This slow cooker beef curry recipe is an easy midweek delicious dinner for the entire family. With chunks of tender beef cooked in warm Indian spices, it's adaptable for weight loss, whether it's a low calorie diet or Keto.
Looking for a delicious and satisfying dinner time meal that won't break the bank or your diet? Then you'll love this easy slow cooker beef curry recipe!
This curry is packed with tender chunks of beef, aromatic spices, and in a rich tomato sauce, cooked to perfection in your slow cooker.
It's low in fat and calories, but high in flavor and protein. Plus, it's cheaper and healthier than ordering a takeaway. You can serve it with rice, naan bread, or your favorite side dish.
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✔️ Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Easy to customize
- Great for batch cooking
- Perfect family comfort food
- Much cheaper than a takeaway
- An easy recipe made with simple ingredients
- The food processor makes it a doddle to make
- Has LOADS of flavour without the need for beef stock
- I think it's one of the BEST beef curry slow cooker recipes!
- This spicy beef curry in the slow cooker requires little babysitting
🛒 Ingredient Notes
Please see the printable full recipe card with exact ingredient quantities, preparation instructions, and nutrition information at the bottom of this post.
Oil - I used Fry Light olive oil spray for low fat beef curry, or you can use any cooking oil to sear the beef
Lean diced beef - with any fat trimmed and diced into small pieces. This is usually chuck steak, or any stew meat, ground beef or leftover shredded beef roast will work
Fresh ginger - grated, or use store-bought ginger paste
Garlic cloves - minced, or roughly chopped if using a food processor to make an easy curry paste for depth of flavour
Spices - ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala and cayenne pepper or swap for tikka curry powder to make beef tikka masala
Chopped tomatoes - I use canned, but you can use 6 fresh tomatoes instead
Tomato puree - this is tomato paste to enhance a rich curry sauce
Water - or beef broth if preferred
Optional Creamy Additions
- Double cream
- Coconut milk
- Greek yogurt
📋 Instructions
1. Start by making a curry paste base by blitzing onions, garlic, and ginger in a food processor until you have a thick pulp and set aside.
2. Add oil to a large skillet, and season and sear the beef over high heat, until browned.
Drain away any remaining oil in the pan if preferred.
3. Add the paste and fry while stirring until most of the moisture has gone.
This should take a couple of minutes.
4. Add the spices and fry for a further 2 minutes over medium heat until everything is dry and coated
5. Place the beef into the slow cooker pot.
Now add the rest of the ingredients: tomatoes, puree, and water, then give it a good stir.
6. Pop the slow cooker lid on and choose one of the following cooking times:
- High heat for 3-4 hours
- Low heat for 6-7 hours
Once cooked, see Variations for ways to make it creamy and extra tasty.
Tip: If you don't have a food processor for the paste part of the cooking process, I recommend grating the onions, garlic, and ginger, or very finely dicing
👩🍳 Substitutions
Depending on your dietary needs, here are a few simple swaps you can make to this crock pot beef curry and still result in a delicious meal:
- Beef - you can swap for chicken, lamb, pork, Quorn pieces for vegetarian, or even make a prawn curry
- Spices - you can use lightly crushed cardamom pods, tikka curry powder, Thai curry paste, green curry paste, massaman curry paste, etc although I recommend reading nutrition labels to ensure gluten free, etc
- Oil spray - swap for coconut oil, or olive oil for more nutrients, and if not concerned about consuming fewer calories
- Canned tomatoes - opt for 6 fresh tomatoes, or use passata
⚖️ Variations
Once you've made this particular curry, here are many different ways you can finish making it for some really good food:
- Coconut beef curry - stir in half a can of light or full fat coconut milk and even add peppers for a Jamaican beef curry
- Beef rendang slow cooker recipe - add chilli, coconut milk, soy sauce, lemongrass, and a cinnamon stick
- Japanese beef curry - mix in some ketchup, fish sauce, and grated apple
- Beef and potato curry - bulk it up with other vegetables, such as diced potatoes and peas
- Creamy beef curry - stir in some plain yogurt or Greek at the end for a delightful creamy taste
- Deluxe - at the end of cooking, an excellent choice for more flavour is to stir in a knob of butter, peanut butter, and lime juice for acidity and a garnish of fresh coriander (cilantro)
- Extra hot - add jalapeno peppers or green chilies
- Kid friendly - stir in mango chutney in this mild beef curry for some sweetness. Try mixing ground meat into a small bowl before shaping it into curry meatballs.
