This Slow Cooker Indian Kerala Style Beef Curry is one of my favorite curries to make because it's fresh, fragrant, light and just as good the next day. It has a rich aromatic curry sauce coating the meltingly tender pull apart beef. Its easy to make with just 15 minutes of prep and simple ingredients.
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If you love light curries with a gentle spice, my Kerala Fish Curry is a must make. My Chicken Kerala Curry recipe is also simple and quick with thick creamy sauce and simple ingredients.
Making dinners under 500 calories is my specialty, with many of my most popular being low calorie chicken recipes, low calorie meal prepping recipes and low calorie slow cooker recipes.
Recipe Highlights
- Simple Ingredients: buy everything at your local supermarket
- Melt in your Mouth Tender Beef Curry: fork tender, pull apart slow cooker beef (electric pressure cooker instructions included below too!)
- An All Seasons Curry: light enough to eat in Summer, and substantial enough to cozy up with in Winter
- Adjustable spice level: simply add or reduce the level of chili
- Easy to adjust the level of heat and spice to your liking
- Minimal Prep: Perfect for meal prep and freezing
- Crunchy curry leaves on top: you'll become addicted!
- This dinner is under 500 calories per serve!
Ingredients
TIP: The curry leaves are a ley ingredient in this kerala beef curry recipe.
Curry leaves add flavor and texture to the dish. They have a citrusy, slightly nutty taste that enhances the overall taste of the curry'
The fragrance released when curry leaves are sautéed in oil is characteristic of many South Indian dishes.
Whilst you could leave them out, I do recommend including them as they're delicious!
Spices
You'll need a combination of ground spices for this Indian Beef Curry. They are all readily available from your local supermarket and include: garam masala powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, red chili powder, black pepper powder and salt, along with, fresh ginger and garlic.
Ingredient Notes
- Meat: I used Beef Shin for this recipe. I bought Steaks and chopped it into 1 inch pieces. Stew meat is best for slow cooking and chuck steak, beef roast, skirt steak, shin, brisket could also be used. Just be sure to trim off excess fat from the meat .
- Tomatoes: Canned tomatoes work great in this recipe, however you could also use two large ripe tomatoes finely chopped.
- Curry Leaves: Usually available from the produce section of the supermarket.
- Green Chilies: Make sure to buy the long green chilies as they are not overly hot. The smaller green chilies are VERY hot and not suitable for this curry.
How To Make in the Slow Cooker
- Cook: Heat a pan on medium high heat. Add vegetable oil and once hot, add the onions. Cook until they just start to become soft.
- Add Tomatoes: Add the tomatoes and stir through, cooking for 1 minute
- Add aromatic spices: Add the spice mix ingredients and green chilies, stirring through, cooking for another minute.
- Transfer to Slow Cooker: Transfer mixture to slow cooker, along with beef, curry leaves (still on stem) and a little water.
- Slow Cook: Cook on LOW in Slow Cooker for 8 hours. Remove curry leave stems.
- To Thicken: For a thicker consistency, mix a little cornflour with water to make a slurry. Add to the hot slow cooker curry and stir. For extra thickness, repeat.
- Curry Leaves: For crispy curry leaves, heat a little oil in a pan, add leaves, and cook until crisp and darker green. Remove from pan.
- To Serve: Serve the curry over rice in four bowls, garnishing with crispy curry leaves.
I make indian food often at home and my healthy butter chicken is often one of my most requested recipes, with Beef Korma and Masala Beef coming in a close second. I put it down to growing up in a small town where Indian takeout was pretty much what we ate every weekend.
Expert Tips
- Cornflour Note: If using cornflour and refrigerating leftovers, when you reheat, the curry may appear a bit gelatinous, but once its heated that will disappear and you’ll be left with delicious thick rich curry.
- Spice Level: This is a medium curry, so it has a bit of heat to it. To make it less spicy, remove the seeds from the green chilies, and halve the amount of black pepper and chili powder
- More Spicy: If you like it hot, add additional green chilies.
- Storage: This curry freezes well. Portion out into serving sized containers with a lid, label and date the containers and they’ll keep in the freezer for 3 months.
- Defrosting: Defrost in microwave on defrost setting, or alternatively, put container in fridge overnight to thaw, then reheat in a pot on stove, or heat in microwave
Serving Suggestions
- Steamed jasmine rice, coconut rice, or lemon rice
- Cauliflower Rice for a lower carb option
- Naan bread or Roti/Chapati
- Vegetables (broccoli, carrots, zucchini, potatoes)
Your Questions Answered
Yes you can - use the same amount of coconut milk as yo would water, but don't use both. Substituting in coconut milk will make the curry a little richer and creamier.
I keep curries in the fridge for 2 days. I I know I won’t eat it all within that time I freeze it. Make sure to store the curry separate from any rice to keep the curry sauce in tact.
I love making slow cooked curries. They take very little effort and practically cook themselves. This spicy Kerala beef Curry is no exception. Its both a gentle and robust curry at the same time. Kerala dishes are so full of flavour, richness and complexity.
