Looking to use up that lamb you cooked yesterday? This Leftover Lamb Curry is made quick in the pressure cooker and is full of flavor! The perfect way to enjoy leftover lamb!
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Easy Leftover Lamb Curry in the Pressure Cooker
On holidays I love a good leg of lamb. You too? Most likely because you are looking at a leftover lamb recipes!
I always make this curry after I make my Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb recipe, but no matter what way you roast or prepare your lamb as long as you have leftovers this recipe will totally work!
Lamb can be totally game-y and not as tender and tasty after it has been cooled down and then reheated. Making it hard to enjoy as a leftover. You can’t just make a sandwich or reheat it the same as you would turkey, beef, or ham.
So I worked on developing this totally delicious curry where the lamb gets mixed in spice heaven and it comes out even almost better then the first time you made it.
I use the pressure cooker for this recipe because first, it totally speeds up the time. Second the pressurizing of the lamb along with the sauce give the leftover lamb a tenderness you didn’t even know it could have.
I am not exaggerating when I say I get just as excited to make this leftover lamb curry as the actual roasted lamb itself.
I tend to serve this curry with rice, rice pilaf, or naan. Or a mixture of those items.
Now when you go to look at the ingredient list you are going to be a little taken a back at how long the list is. Out of the 17 list items 9 are all spices that hopefully you already have in your spice cabinet. So don’t let the length of the list fool you, this is actually a really simple recipe to make thanks to the Instant Pot.
Now if you don’t have an electric pressure cooker this is one of those recipes that can certainly be made on the stove top in a heavy bottomed pot like a dutch oven, just keep in mind that the cooking time will take quite a bit longer.

Ingredients
- Olive Oil – This can be subbed with any neutral cooking oil like vegetable or avocado oils.
- Yellow Onion – Part of the base pf this dish, I used yellow onions but white would work too.
- Fresh Garlic – Minced, this will also be at the base of the dish.
- Fresh Ginger – Grated/Minced, along with the onion and garlic these will be at the base of the dish. Fresh ginger works best here, if you need to you can always use ginger that comes in the tube that is usually pre-minced that can be found in the produce section.
- Spices – These include: bay leaves, whole cloves, peppercorns, cardamom pods, cinnamon stick, kosher salt, turmeric, coriander, garam masala. All of these combined make an amazing dish full of flavor. I listed the forms of each spice that was easiest for me to find/use. If you prefer using ground over whole or vice versa go ahead and do that!
- Chicken Broth – The liquid base in this dish. Since it is only 2 cups I love using Better Than Bouillon rather than opening a full carton of chicken broth.
- Canned Tomato Paste – A small can of tomato paste here adds wonderful rich flavor.
- Leftover Lamb – Cubed, the amount of leftover lamb doesn’t have to be exact for this recipe. I have made this with as little as 2 cups of leftover lamb and as much as 4 cups.
- Plain Yogurt – To add to the creaminess of the curry just a little bit of yogurt goes a long way!
For a complete detailed list of the ingredients continue towards the bottom of the page.

Instructions
Turn your electronic pressure cooker to sauté function. Once hot add the oil, onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté for about 3 minutes until everything starts to become tender.

Add in the bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, chicken broth, tomato paste, and cubed lamb. Stir everything together taking special care to scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure nothing is stuck on the bottom.

Seal lid, turn steam vent to sealing, and select pressure cook. Set to 12 minutes and start.
Quick release the vent once the cooking is done. Open slowly.
Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Add in the yogurt and slowly stir in. Serve immediately, best with rice, pilaf, or naan bread.

Tips, Tricks, and Questions
- For most of the whole spices you will be able to just grab them out before serving. For the smaller ones like the peppercorn I found most often that they will dissolve under pressure, if not once they are in the bowl they will be fairly easy to spot.
Is this Spicy?
Not at all! This is a very mild curry BUT don’t let fool you it is full of flavor. For reference my spicy hating 6 year old loves this dish.

If you like this Leftover Lamb Curry you might like some of these other leftover dishes:
- Leftover Chicken Enchiladas
- Leftover Healthy Turkey Soup
- Leftover Pork Carnitas Quesadillas
- Leftover Mashed Potato Cakes
- Leftover Turkey Mini Pot Pies
- Leftover Ham Pressure Cooker Split Pea Soup
Leftover Lamb Curry

A delicious way to use up leftover lamb. This curry uses plenty of spices and aromatics in a pressure cooker to yield a flavorful yet tender Leftover Lamb Curry. Serve with rice or naan to make a wonderful meal!
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 4 whole cloves
- 10 peppercorns
- 3 cardamom pods (1 teaspoon ground)
- 1 cinnamon stick (1 teaspoon ground)
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
- 2 teaspoon coriander
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 6 ounces canned tomato paste
- 3 to 4 cups leftover lamb, cubed
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
Instructions
- Turn electronic pressure cooker to sauté function. Once hot add the oil, onion, garlic, and ginger. Sauté for about 3 minutes until everything starts to become tender.
- Add in the bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, cardamom, cinnamon, salt, turmeric, coriander, garam masala, chicken broth, tomato paste, and cubed lamb. Stir everything together taking special care to scrape the bottom of the pot to make sure nothing is stuck on the bottom.
- Seal lid, turn steam vent to sealing, and select pressure cook. Set to 12 minutes and start.
- Quick release the vent once the cooking is done. Open slowly.
- Remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves. Add in the yogurt and slowly stir in. Serve immediately, best with rice, pilaf, or naan bread.
Notes
This has A LOT of spices, feel free to make subs for ground vs. whole spices as needed. I wrote this recipe in the way that I found the spices most common.
NOTE: The amount of leftover lamb here doesn't have to be exact in any way. I have made this with as little as 2 cups of leftover lamb and as much as 4 cups of leftover lamb.
The automated nutrition calculator for this recipe seemed to have a really hard time pulling acurate infromation for this recipe. If you are looking for more accurate info I suggest using a calculator like My Fitness Pal where you can manually add and pick the ingredients with more accuracy.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 2192Total Fat: 157gSaturated Fat: 62gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 82gCholesterol: 664mgSodium: 1183mgCarbohydrates: 14gFiber: 4gSugar: 5gProtein: 171g
Nutritional data is automated, final nutritional information will depend on ingredients used and any changes made.
Well done, awesome recipe. I would never have worked out how to get pre cooked lamb back to this tenderness.
Thank you so much! So happy you enjoyed it!
I made a lamb leg roast in my PC Quick Cooker for Easter dinner. It was good but I wanted something different with the leftovers. I had extra broth from the lamb that I used instead of chicken broth and I used mostly dried spices because that’s what I had, but it was fantastic. I made rice in the ceramic bowl on top of the curry and I will certainly be keeping an eye on lamb prices. This recipe was a keeper!
Aww thank you so much! I find myself looking for an excuse to make lamb because I love this recipe so much, it makes me happy you do too!
If I don’t have a pressure cooker and just making this on stove how much cooking time do I give and what temperature?
Great question this is a guess since I have’t tried it on the stove before so it might not be 100% accurate but I am guessing it will want to simmer on medium for about 40 minutes. Start by sautéing the aromatics like you would in the pressure cooker, add everything but the yogurt, simmer about 40 minutes, and then once you feel like the dish is tender enough and the right consistency turn off the heat and slowly stir in the yogurt. Good Luck, if you end up making it on the stovetop let me know how it goes!
Used this recipe, it was very easy and my family loved it.
Haven’t made it yet I would like to make it with coconut milk.
Coconut milk should work in this recipe.