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Authentic Goan Pork Vindaloo

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This is authentic Goan pork vindaloo just like you find in Goa!

If you like a good Goan pork vindaloo curry, you’ve come to the right place. This is a recipe I learned while researching for one of my books in Goa. The recipe tastes just like those you find at the best Goan restaurants.

This Goan pork vindaloo is delicious served with plain or flavoured Basmati rice, homemade naans or chapatis, a good chutney or two and don’t forget those samosas and dal!

Goan pork vindaloo curry

An authentic Goan pork vindaloo curry like this simply has to be tried.

About this pork vindaloo recipe

I’ve been lucky to have met and learned from so many talented chefs over the years. It’s been a dream come true for me. To be able to learn such amazing recipes like this vindaloo recipe has has made food blogging and writing my books more fun. 

I learned this pork vindaloo recipe while traveling through Goa. There I was able to work my way into a few kitchens and watched the chefs prepare vindaloo curries just like this from scratch. This is the real deal. The only negative is that your Goan pork vindaloo will be just as good if not better than you find in Goa!

Being able to recreate a famous curry like this at home tends to make trying it there not nearly as amazing.

Is this Goan pork vindaloo like those you find at British curry houses?

No! This is a completely different curry. It’s spicy but nothing like the mouth explosion you might expect at a curry house.

The reason for this is simple. British curry house chefs knew that pork vindaloo was spicy so they recreated a dish that was super hot and called it vindaloo. As most Indian restaurants are muslim owned, other proteins were substituted for the pork. 

With this recipe, you will love all the different flavours of the spices. There are a lot of them and no spice overpowers the others. It’s like a beautiful medley of spice that is very difficult to beat.

What is the history of Goan pork vindaloo?

Goa was the birthplace of pork vindaloo curry. In the 15th century, the Portuguese controlled what is now Goa and brought with them their Portuguese recipes and ingredients from the new world – the Americas. 

 The name vindaloo is believed to have come from the Portuguese dish carne de vinho e albos or meat with wine and garlic. The Goans couldn’t pronounce vinho e albos and ended up calling it vindaloo. The name stuck.

One thing the Goans changed when making vinho e albos or vindaloo was that they added a lot of chillies. They loved spicy chillies which had only recently made their way to the Indian subcontinent via the Portuguese.

Don’t vindaloo curries have potatoes in them?

Yes and no. Curry house style vindaloos often have potatoes added to the sauce. This is due to a misunderstanding of the name vindaloo.

In Hindi and Urdu, ‘aloo’ means potato. So the early curry house chefs thought that the ‘aloo’ part of ‘vindaloo’ surely meant ‘potato’. So they are now often added to curry house style vindaloo curries.

Working ahead.

Like many curries, Goan pork vindaloo is a great recipe if you want to work ahead. You can prepare the vindaloo spice blend a few days ahead of cooking the curry if more convenient.

For that matter, you could also cook the whole curry a few days ahead of serving. Just like most curries, Goan pork vindaloo actually gets better as it sits in the fridge. The flavours develop and turn great into amazing.

How long can you keep this curry in the fridge?

Of course this will be down to the freshness of the meat and other ingredients you use but generally, you should be able to store this in the fridge for at least three day.

Can you freeze Goan pork vindaloo?

You sure can! You can freeze this vindaloo in an air-tight container or freezer bag for up to 6 months.

How do you reheat pork vindaloo?

You can heat it up in a large pan or wok over a medium high heat. If it’s more convenient, you could also just heat it up in the microwave.

Looking for a second curry to make your pork vindaloo into a feast? Try this chicken coconut curry It goes so well with a vindaloo.

Step by step photographs.

 

Roasting spices

Roast your spices until warm to the touch and fragrant.

Ground spices

Grind roasted spices to a powder.

vindaloo curry paste

Blend the spices with the other marinade ingredients to make the vindaloo paste.

meat marinating.

Marinating the meat. This can be done for as little as 30 minutes but longer is better.

frying garlic slivers

Fry your garlic in oil.

Toasted garlic slivers

The fried garlic should look about like this. You can use some in the curry and a little as a garnish,

Frying mustard seeds and curry leaves

Now infuse the mustard seeds and curry leaves in the oil.

The base vindaloo sauce

Add the chopped onion and fry until soft and translucent. Then add the tomatoes and some chilli powder.

simmering vindaloo

Cover with water and simmer for about an hour or until the pork is nice and tender.

vindaloo sauce

Taste and adjust. I ended up adding a good generous tablespoon more chilli powder.

 

Yield: 4 - 6

Authentic Goan Pork Vindaloo Curry

Goan pork vindaloo curry

For best results, allow the pork to soak up the marinade for 48 hours.

Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 2 hours
Total Time 2 hours 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 800g pork leg cut into bit sized pieces
  • 2 - 3 tablespoons ghee, coconut or rapeseed (canola) oil
  • 1 head of garlic – cloves cut into slivers
  • 1 teaspoon brown or black mustard seeds
  • 10 fresh curry leaves
  • 2 onions – finely chopped
  • 3 tomatoes – finely chopped (about 400g)
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder (more or less to taste)
  • 2 Indian bay leaves (optional)
  • Juice of one lime or more vinegar to taste
  • FOR THE VINDAlOO MARINADE
  • 3 dried red chillies
  • 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon black cardamom seeds
  • 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
  • 5 cloves
  • 1 inch cassia bark stick
  • 10 black peppercorns
  • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
  • 4 green chillies – finely chopped
  • 75ml red wine vinegar (plus more if needed)
  • 2 tablespoons soft brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or another two tablespoon of vinegar)
  • 2 tbsp garlic and ginger paste

