Restaurant-quality beef vindaloo made right in the comfort of your kitchen delivers all the depth, flavor, and kick you expect from your favorite Indian take-out dish. Tender beef is cooked low and slow with a rich blend of spices for a juicy, high-protein, one-skillet curry that pairs beautifully with basmati rice and warm naan.
What Makes This Recipe So Good
Inspired by the classic dish you’d find at your local Indian restaurant in the West, this spicy beef vindaloo is easy enough to make at home, even if you’re new to cooking Indian cuisine.
Beef vindaloo is traditionally packed full of delicious flavors, spices, and a hearty helping of heat, and this recipe is no different. With rich, warm spices like garam masala, cumin, paprika, turmeric, ground mustard, ground ginger, cayenne, and cinnamon, it’s hard to resist going back for another serving.
I won’t lie, this is a pretty hot dish. You can control that a little, though! If you’re sensitive to heat, use caution when adding the cayenne (or omit it altogether if you know it’s not your thing). If you’re not one to shy away from spice, feel free to double the cayenne or even add some red chili peppers for another layer of flavor.
About Beef Vindaloo
Traditionally a Goan recipe, beef vindaloo can be traced back to Portuguese explorers of the early 1400s. The Portuguese would preserve meats in a marinade of vinegar, wine, garlic, and salt, to ensure the meats would keep for their travels.
Fast forward 400 or so years, and you have Goan cooks preparing vindaloo for the British imperialists colonizing India. Beef, pork, and duck vindaloo (or “vindalho”) can even be found in a British-Indian cookbook dating back to 1888.
