This delicious lamb and sweet potato curry is so easy to prepare.
Lamb and sweet potato curry is the perfect weeknight meal as it can be prepared in one pot and only takes about an hour to cook. You can use diced leg of lamb or go more traditional and ask you butcher for small pieces of lamb shoulder cut small on the bone. If you don’t mind the small bones, this really adds a lot of flavour but diced lamb leg is a lot easier to eat.
This recipe, or very close to it, will be in my next cookbook ‘The Curry Guy One Pot’ which is available for pre-order on amazon now!
About this lamb and sweet potato curry recipe
I have been preparing lamb and sweet potato curry for many years and it has long been a family favourite. When eaten in India, it is often quite spicy but I have opted for a rather mild version here. You should, however taste it and adjust the spicing to taste. With a dish like this lamb and sweet potato curry, you can add more chilli powder any time during the stewing process.
Just be sure to let the chilli powder simmer for a few minutes to cook out the raw flavour.
How easy is this recipe?
You will love just how straightforward and simple this lamb and sweet potato curry recipe is. It’s all cooked in one pot and most of the work is done in about 10 minutes.
You can literally sit back, watch a bit of telly and let your stove do most of the work.
Can you work ahead?
Yes! As with most curries, you can prepare and cook this lamb and sweet potato curry 2 or 3 days before serving. In fact, as it sits in the fridge, the flavours will develop and your curry will be even better.
So if cooking ahead is more convenient, you can do that. Most curries improve by sitting in the fridge for day or so.
This makes serving curries the perfect choice if you are serving a crowd as all of the cooking can be done long before taking them to the table. Just take your prepared curries out of the fridge and heat them up to serve.
Can lamb and sweet potato curry be frozen?
Short answer yes and it freezes very well for up to 6 months. That said, yoghurt and other dairy don’t freeze as well so when I freeze my lamb and sweet potato curry, I tend to leave the yoghurt out and add it to the hot curry just before serving.
That’s really not necessary though as there isn’t much yoghurt in this lamb and sweet potato curry anyway so feel free to freeze the whole curry or your leftovers.
What do you serve with lamb and sweet potato curry?
This tasty curry goes well with so many things. Rice is an obvious answer and this dish is awesome served with plain Basmati rice, mushroom fried rice, jeera rice and rice pilau.
You might prefer to serve it with naans or chapatis and I have plenty of recipes for you for those here.
If you would like to make your curry meal into a curry feast, why not prepare some homemade poppadoms and chutney and/or samosas which always get the meal off to a great start.
Step by step photos
Get your ingredients together before you start cooking. It’s easier that way.
Heat the ghee or oil in a pot and add the whole spices to infuse and flavour the oil for about a minute.
Add the chopped onion and fry for about 5 minutes to soften. Then stir in the garlic and ginger paste.
Continue frying for a couple of minute to cook out the rawness of the garlic and ginger paste.
Stir in the ground spices and tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
Add the lamb and brown it for a couple of minutes in the hot pot. Then add just enough water to cover.
Simmer the lamb for 20 minutes, uncovered.
Now add the sweet potato chunks and stir them into the sauce.
Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the meat and potatoes are tender to your liking.
When your meat and potatoes are tender, stir in the yoghurt one tablespoon at a time. Then continue simmering to thicken the sauce.
Season with salt to taste and serve with the lime wedges. Garnish with coriander (cilantro).
Enjoy!
Lamb & Sweet Potato Curry
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil or ghee
- 1 x 5cm (2in) cinnamon stick
- 3 black cardamom pods or 6 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
- 10 black peppercorns
- 1 star anise
- 2 Indian bay leaves
- 3 onions, finely chopped
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp garlic and ginger paste
- 200g chopped tomatoes
- 1 leg of lamb, cut into 5cm (2in) chunks (retain the bone if you have it) or small lamb shoulder chunks on the bone
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ground coriander
- 1–2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and
- cut into 21⁄2cm (1in) dice
- 3 tbsp plain natural yoghurt
- 1 tsp garam masala
- Salt, to taste
- 3 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), finely chopped
- Lime wedges, to serve
Instructions
- Heat the oil or ghee in a large saucepan over a medium-high heat. When visibly hot, stir in the cinnamon, cardamom pods, black peppercorns, star anise and bay leaves and temper them in the hot oil, stirring regularly for about a minute.
- Stir in the chopped onion and sprinkle in the salt and fry for about 8 minutes or until lightly browned and soft.
- Stir in the garlic and ginger paste and let it sizzle into the onion mixture for about a minute.
- Now add the diced tomatoes, followed by the lamb chunks. If using leg of lamb and you have the bone, go ahead and throw that in, too.
- Let the meat sizzle for a couple of minutes, moving it around often to brown it all over. Add the ground cumin, ground coriander and chilli powder and then pour in just enough water to cover.
- Bring this to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes and then add the cubed sweet potato. Cover the pan and simmer over a medium heat for about 30 minutes, or until the meat and sweet potato are tender.
- When ready, stir in the yoghurt one tablespoon at a time. Then sprinkle the garam masala over the top and stir it in too.
- Season with salt to taste and garnish with the fresh coriander (cilantro). Serve over rice with the lime wedges, which can be squeezed over the curry to taste.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 433Total Fat: 12gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 28mgSodium: 1067mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 10gSugar: 8gProtein: 10g
Gary Vee
Saturday 13th of May 2023
Do you leave all of the whole spices and bay leaves in when serving?
Dan Toombs
Tuesday 16th of May 2023
That’s up to you, I leave them in but if you have guests that may not like that you can take them out. Thanks Dan
David Gancarz
Friday 2nd of September 2022
Well, I wanted a recipe to use some of my black cardamom pods and came across your recipe for Lamb and Sweet Potato Curry. I had no lamb, no sweet potatoes, no plum tomatoes and no garam masala. What I DID have was several pounds of left-over Cuban Pork, which is a classic of cubed pork shoulder/loin in lots of lime juice, garlic, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper, then roasted until tender. It is a classic Cuban dish. No sweet potatoes, but I did have four slightly ripe plantains that would be a fine stand-in for the sweet potatoes. No garam masala, but some Himalaya brand curry powder. No plum tomatoes, but a 28oz can of San Marzanos. I made the dish with the above substitution and it was delicious. I suppose it is some sort of Caribbean and south Indian mashup.
Dan Toombs
Sunday 4th of September 2022
Sounds like a really good effort at using what you had on hand. Well done! Thanks very much. Dan