The meat is delicate and tender and pulls apart with your fork. And those lightly fried crunchy curry leaves on top are so addictive, I always make extra, piling on a ridiculous amount. This is a curry for Summer, Winter and in between. Its the perfect beef curry.
More Curry Recipes:
- Slow Cooker Mango Chicken Curry
- 15 Minute Yellow Thai Fish Curry
- Easy Apricot Chicken Curry
- Thai Pineapple Chicken Curry
- 30 minute Kerala Fish Curry
Kerala Beef Curry
Ingredients
- 1 kg 2 pounds Beef, - chopped into 1 inch pieces (chuck steak, skirt steak, shin, brisket)
- 2 medium Red Onions - sliced finely
- 1 can 400 g Diced Tomatoes (or 2 very ripe fresh chopped tomatoes)
- 3 Long Green chillies, - chopped
- 2 sprigs Curry leaves
- 2 tablespoons Vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon Sea salt
- 1 cup water
Spice Mix Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons Grated Ginger
- 2 tablespoons Crushed Garlic
- 2 tablespoons Coriander Powder
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala Powder
- 1 teaspoon Black pepper
- 1 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder
- ½ teaspoon Sea salt
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
To Serve
- 2 cups Cooked Jasmine Rice
- 4 springs Curry Leaves (lightly fried)
Instructions
Slow Cooker Instructions
- Prepare: Heat a pan on medium high heat. Add oil and once hot, add the onions. Cook until they just start to become soft. Next, add the tomatoes and stir through, cooking for 1 minute. Finally add the spice mix ingredients and green chilies, stirring through, cooking for another minute.
- Cook: Transfer mixture to slow cooker, along with beef, curry leaves (still on stem) and water. Cook on LOW in Slow Cooker for 8 hours. Once finished cooking, remove curry leaves from pot.
- Serve: Divide curry and rice equally among 4 bowls, sprinkle the curry leaves on top.
Pressure Cooker Instructions
- Prepare: Set the Pressure Cooker to “Sear on High” and set timer for 10 minutes. Add oil to inner pot of pressure cooker. Once hot, add the onions and cook until they just become soft. Add the canned tomatoes and stir through. Then add the spice mix ingredients, stirring through for a minute, or until fragrant.
- Cook: Add the beef, curry leaves and ¾ cup water to the pressure cooker. Select the menu by pressing the PRESSURE COOK button. Select the “MEAT/POULRTY” setting and adjust the cooking time to 40 minutes. Press start to commence the cooking process. (make sure pressure valve is set to “Seal”). Once timer has gone off, release pressure valve so steam can escape. Remove the lid, being careful of any steam.
- Serve: Divide curry and rice equally among 4 bowls, sprinkle the curry leaves on top.
Optional
- For thicker Curry Sauce: Make a cornflour slurry with 1 tablespoon of cornflour and 2 tablespoons of tap water mixed together in a small dish. Pour into the curry whilst its still in the slow cooker and hot, stir through to thicken
- Curry Leaves: Heat a small pan on high heat with ½ tablespoon of oil (any will do). Remove curry leaves from the stems and add to pan once heated. Stir them around in the pan – they will sizzle and crackle a bit and will only take a minute or two to cook. Once they’ve become crisp and turned a darker shade of green, remove from pan.
Notes
- Meat: I used Beef Shin for this recipe. I bought Steaks and chopped it into 1 inch pieces. Stew meat is best for slow cooking and chuck steak, beef roast, skirt steak, shin, brisket could also be used. Just be sure to trim off excess fat from the meat .
- Tomatoes: Canned tomatoes work great in this recipe, however you could also use two large ripe tomatoes finely chopped.
- Curry Leaves: Curry leaves are aromatic leaves commonly used in South Asian cuisine, adding a unique flavor and fragrance to dishes. You can find them in the fresh produce section or the aisle dedicated to spices and herbs. If fresh curry leaves are not accessible, some stores also carry dried curry leaves, which can be a reasonable substitute, though the flavor may differ slightly.
- Green Chilies: Make sure to buy the long green chilies as they are not overly hot. The smaller green chilles are VERY hot and not suitable for this curry.
- Spices: All the spices in this recipe are from your local supermarket.
- Spice Level: This is a medium curry, so it has a bit of heat in it. To make it less spicy, remove the seeds from the green chilies, and halve the amount of black pepper and chili powder
- Storage: This curry freezes well. Portion out into serving sized containers with a lid, label and date the containers and they’ll keep in the freezer for 3 months.
- Defrosting: Defrost in microwave on defrost setting, or alternatively, put container in fridge overnight to thaw, then reheat on stove/microwave.
- Cornflour Note: If using cornflour and refrigerating leftovers, when you reheat, the curry may appear a bit gelatinous, but once its heated that will disappear and you’ll be left with delicious thick rich curry.
- Nutritional information includes the curry + half a cup of rice for 4 people.
Nutrition
Note: Sugars contained in this recipe are from naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables or other natural sweeteners. Calories have been calculated for your convenience using My Fitness Pal and are based on the ingredients listed in the recipe card.
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