Who can resist a flavorful meatball curry?
Especially if the bright orange coconut curry has been enriched with aromatic spices and juicy beef meatballs.
A classic Asian Indian beef meatball (aka kofta) recipe for all those who love meatballs and spicy sauces! YUM
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📕 What are Koftas?
Koftas are meatballs prepared with meats such as Beef, Lamb, Pork or Chicken minced meat.
Kofta meatballs are part of various food cultures in the world.
You will find Koftas in the:
- Balkan cuisine
- Middle Eastern cuisine
- Central Asian cuisine
- South Asian cuisine
Therefore, you will learn that koftas exist in various ways and versions.
Most kofta meatballs are richly spices and include ingredients such as garlic or even ginger.
Some are treated like a kebab, other koftas are enriched by a spiced thick sauce, a curry.
🔪 How to make Meatball Curry?
The meatball curry recipe is straightforward and simple, combine all the meatball ingredients and then prepare the curry step by step.
You can prepare your own mince meat with a mince maker.
I talk about preparing meat mince from scratch in the Crépinette recipe.
This meatball curry was perfected by my sister in law who was so kind to let me share it with the world.
She had tried the old way by frying the meatballs first, however, the meatballs would end up a bit dry.
So, she developed a recipe, where the meatballs would literally get poached in the spiced curry so that the beef meatballs retain the shape + remain perfectly moist.
Another important point is the meat quality!
The quality of the beef cut makes a difference.
Ask your local butcher what he recommends.
TIP: Mixing Beef and Pork double ground minced meat, 50/50 results in soft, juicy and better-shaped meatballs.
To prepare the one-pot, meatball curry will take you about 3o minutes altogether.
10 minutes to prepare the meatballs and 20 minutes cook time altogether.
The Beef Kofta Curry makes a great lunch meal or I also enjoy it a lot as a weeknight dinner.
Remember, you can keep leftovers in the fridge, and when reheating, the flavors will be more intense, as it is with all good curries in this world.
🧰 Tools that I use to make this one pot kofta cury:
I really love my shallow Asian pans.
Those pans resemble a Wok but are smaller in size and therefore easier to work with and to store when not in use.
This includes pans such as the Balti dish or the Indian Kadhai pan.
A hard anodized kadhai pan such as this one from Futura works best for this particular meatball curry.
You can always pick a PFOA free non stick pan or a stainless steel kadhai.
Another option are those amazing le Creuset Balti pans.
Those come in different colors too and are going to last you forever.
A Balti dish can cook the curry evenly on all sides, and not just curry dishes.
You can use this pan even for western food preparations!
As a stirring and mixing spoon, use a bamboo wooden spatula such as this one from Helene Chen.
Those spatulas are the best cooking spatulas ever!
You must have noticed in my recipe video that I use these all the time.
The Bamboo spatulas are inexpensive, lightweight, easy to clean and don't scratch the pots (which is super important if you like to use PFOA-free nonstick pans)
How to serve the meatball Curry?
- Some flatbread such as Chapati or Nan
- over plain cooked rice
- Bread rolls
- Stuffed Okra
- Crispy Bitter Melon Stir fry (healthy!)
Dear Reader, would you like to see more meatball recipes?
📖 Recipe
Meatball Curry - Indian Beef Kofta Recipe
Ingredients
For the Meatballs:
- 10.6 ounces Ground Beef
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- ½ Teaspoon Turmeric Ground aka Curcuma
- 1 Teaspoon Ginger + Garlic
- ½ Teaspoon White Wine Vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Bread Crumbs
- ½ Egg
For the Curry:
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 1 Green Chili Pepper fresh
- 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
- 8 Curry leaves or dried Curry leaves
- 1 Teaspoon Brown Mustard Seeds dark variety
- ½ Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper Ground
- 1 Tablespoon Ginger + Garlic
- ½ Teaspoon Turmeric Ground aka Curcuma
- 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds Ground
- 3 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce
- 2 cups Coconut milk
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- Cilantro Fresh aka fresh Coriander, optional
Instructions
- For the Meatballs, combine all meatball ingredients listed. Use only ½ of an egg because otherwise the texture of the mass turns very wet and that amount is more than enough to make it stick together. Mix the whole content to a smooth mass. Keep aside and let rest until you get to the poaching of the meatballs.
- Next, slice your clean onion and dice your tomato, slice your fresh green chili lengthwise. Heat up the olive oil in a pan and temper/stir fry the mustard seeds and fresh curry leafs until you smell the aroma of the 2 ingredients. Careful, the mustard seeds will pop and jump! Continue to add in the onion and stir fry until soft and translucent.