See my slow cooker curry chicken version here.
🔪 Equipment
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- Slow cooker
- Chopping knife
- Chopping board
- frying pan
- food processor
- Measuring spoons
- Measuring jug
- Wooden spoon
❄️ Storage
Storing - we prefer eating this slow cooked beef curry recipe freshly cooked, but it can be stored in an airtight container and refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Freezing - cool to room temperature and again, store in a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months.
Reheating - If you want to eat the next day, defrost in the fridge if required and microwave until piping hot, or on the hob or stove.
💡Pro Tips
- If you don't have a food processor, you could finely chop and mince the veg instead. It won't be as thick as this, but it's still a delicious curried beef recipe!
- Also, you don't need to sear your beef or saute onions if you don't want to. But, I do recommend not skipping this step if you have the time. By frying first, it'll be a more caramelised and better easy beef curry recipe!
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
Rice: using white or brown rice, cook some turmeric rice by cooking with a teaspoon of turmeric. or try cauliflower rice for a low carb option
Indian breads: serve with a great side of naan bread, whether it be garlic naan, cheesy naan, plain, kulcha, Peshwari or keema (meaty). We love trying different naan bread recipes!
Poppadoms: great for dipping into the curry for some crunch alongside an Indian pickle tray with mango chutney, lime pickle, yogurt mint sauce, cucumber raita, etc
Crunchy salad: I love the free salads that usually come with our takeaways. A great one is shredded lettuce, onion, tomatoes, cucumber, and a wedge of lemon
Vegetables: enjoy with a side of steamed or sauteed mixed vegetables.
Potatoes: serve on top of a baked potato, or a side of Bombay potatoes
❓ FAQ
Ideally, this beef curry recipe is best with chuck steak, AKA braising steak that comes from the shoulder. It tends to have a good balance of meat and fat that melts beautifully in a slow cooking beef curry.
But if you can't get hold of any diced beef, then it is equally as delicious as a slow cooker mince curry. In this case, I would look for extra lean mincemeat with 5% or less fat.
Note, I'm yet to try any beef curry recipes in my instant pot, which is classed as a pressure cooker. I do plan on making it again soon in it, which I'd cook it for 30 minutes as I do when cooking my basic slow cooker beef stew.
➕ More Indian Recipes
If you're looking for more healthy recipes like slow cooker curries, you might like to try these next time:
🍽️Pairing
Here are some old and new recipes that go great on the side with a good bhuna!
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📖 Recipe
Slimming Beef Curry - Slow Cooker
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil or Fry Light for low fat
- 700 g beef fat trimmed and diced
- 3 onions roughly chopped for food process or finely sliced
- 20 g fresh ginger roughly chopped or grated
- 4 cloves garlic rougly chopped or minced
- 3 teaspoon ground cumin or tikka curry powder for beef tikka masala
- 3 teaspoon ground coriander
- 2 teaspoon tumeric
- 3 teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper optional
- 400 g chopped tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato puree
- 150 ml water
Optional Keto additions
- 80 g double cream
- 50 g greek yogurt
- 1 tablespoon mango chutney if wanting extra sweetness
Instructions
- In a food processor, blend the onion, garlic, ginger and 3 tablespoon of water until a paste has formed.
- Spray a large frying pan with Fry Light or oil if making a keto curry, then brown off the beef.
- Add the onion paste to the beef and continue frying for another 5 minutes.
- Now add all of the spices and fry for another 2 minutes and transfer to your Slow Cooker.
- Finally, add the tomatoes and tomato puree, then stir well.
- Pop the lid on and cook on Low for 6-7 hours or High for 4 hours until the curried beef is tender.
- Stir in some fresh coriander leaves and perhaps serve with either low fat rice or salad on Slimming World.KETO: if making as a keto curry, then a low carb side such as cauliflower rice.
Disclaimer
*This is an unofficial page and has no affiliation or endorsement from Slimming World. Slimming World's website can be found at https://www.slimmingworld.co.uk/. Any syn values are personal estimates and not verified by Slimming World.
Video
Notes
- If you don't have a food processor, you could finely chop and mince the veg instead. It won't be as thick as this, but it's still a delicious curried beef recipe!
- Also, you don't need to sear your beef or saute onions if you don't want to. But, I do recommend not skipping this step if you have the time. By frying first, it'll be a more caramelised and better easy beef curry recipe!
- For an unofficial Slimming World beef curry, ensure all fat is removed on the beef and use Frylight instead of oil for low fat
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