This curry is delightful, really deep spices and so yummy. We’d been thinking about making a keema curry for a while and when we found this one in Dan Toombs’ ‘The Curry Guy’ recipe book, we just had to try it! Is delicious served with a good naan bread or rice.

This recipe serves 2-3 people (2 if you are serving with only a small amount of rice or naan, or 3 if you are serving with rice and other sides). It takes around 45 minutes to conjure up this delish curry,

It looks like a lot of ingredients below, but once you start to buy Indian spices you will build up a good store cupboard of these ingredients. The method below also shows a recipe for a basic curry sauce which is a component part of this dish.

Main Ingredients

• 1 onion (any colour) thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped/ minced garlic
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped/ minced ginger
• 1/ 2 de-seeded red chillies finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp pach poran (Indian Five Spice) – equal parts of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, brown mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, all ground up with a pestle and mortar. (the traditional fifth spice is nigella seed but we haven’t been able to find them so don’t use them in our spice blend)
• 500g lamb mince
• 2 large vine tomatoes chopped small
• 150g baby spinach shredded
• Salt
• 1tsp garam masala to serve
• Up to 1 cup of ‘base curry sauce’ ingredients for which are shown below…

Base Curry Sauce: Ingredients and Method

Here’s the ingredient list and method for a component part of this yummy curry – a good hearty base curry sauce which will be added to the keema curry near the final stages of cooking. It’s pretty simple and quick to make and really adds to the flavour overall!

Ingredients (curry sauce)

• 1/2 brown onion finely chopped
• 1/4 red pepper (you can also use the jarred ones, we have done this before!)
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• 1-2cm cube of ginger finely chopped
• 1 small vine tomato diced
• 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. paprika
• A pinch of tumeric
• pinch of ground fenugreek seeds
• 100ml of water for thinning

Method (curry sauce)

1. Heat veggie/ rapeseed oil over medium heat and fry off the onions and pepper for around 5 min until onion goes soft
2. Then add all the remaining ingredients except the water and stir well – cook for 1 min (make sure the spices don’t stick, if they start to stick just add a splash of water)
3. Then add around 50ml of water, and allow the mixture to cook for 5-10minutes until the veggies are soft
4. Once soft, add another 50ml of water and blend the mixture until smooth
5. If you think the sauce is too thick, feel free to add a little more water
6. Now your read to use this later on in your keema dish later! Also a quick tip: you can use this curry sauce recipe as a base for lots of curries such as tikka masala!

Main Method

Now time for the main event! Here’s the recipe for our beaut keema curry!

1. Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat and add a flavourless oil such as vegetable oil/ rapeseed oil
2. Once the pan is hot add the panch poran spices, which have already been ground together, and heat this for around 30 seconds
3. Add the onions and fry for around 5 mins until translucent and soft
4. Then add the garlic and ginger along with the chopped up chillies, fry for a further minute
5. Then add the curry powder, followed by the lamb. Brown off the meat for a few minutes, then add in the chopped tomatoes and cook until they go nice and soft.
6. Add in spinach and allow it to wilt
7. Then add the curry sauce, as much as you want depending how saucy you want the curry to be
8. Let it bubble away until it’s at the consistency you want.
9. Taste and season with a generous helping of salt
10. Serve with a good pinch of garam masala over the top, along with rice or naans, and whichever other sides you’d like!