Meatball Curry - Indian Beef Kofta Recipe [EASY] | Masala Herb (2024)

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

📕 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:

• Balkancuisine
• Middle Easterncuisine
• Central Asiancuisine
• 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 theCrépinette 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.

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