Slow cooker pork vindaloo
Pork shoulder marinated in a tangy, fiery spice paste and slow cooked into the rich red curry from Goa, over basmati rice.
- 540 min total
- 30 min hands-on
- Follow-a-recipe easy
- Serves 6
- About $1.64 a serving
- 600 calories
- Good the next day
- Gluten-free
- Dairy-free
Dolly says: Make the full amount. It’s just as good for lunch the next day.
Ingredients
For 6 servings.
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 2 lb pork shoulder, cut into 1½-inch cubes
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1½ cups basmati rice
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped (optional)
From your pantry
- ¼ cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp paprika
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2¾ cups water, divided
Each serving has about 600 calories, 31 g protein, 47 g carbs and 31 g fat, and costs about $1.64 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No basmati rice? Jasmine rice or long-grain white rice works.
- No cilantro? Fresh parsley works.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
Stir the vinegar, garlic, ginger, paprika, cayenne, cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, garam masala, brown sugar and salt into a paste in a large bowl.
Dolly’s tip: Vindaloo is meant to be hot. For a milder pot, use ¼ tsp cayenne; you can stir in more at the end.Add the pork, to coat, then cover and in the fridge at least 1 hour, or overnight.
Toss. Tossing means gently lifting and turning food so everything gets coated, like pasta in sauce or vegetables in oil. It coats every piece evenly without mashing anything.
How you’ll know: Every piece looks glossy or evenly coated, with no dry spots hiding underneath.
Marinate. Marinating means letting food sit in a flavorful liquid, called a marinade, before you cook it. Always marinate in the fridge, and never reuse marinade from raw meat unless you boil it first.
How you’ll know: The food is coated all over, sealed in a bag or covered dish, and chilling in the fridge.
Timer: 60 min
Heat the oil in a large over medium and cook the onions 10 minutes, stirring, until soft and .
Skillet. A skillet is a frying pan: wide and flat with low, sloped sides. The shape lets steam escape, so food browns instead of stewing.
How you’ll know: It’s the pan you’d fry an egg in, and a 10 or 12 inch one handles most recipes.
Golden brown. Golden brown is the color of good toast, somewhere between yellow and light brown. It means the outside is cooked and crisp but not burnt.
How you’ll know: It looks like toast and smells toasty; dark brown with a bitter smell means it went too far.
Medium heatTimer: 10 min
Stir in the tomato paste for 1 minute, then pour in ½ cup of the water and .
Scrape up the browned bits. It means loosening the brown bits stuck to the pan with a wooden spoon, usually right after adding liquid. Those bits are concentrated flavor, and they melt into the sauce.
How you’ll know: The bottom of the pan looks clean again, and the liquid turns darker and richer.
Medium heat
Scrape the onions into the slow cooker, add the pork and all of its marinade, and stir.
Dolly’s tip: Rinse the marinade bowl with a splash of water and add that too, so none of the spice paste goes to waste.Cover and cook on low 6 to 7 hours, until the pork is .
Fork-tender. Fork-tender means cooked until a fork slides in with almost no push. It’s how you know potatoes, carrots or slow-cooked meat are soft all the way through.
How you’ll know: The fork slides in and out easily, and meat pulls apart with very little effort.
Timer: 360 min
Food safety: Steak, pork chops and other whole cuts are safe at 145°F in the middle, then let them rest for 3 minutes before cutting.
About 30 minutes before serving, the rice and bring it with the rest of the water in a .
Rinse. Rinsing means running cold water over rice or canned beans in a strainer while you swish them around. It washes off loose starch and can liquid, so rice cooks up fluffy and beans taste clean.
How you’ll know: The water running out goes from cloudy to mostly clear; it doesn’t have to be perfect.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
Saucepan. A saucepan is a pot with tall, straight sides and one long handle. It’s for things that need depth, like rice, sauces or a few boiled eggs.
How you’ll know: The food fills it about halfway, leaving room to bubble without spilling over.
High heat
Cover, turn the heat to low, and cook 15 minutes.
Low heatTimer: 15 min
Taste the sauce, add salt if it needs it, and serve the vindaloo over the rice with cilantro on top.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