- Then add the diced Tomatoes and stir fry for another 2 minutes until soft, then add the fresh green chili, red chili powder, ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, coriander powder and cumin powder. Stir fry for a minute, and then add the tomato paste and coconut milk. Season with Salt and Pepper. Mix and let simmer covered for 5-7 minutes. stir frequently and make sure the curry doesn't over cook as too much heating might cause curdling of the coconut milk
- The Curry will have changed into a gorgeous bright orange. Now form your meatballs by pressing and turning them into round balls and place them into the curry. Let cook for 2 minutes and turn the meatballs in the curry so that they get equally cooked. Cover with a lid and simmer for another 3 minutes before removing the curry from the heat.
- Serve hot and garnish with freshly chopped Coriander (which I left out this time on the pictures).
Notes
2. Please only use A-grade meat quality
3. You may skip the curry leaves, but keep in mind the curry leaves give the curry the extra amazing flavors.
4. For the Curry, you can also use the basic ready-made freezer friendly paste (recipe here). This will shorten your prep and cooking time all the more.
I love this recipe! Made it a couple of times and shared it many a times! Love the taste and colour, thank you!
That makes me happy! Thank you for taking the time to share this. 🙂
Brilliant, often make curries, but this was soo lovely, didn’t have curry leaves so substituted 1 tsp curry powder, will make this again and again.
Thanks for your feedback! Glad to hear that you enjoyed the curry as much as we do.
Hi helen want tp know wat is substitute gr worcestershire saice. I hv all the other ingred. Im gng to try today. Plz reply
Hi Nisha,
The Worcestershire sauce adds flavor so you could skip it but I think the meatballs taste boring without it. As a substitute, you can try to mix tamarind paste with a few drops of vinegar and soy sauce (more tamarind then the other ingredients to keep it on the thicker side). Looking forward to your taste experience feedback! 🙂
I love curries and I love meatballs but I have never had a meatball curry! This has got to change ASAP! Sounds fabulous!
Thnk you Amy, I think you will fall in love with this curry if you like curries and meatballs 😀
Love spicy curries -- this sauce looks divine!
This looks so wonderful. The meatballs have so much flavor added to them. Perfect! I am going to try to make this,
wow this looks amazing and your ginger garlic paste sounds wonderful too. I have to make this, I love curry
My mum makes a fantastic kofte curry but hers is North Indian style of curry base, I have never tried the Goan version, so am bookmarking this to try soon!
I would totally love to dig into this curry dish. So much flavor.
Words fail me! This is the best kofta I've had.
Excellent recipe!
Hi Donna, thank you for your feedback. Happy to read that you enjoy the meatball curry as much as I do. 🙂
I love kofta curry. Your steps are so good. It's one of the best curries ever. Your steps are awesome.
We do not eat beef so its going to be with lamb for me. I could eat spoonfuls of that delicious curry 😀
Helene, my dear this meatball curry makes me feel as if I am sitting in a Goanese home and eating heavenly home-style curry! I loved the combo of tomato and coconut milk. Cleanliness is very important. Also, I like the fact that u have used very little egg and blended the mince. 🙂
This looks yummy! I want some!!! Thanks for sharing! - http://www.domesticgeekgirl.com
Yum - I can only imagine how good this tasted - with all those spices in the curry and in the meatballs - this is sure to be intoxicating!
I do a lot of Indian cooking, but have never tried a goan curry before. I will definitely be giving this a go. Thank you!
What a delicious flavor packed meal! Love everything you put in here...yum!
Would love a of bowl of this with a side of flatbread! I've never had nor seen a meatball curry so I'm finding this to be quite creative as well as super tasty. Great recipe!
I love Kofta. I haven't had any in a couple of years (since I've had to be gluten free)
I am saving this recipe and making some, for sure!
Thanks
I love Goan curries--and I love meatball curries! So clearly I am making this!
you can just see the flavor in that curry and the meatballs. It looks comforting and hearty
I love curry soup, and I love this recipe...so homey and soothing.
OMG, I have everything I need to make this, it's a sign, it's a sign! I'm pulling out the beef mince from the freezer the minute I hit SUBMIT! 🙂
This is definitely a dish for the type of cold, snowy weather we are experiencing right now in Toronto. I do enjoy a good curry and your description sounds absolutely wonderful. The combination of spices must make the house smell incredible. I can't wait to try this one!
I love meatball curries like this...just hand me a roti or naan!
The curry gravy sounds so good!
Loved the spicy curry...I also prepare a similar sort but with lamb...This looks delicious:)
Meatball curry? I had to say that twice to curb my excitement. What a brilliant idea. I often make my own mince but not often enough. Just thinking about cleaning the grinder encourages me to head to the butcher. I'm going to make these meatballs!
I love the look of your meatballs and this is a curry that clearly has so much flavour. I'm picky about mince as well; I go to a butcher who minces it in front of me so I see exactly what goes into it xx
Your curry is beckoning with that delicious flavour, Without the meatballs I would be dipping my naan all over the gravy 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I love goat! Used to have it often when we lived in Texas, but in most parts of the US you need to search for it (although any Mexican market has it). Really good meatballs -- lotta flavor in these. Thanks!