my favoritie restaurants goat vindaloo. When i saw a boneless leg of lamb roast on sale, i knew i had to try to make my own vindaloo. This recipe was great! I used kasmiri chili powder (my local Indian market didn’t have whole chilis) and a couple sanaam peppers to add some extra heat. I was really worried around the 1.5 hour mark that the meat was still a bit tough and the sauce watery, but i left it simmering on low with the lid off while i made my other dishes, and within another half hour, the meat started to get super tender and the sauce thickened up!
Thank you for sharing back! Glad it turned out good.
Hi, could i make this in instant pot? If so what would be the time to set and the differences in steps? Thx!
Hi,
I haven’t tried it in the IP. 10 mins high pressure should work. Reduce the quantity of water.
Made that tonight… Tastes great… Really appreciate your step-by-step approach; you make everything so simple.
Thank you so much Paul. Glad it turned out great.
Thank you. This turned out amazing and my family loves it.
Glad to know Meera. Thank you so much!
I used more mustard seeds because the recipe calls for mustard oil (preferably) & didn’t have it. Overall the dish tasted beyond my expectations. Will make this again.
Regular oil works well too. Thanks for trying Wilson.