Instructions

  1. Start with the marinade.
  2. Place all the spices except the turmeric in a dry frying pan over medium heat and roast until they become fragrant and warm to the touch but are not yet smoking.
  3. Transfer to a plate to cool slightly and then pour the spices in a food processor with the turmeric and blend to a fine powder. You could also use a pestle and mortar but that's a lot more work.
  4. Add the chillies, vinegar, tamarind paste, brown sugar, garlic and ginger and blend to a smooth vindaloo paste.
  5. Put the pork in a large bowl with the marinade and stir well to combine.
  6. Leave the pork to marinate for eight to 48 hours. The longer the better. No time for that? No worries. Marinate as long as you can. It will still be delicious.
  7. To finish
  8. When ready to cook, heat the ghee or oil in a saucepan, large frying pan or wok over low heat.
  9. Add the garlic slivers and allow to cook gently for about 10 minutes. It is important not to burn the garlic so watch carefully. The garlic should be soft and only lightly browned as photographed above.
  10. Remove the garlic from the saucepan and set aside.
  11. Using the same ghee/oil, heat you pan over medium high heat until the oil is beginning to shimmer.
  12. Add the mustard seeds and when they begin to crackle, stir in the curry leaves. Fry for about 15 seconds until the curry leaves are very fragrant and then toss in the chopped onions.
  13. Fry for about 5 minutes over medium high heat until the onions are soft and translucent. Sprinkle a little salt over the onions. This will help release moisture from them.
  14. Add the chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, bay leaves and the pork with its marinade to the pan and then pour in just enough water to cover.
  15. Leave to simmer for about an hour until the pork is very tender. You may need to add a drop more water while simmering.
  16. When the meat is tender, the sauce should taste amazing. Adjust spicing adding more salt if needed and more chilli powder if you want.
  17. Stir in the cooked garlic.
  18. squeeze the lime juice over the top and serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

6

Serving Size:

1

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 766Total Fat: 49gSaturated Fat: 19gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 27gCholesterol: 159mgSodium: 1088mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 7gSugar: 18gProtein: 47g

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Authentic Goan curry

Dig in!

Micheline

Monday 5th of February 2024

Hi Dan,

A dear friend here in Canada, originally from Calcutta, then the UK. taught me some of her family's Indian dishes. My family has been requesting these dishes for close to 30 years now. I'm excited to try this recipe, it's snowing here, again and I can't think of anything I'd rather do than fill my kitchen with the warmth and aromas of this authentic Indian recipe. I'll let you know how it turns out. Cheers!

Dan Toombs

Friday 9th of February 2024

Sounds good, I love that recipe, especially on a cold day. Dan

Tasha

Thursday 18th of January 2024

Hi Dan, my heritage is Portuguese and I have eaten this curry before, but this will be the first time I will have made this myself. I’ve just prepped my pork and put it in the fridge to marinade, I was reading through the recipe and with regards to the garlic; what are your thoughts on roasting the whole bulb in the oven with salt and ghee wrapped in foil. I’ve used this method before and then you can just squeeze the garlic straight out of the bulbs into the sauce at the end, I find this gives the garlic a nice sweet nutty flavour profile.

Tasha

Sunday 21st of January 2024

So I cooked the curry today and made your garlic naans with the pilau turmeric jeera rice. My son who is 18 absolutely loved the naans, I have a cast iron pan and cook on gas and they came out spectacularly I am grateful for your site, because I have always been a massive foodie and love cooking and you’ve helped me branch out. I have pictures if you want to see them. I have also just butchered a baby chicken from one of our local ethnic stores which is now marinading in the fridge in your tandoori mix. I continued to add yoghurt to the mix but only after I had basted the chicken in the tandoori paste. I also usually salt the chicken before I add the marinade and then follow it up with the spice marinade and then the yoghurt. I am lucky that we have access to those amazing ingredients and so fresh! Also I did roast the garlic rather than fry it and I smashed it with a knife Before I added it to the sauce as it’s kind of already a purée and it worked well. I just think sometimes frying garlic especially in ghee you run the risk of burning it too easily. Because the ghee carries on heating the garlic long after it leaves the pan. Thank you so much for your inspiration on my culinary journey :)

Dan Toombs

Friday 19th of January 2024

I think roasting the garlic first is a great idea, I am sure that will add a lot of delicious flavour. Thanks Dan

Medic Webber

Friday 12th of January 2024

SOOOOOO GOOD!! My mom had a Boston Butt cooked in a slow cooker, but it was too much meat for just her. She brought it over and we used it in this recipe. As it was already cooked, I just made the marinade, then added everything else and heated the pork in the sauce. I'm sure it lost some of the complexity, but it was still DELICIOUS. Thank you for the recipe! (P.S. I only had a mortar and pestle, no spice grinder and my blender couldn't pulverize the spices. That WAS a lot of work! And cassia/cinnamon stick doesn't grind to a powder very easily. Bought a spice grinder that night, lol.)

Dan Toombs

Wednesday 17th of January 2024

Sounds great, thanks very much for letting me know. Dan

Jennifer

Tuesday 9th of January 2024

Wow, this was amazing. even though I FORGOT to toast the spices, and only had a 5 hour marinade. used apple cider vinegar instead, as I prefer it with pork.

complex flavors and easy with a spice grinder that does dry and wet. hard part is smelling it cooking!

Dan Toombs

Tuesday 9th of January 2024

Great to hear it worked so well. Thanks Dan

Michael

Sunday 30th of July 2023

Delish!

I made up a large quantity with 2kg of pork. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed it and put batches in the freezer.

Dan Toombs

Friday 11th of August 2023

That’s great and fantastic you now have loads in the freezer. Thanks Dan

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