Ever since we tried Trader Joe’s Korma Fish Curry, we’ve been obsessed with trying as much Trader Joe’s Indian food as we can. We went into that meal not expecting to care for it much, yet by the time we finished eating it, it had become one of our favorite frozen foods. It’s just a very tasty Indian meal that shouldn’t be missed.
Since then, we tried several of Trader Joe’s Indian meals, including the Paneer Tikka Masala with Spinach Basmati Rice, the Chicken Tikka Masala, and the Vegetable Panang Curry with Jasmine Rice. While we enjoyed all of those, we still haven’t topped the Korma Fish Curry.
So when we picked up the Trader Joe’s Lamb Vindaloo, we put it in the unfortunate position of having to compete with the Korma Fish Curry. Does it live up to that remarkably high standard?
First, let’s talk about the lamb. This meat is extremely tender — far more tender than we expected it to be. We found one or two larger chunks that had a bit more form to them, but for the most part, our lamb was tender as can be. This meat really does melt in your mouth.
Trader Joe’s isn’t stingy with the sauce here. As you can see in the picture above, our sauce was overflowing into the rice portion of the dish — this is more sauce than the tray was even designed to hold!
This sauce is tomato-based with plenty of coconut milk in it. It’s a thicker, chunkier sauce than you might expect, and it has some ketchupy undertones that actually remind us more of a Manwich sloppy joe than an Indian-inspired meal. Now, this isn’t a bad thing at all — this sauce is fantastic — it’s just not what we were expecting.
It’s also really really spicy. It might not be authentic-Indian-restaurant-food spicy — in fact, this is more of a lip-burning spice level than a true throat-tickling one associated with Indian food — but it’s very spicy for a frozen meal. This might be one of the spiciest frozen foods we’ve tried so far.
The side here is a basmati rice. It’s not exciting on its own, but when it’s mixed into the delicious sauce, it becomes the perfect side dish. We definitely recommend mixing it into the sauce rather than eating it on its own. Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of sauce for both the lamb and the rice.
This meal contains 390 calories (150 from fat), which is a little higher than we’d like but it’s still not horrible. The sodium is reasonable — it’s actually pretty low for a frozen meal — at 490 mg.
The Trader Joe’s Lamb Vindaloo is great. Is this as good as the Korma Fish Curry? Not exactly, but it’s certainly no slouch. We’ll definitely be picking this up again in the future.
To learn more about the nutrition content, ingredients, or cooking instructions for this frozen meal, or just to see some factoids about vindaloo, check out our package scan below.
I found this item to be both authentic and tasty. It was much better than a similar dish in many US Indian restaurants. I did not find it too spicy, but that varies with individuals. The amount of lamb was generous I thought, and the basmati rice well cooked and went well with the meat.
Keep it up. I recommend it.
I was extremely impressed with the flavors. This is not too spicy, enough for the average person that likes some spice. I must say the taste was pure joy, there was a party in my mouth. Don’t judge me but my nipples even got a little bit tingly. I wanted to lick the container! This gives the fish Korma A run for its money- Why the f*** did they stop selling the fish? 🙂 smh