My inspiration for this recipe came from discovering coconut cream powder in a grocery store. Thai curry is something I make on a fairly regular basis at home. It’s my classic fridge clean-out recipe: whatever’s going bad soon, needs eating up, doesn’t fit in any specific dish, goes into a large pot with whichever Thai curry paste I have at hand, and some coconut milk. That you could make anything like that in the backcountry, I could not have thought until I saw that packet of coconut cream powder…
If I’m being honest, the coconut cream is probably not essential. The curry paste is though. It doesn’t matter whether you use red, green or yellow curry paste, bring a gob of it and you don’t need any other spices. But don’t let the short (and relatively light) ingredient list fool you: the end result is incredibly delicious!
Another reason this recipe is great for long backcountry trips: curry pastes keep surprisingly well without a fridge! Well, depends on the specific type/brand you have, and whether it’s shelf-stable. I made this dish on day 5 of a week-long summer backpacking trip, and the paste I had was totally fine.
You can make this as soupy or saucy as you like (and as your pot allows). You can chop up some vegan sausages or tofu instead of the soy chunks as a protein alternative, though at the cost of a slightly heavier pack. If the curry paste isn’t hot enough for you, you can bring and add some red chilli or cayenne pepper powder to spice it up even more!
Thai Red Curry Noodles
Ingredients
- 280 g ramen noodles (or 4 blocks)1
- 20 g red curry paste
- ¼ cup dried vegetables any kind2
- ¼ cup soy chunks or textured vegan protein
- 10 g coconut milk powder3
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tsp coconut oil optional
- 1 tsp dried minced onion optional
- ½ cube bouillon optional4
Instructions
At Home
- To pack this, you need 3 containers for ingredients grouped as follows: dry ingredients (noodles, soy chunks, dried vegetables, coconut powder, dried onions, if using), curry paste mix (curry paste, bouillon cube and coconut oil, if using the last 2) and salt and pepper mix.
- If packing for a single meal, the last two can also be combined into a single spice mix. Additionally, you can keep the noodles separate but I find it easy enough to fish them out when cooking.
At Camp
- Put the curry paste mix into the pot with a dash of water and fry it lightly. When it starts sticking and gets hard to stir, add a bit more water. It should have the consistency of a thick sauce at this stage. The "sauce" will start to sputter as it cooks.
- Add some more water, then add all the dry ingredients, breaking the noodles up so they fit in the pot. Pour enough water to cover, leaving a bit of room for when it gets to a boil.
- Bring to boil, add salt and pepper to taste and cook until the noodles are done and the dehydrated ingredients are fully rehydrated, usually no more than 10 minutes.
Notes
- I like using these ramen blocks/cakes as they’re pretty compact, but you can substitute that with any other kind of noodles!
- I used a dried vegetable soup mix, but feel free to use whatever you can easily find in a grocery store, for example, dried mushrooms. Other optional add-ins can be seaweed or garlic.
- Feel free to add more for extra creaminess.
- Adjust or omit the salt if using a bouillon cube.
This is such a simple and wonderful recipe. I am going to follow your blog for mountain ideas. 🙂
Thank you! I’ve made it a couple of times now, and each time it’s been fantastic.
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I‘d take the Thai Curry, it looks really yummy!
Great blog, Sampoorna!
Just coming back from a Vietnamese veggie bowl in Nuremberg, which I could also fancy outdoors.
Thank you, Helga! A Vietnamese veggie bowl also sounds delicious, whether outdoors or indoors 😀
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