Spicy Meat and Lentil Curry with Ground Spice Paste

I made this spicy, thick, curry-like dish using bone-in meat and two types of lentils, and I ground the spice paste. 

The fresh grind from whole coriander seeds, dried red chilies, ginger, and garlic gives this curry its deep orange color and heat.

I used red lentils because they dissolve during cooking and thicken the gravy naturally, while split chickpeas hold their shape and give the dish texture.

Ingredients 

Spice paste (grind all of these):

• 2 tablespoons coriander seeds
• 10 dried red chilies
• 2 tablespoons turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 10 cloves garlic
• 2-inch piece of ginger
• 1 large onion

Whole spices (go into the oil directly):

• 15 black peppercorns
• 1 black cardamom
• 2-inch piece of cinnamon
• 2 bay leaves

Meat:

• 500 grams bone-in meat
• 100 grams oil

Lentils:

• 200 grams split chickpeas
• 100 grams red lentils
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 liter water

How to Cook Spicy Meat and Lentils

Grind the Spice Paste First

Put the coriander seeds, dried red chilies, turmeric, salt, garlic, ginger, and onion into a grinder and blend everything into a smooth paste, because a grainy paste won’t coat the meat. 

We use chilies and turmeric together to give it a deep orange-red color.

Soak the Lentils While You Prep Everything Else

Wash the split chickpeas and red lentils together and leave them submerged in water while you work on the meat. 

When you soak for 20 to 30 minutes, it’ll help the split chickpeas, because they’re the denser of the two (and the slower to cook through), and soaking will give them a head start.

So both types will finish at the same time during the second pressure round.

Cook the Meat

Heat 100 grams of oil (around 7 tablespoons) in the pressure cooker on medium-high heat, because with a paste-based curry and 500 grams of bone-in meat, less fat means the spice paste sticks and burns before the meat gets properly coated. 

Once the oil is hot, add the whole spices: peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, and bay leaves. 

Let them sputter in the oil for about 30 seconds so the fat picks up their aroma, then add the ground spice paste and all the meat together.

Mix everything until every piece of meat is fully coated in the paste, and stir constantly for the first 2 to 3 minutes; this will cook out the raw smell from the garlic and onion. 

If you close the lid while the paste still smells sharp and raw, you’ll notice that in the finished dish. 

Therefore, keep stirring until the spice paste darkens a shade and the aroma shifts from raw to cooked, then close the lid and cook on high until you reach 4 whistles.

Take the cooker off the heat and let the pressure drop naturally before opening.

Check the Meat, Then Add the Lentils

When you open the lid, the meat should be properly coated with thick spiced paste.

To check it, press a piece gently with a spoon. It should give way without much resistance. 

If it still feels firm in the center, close the lid and give it one more whistle.

Drain the soaked lentils and add them to the pot with the meat, then pour in 1 liter of water and the second teaspoon of salt. 

I added salt twice in this recipe because the first teaspoon I used during the initial pressure stage, but when a full liter of water goes in afterward, it dilutes that seasoning. 

That’s why I used a second teaspoon to bring the lentils and the liquid back up to the right level. 

If you skip it, the lentils will lose their taste no matter how well you cook the meat. 

Stir everything together, close the lid, and cook on high for another 4 whistles.

Let the pressure drop naturally again before opening. When you lift the lid, the red lentils will have dissolved into the gravy, and the split chickpeas will be soft. 

The curry thickens on its own from the red lentils, so no extra reduction is needed.

Garnish and Serve

Scatter fresh chopped cilantro over the top and serve hot. 

Besides adding freshness to the dish, cilantro will be the color of the finished curry against the deep orange-yellow gravy.

Variations to Try

• Less spicy: Bring the dried red chilies down to 5 or 6 instead of 10; the color will be slightly lighter, but the full flavor from the coriander, ginger, and garlic will stay. This will work well when cooking for people who don’t like too much heat.
• With potato: Add 2 medium potatoes, cut into large chunks, at the same time as the lentils in the second pressure stage. The potato will absorb the spiced gravy and make the dish more filling without changing the base flavor.
• With chicken: you can use Bone-in chicken instead of red meat, but reduce the first pressure stage to 3 whistles instead of 4, because chicken cooks faster.
• Thicker lentil texture: Shift the ratio to 250 grams split chickpeas and 50 grams red lentils. The gravy will be less smooth, and the chickpea pieces will be more present throughout, which works well if you prefer more bite in the lentils.

What to Serve With This

Flatbread and plain white rice are my favourite choices here, but bread also works well. 

But it has thick gravy, and that’s why it won’t soak through bread immediately and is dense enough with rice so it won’t disappear into the grains. 

On the side, a simple raw salad of sliced onion and tomato with lemon juice and a pinch of salt cuts through the richness of the meat and spiced gravy.

You can have coffee, tea, drinks, smoothies, too, especially the Mango avocado banana recipe. 

And if you enjoy this style of meat cooked with legumes, you’ll like this black gram and buffalo meat recipe.

If you want something similar, but lighter, you can make split pigeon pea and yellow mung lentils with rice.

How to Store Spicy Meat and Lentil Recipe

If you’re using an airtight container, your recipe will last 3 days in the fridge, and next time you’ll have to add 2-3 tablespoons of water when reheating on the gas stove.

I don’t recommend storing it longer than that.  

However, by the second day, its flavor will be better, because the spices will settle more deeply into the meat overnight.

Plus, the sharpness from the raw garlic and chilies in the paste will soften too. 

If you’re making this for guests, cooking it the day before and reheating just before serving will give a better result than eating it straight off the stove.

Questions About This Recipe

The split chickpeas are still firm after cooking

Take a few pieces of split chickpeas and press between your fingers. If they’re fully cooked, they’ll break apart cleanly without pushing back. 

If they are not, then close the lid and give the pot one more whistle, because split chickpeas are the densest lentil and the most sensitive to soaking time. 

If you skip soaking, that’s the biggest cause, so next time soak for at least 30 minutes before cooking. 

But if you have already soaked them and they’re still firm, add water and boil longer. 

There’s oil floating on the surface when I open the lid. Is that normal?

It’s very normal; fat separates from a spice-paste-based curry once cooking stops and rises to the surface, and you’re using 100 grams of oil in this recipe, so you’ll see a visible layer on top. 

Skim off as much as you want before serving. 

However, some keep some in the gravy because it’ll keep the flavor of the whole spices present throughout the dish, so don’t remove it all. 

The spice paste stuck and burned before I could close the lid. How do I stop that?

Two things cause this: first, your oil wasn’t fully hot before you added the paste, so instead of frying, the paste sat in warm oil, dried out, and stuck. 

To fix it, heat the oil until it shimmers and moves easily before adding anything.

Second is that you haven’t stirred enough in the first 2 to 3 minutes after adding the paste and meat. 

Meat releases liquid as it heats, and that moisture stops the paste from catching on the bottom.

So, keep stirring constantly until you see moisture releasing from the pieces, and after that the paste won’t stick.