Slow Cooker Beef Curry

Name: Slow Cooker Beef Curry
Prep time: 5 min
Cook time: 480 min
Total time: 485 min
Ingredients: 1 onion; 40 g broccoli; 50 g mange tout; 60 g baby corn; 200 g butternut squash chunks (I used frozen); 1 tin chopped tomatoes (400 g); 1 tin light coconut milk (400 g); 400 g diced beef; 1 tsp ground coriander; 1.5 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp medium curry powder; 0.5 tsp turmeric; 1 tsp garam masala; 1 red chilli (sliced); 3 spring onions

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Spicy and warming, this slow cooker beef curry bubbles away in the slow cooker, the beef softening and flavours gently developing over the hours.

Packed full of vegetables too, the butternut squash thickens the sauce naturally so there is no need to use a thickening agent like cornflour. After a Spring day with a nip in the air it is lovely to come home to a steaming bowl of this.

In fact any time of the year when you need a curry, this will be perfect!

In this easy slow cooker beef curry I use diced beef, the same as you might use for a beef stew.

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Healthy curry
Ingredients needed
How to serve this curry
How to ensure the sauce is thick naturally
How to make this curry
FAQ
More slow cooker curries
Recipe
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Healthy curry

This beef curry is also suitable for WeightWatchers Smartpoints on the Freestyle program, based on serving 4 people with the ingredients stated it works out at 6 Smartpoints per serving.

Being low in fat and packed with vegetables it will also be suitable for Slimming World.

Ingredients needed

onion
broccoli
mange tout
baby corn
butternut squash chunks
tin chopped tomatoes
tin light coconut milk
diced beef
ground coriander
ground cumin
medium curry powder
turmeric
garam masala
red chilli
spring onions

How to serve this curry

Topped with freshly sliced red chilli and spring onions, you can serve this beef curry either traditionally with basmati rice, or with cauliflower rice or courgette noodles/zoodles if you are looking for a lighter, lower carb option.

Great sides are raita, onion bhajis and naan bread.

This dish is very forgiving so you can leave it cooking on low as long as you need to really. I like to save a portion or two and put it in a lunchbox to take to to work as well, I’m all about the easy lunches.

How to ensure the sauce is thick naturally

If you’re anything like me, you want to cook a dish and then not have to worry about thickening a runny sauce at the end.

I also prefer not to have to use thickening granules or cornflour (cornstarch) to thicken the sauce too, preferring a natural option.

When I make my slow cooker vegetable curry too I use vegetables (sweet potato usually) to ensure a thick sauce.

Now I’m trying to be healthier, I tend to want to use a less starchy vegetable instead, and I found that frozen butternut squash chunks (zero SmartPoints) work just as well!

How to make this curry

If you are busy like me and relying on the slow cooker to get the food prep done earlier in the day before the family is starving hungry then you want something quick to prepare right?

I find that this slow cooker beef curry works just as well if you skip all that frying the onions and spices first to release the flavours.

All I do in that case is brown off the meat and add it to the slow cooker dish with the other ingredients, then leave it to cook.

Could it be easier than that?

If you have extra time and want those flavours to really pop then you can fry the onions and add in the spices for the last minute before following the recipe method given below.

FAQ

Do I need to brown the meat when cooking in a slow cooker?

I always recommend browning off meat before putting it in the slow cooker because I find that if you don’t then you get a lot of fat which is released from the meat during cooking, and which rises to the top of the sauce. This can make the sauce split which does not look very appetising. By browning the meat off in a frying pan first, this seals the fat into the meat and ensures that it keeps its shape too.

Does coconut milk split in a slow cooker?

Coconut milk is not the same as dairy such as milk or cream sauces, which can curdle if added too near the start of cooking in a slow cooker. Normally coconut milk works fine in slow cooker recipes, but if you cook for too long or use light coconut milk there is sometimes the risk of the coconut milk splitting. In this case what has happened is that through heating, the coconut milk splits into thicker curds. These can normally be removed by stirring which emulsifies the milk again. It may be tricky to stir a cooked slow cooker dish so in that case you can use a cornflour paste, which you add to the dish and then cook through. This will bring it back together.

Can I freeze this curry?

Curries freeze well but for curries with coconut milk sauce the results can vary. When frozen the coconut milk can separate, which could result in a grainy curry. The best results will be obtained if the curry is not frozen for long periods of time. Always freeze curry in freezer bags or tubs, to avoid freezer burn, and in the portions that will be useful for you later.

More slow cooker curries

You might also like these other slow cooker curry recipes on my blog:

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