13 Curry Recipes From Around the World

A good curry is not one thing. It is a Japanese potato curry built on a roux, a Thai curry built on a paste, and an Indian one built on a spice blend you mix yourself, and none of them taste anything like each other.

Here are 13 curries from the blog, roughly mild to hot: start at the Japanese end if you are cooking for kids, or go straight for the Jamaican lamb curry and its whole Scotch bonnet if you are not. Smacznego!

1. Japanese Potato Curry

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My Japanese potato curry came about on an evening my partner wanted to cook it and there was no beef in the house, so we leaned into potatoes instead and it has been on my table ever since. If you have only ever had Indian or Thai curry this is a different thing altogether: thick, glossy and mild, thickened with a flour and oil roux rather than fired up with chilli. The potato you buy matters more here than almost anything else in the pot, which I go into properly in the recipe. Get the recipe →

2. Japanese Katsu Curry

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Katsu curry is one of the few things my whole household actually asks for, and I cook it at work too, where the kids get through it faster than almost anything else I put in front of them. The sauce is built from scratch with curry powder, garam masala and a spoon of flour rather than a shop-bought roux block, and it simmers with potato, carrot and peas left in chunks rather than blended smooth. The cutlet is chicken breast, breaded in panko and fried separately, then sliced over the rice at the last minute so it stays crisp. Get the recipe →

3. Thai Yellow Chicken Curry

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A Thai friend of mine, a proper cook, first taught me this one, and I have made it my own way since. It is a mild, creamy curry built on chicken thighs, potato and carrot, gentle enough for the whole family, and I serve it with jasmine rice pressed into balls rather than spooned on. For the first half hour it looks like soup rather than curry, and that is exactly how it should look. Get the recipe →

4. Thai Style Fish & Prawn Curry

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This one came from a Thai friend, and the unusual part is that the white fish goes into the blender with the coconut milk rather than into the pan whole. It sounds wrong the first time you hear it, but it gives the sauce real body and a savoury backbone you cannot get by poaching fillets, while whole prawns go in near the end for something to bite on. Any firm white fish works, so cod, haddock or coley all do the job just as well as anything pricier. Get the recipe →

5. Thai Chicken Massaman Curry

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My chicken massaman is the mildest of the Thai curries I make, sweet and warm rather than hot, with new potatoes and carrot soaking up a coconut sauce spiced with cardamom and cinnamon. A Thai friend showed me how, and I switched her chicken breast for thighs, which stay juicier over the forty minutes it needs. The one thing I would never leave out is the peanut butter stirred through at the end, which is what gives massaman its body. Get the recipe →

6. Mango Butter Chicken (Murg Makhani)

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My mango butter chicken takes its cue from the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi, where butter chicken is said to have started, with mango chutney stirred into the sauce at the end for a fruity sweetness that sits against the spice rather than sugaring it. I make the makhani masala myself from five spices rather than opening a jar, and the chicken sits in a yoghurt marinade before it goes into the pan in batches, which is what keeps it tender in the sauce. Get the recipe →

7. Beef Madras

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I cook a lot of curry alongside the Sri Lankan and Thai chefs I work with, and while a proper Madras is meant to hit hard, I keep mine a touch lighter so the spices sing rather than shout. You mix your own Madras blend from things already in the cupboard, then marinate the beef and slow-cook it until the sauce is rich and the meat falls apart. Serve it with rice, naan or a crisp papadam. Get the recipe →

8. Chickpea and Sweet Potato Madras Curry

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This is the curry I make when there is no meat in the house and I still want something that eats like a proper dinner. The sweet potato is roasted on a tray before it ever meets the sauce, which is not how most versions do it and is exactly why this one tastes different, and there is no tomato in it either, just coconut milk and stock, so it comes out golden rather than red. The card carries a Madras curry powder of my own too, eight ground spices stirred together in a bowl. Get the recipe →

9. Vegetable Balti Curry with Potatoes

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My vegetable balti proves a meat-free curry can be every bit as satisfying as one with meat in it, full of tender potatoes in an aromatic homemade balti sauce. The gravy underneath it is a versatile base I use for other Indian dishes too, so it earns its place in the kitchen twice over. Ready in about 40 minutes, and a good one for a first go at cooking Indian food at home. Get the recipe →

10. Sri Lankan Palak Dal (Spinach Dhal)

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A fellow Sri Lankan chef, Akhil, first showed me the traditional recipe, and I have added my own twist with roasted sweet potato and red pepper for a little natural sweetness. Red lentils and spinach cook down in a creamy, spiced coconut sauce, and the lentils break down and thicken the dhal on their own, so you get a rich, hearty texture without much effort. Good with rice or flatbread. Get the recipe →

11. Chana Dal

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My chana dal is split chickpeas simmered in a spiced stock with roasted sweet potato and peppers folded through at the end. It costs very little, feeds four properly, and keeps some bite rather than collapsing into a puree, which is where most recipes go wrong with it. The spicing is my own blend, and cooking it in stock rather than water is where most of the depth comes from. Get the recipe →

12. Easy Paneer Korma

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My paneer korma is nut-free, which most kormas are not: no cashew or almond paste and no cream or yoghurt, just coconut milk carrying roasted paneer and vegetables in a mild, fragrant sauce. Both the spice blend and the garam masala are made from scratch, and the sauce underneath is versatile enough to use with chicken, lamb or beef if paneer is not for you. It works as a dipping sauce for naan too. Get the recipe →

13. Jamaican Lamb Curry (Slow Cooker)

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Boneless leg of lamb, marinated in a Jamaican curry powder I mix from scratch, then six hours in the slow cooker with coconut milk, new potatoes, carrot and okra until it falls apart into a whole dinner rather than something that needs sides. Six whole spices go into a dry pan first and get toasted before grinding, and allspice is the one that makes it taste Jamaican rather than Indian. One whole Scotch bonnet goes in unbroken for its perfume rather than its fire, so you decide how far to push the heat. Get the recipe →

FAQ

Which of these curries is the mildest to start with?

If you are new to curry, or cooking for children, start with the Japanese potato curry or the Thai massaman. Both are built to be gentle: the Japanese one is thickened with a flour roux and carries no chilli heat at all, and the massaman is the mildest of the Thai curries, sweet and warm from cinnamon and cardamom rather than hot.

Which curries here have no meat in them?

Four are meat-free: chickpea and sweet potato madras, chana dal, vegetable balti curry, and paneer korma. All four are built as proper curries in their own right rather than a meat curry with the meat left out, so nothing about the method changes.

What is the difference between curry powder and curry paste?

Curry powder is a dry blend of ground spices, the base for the Indian-style curries here, including the beef madras and the Jamaican lamb curry, both of which use a powder I mix myself. Curry paste is a wet blend, usually chillies, lemongrass, garlic and other aromatics blended together, and it is what the Thai curries on this list are built on.

Which curry are you making tonight?

Wherever you land on the heat scale, every one of these is built from scratch, no jar of paste required unless you want one. Smacznego!