Trail Meal | Curry Couscous
Couscous is a great candidate for a starch within Trail Meals, in this recipe I try to make it a bit more interesting by taking inspiration from the “Kip Kerrie” dish I grew up eating. With some calorie boosters to make it more filling.
Kip Kerrie/ Chicken Curry, is a rice dish from around the world, and where I come from, the Netherlands, its also quite popular, mostly as a “salad” with a ton of Mayo to put on a cracker. I try to recreate it and make it lighter and suitable for the backpacking meals we get to eat. Spicy, savory, and creamy is the goal. And I think I did a pretty good job to recreate it.
Preparation at home
As all my Trail Meals tend to do, is to make sure that prep at home and the actual cooking is kept to a bear minimum.
That way you can throw a bunch of ingredients from your pantry together. And still make something awesome to eat. Simply get out a scale and some bowls. And prep the following ingredients to throw into a Zip Loc bag.
Ingredients list
- 50 g couscous
- 2 tsp full fat milk powder
- 1 tsp chicken bouillon powder
- heaping tsp curry powder
- pinch off chili flakes
- 1 tsp of mixed Italian herbs
- half a teaspoon garlic powder
- 25 grams of mixed nuts (walnut, pecan, hazel)
- 1 BIFI / Slim Jim sausage (Meat component is really there to boost the calories a bit. Leave out if desired)
- Water 300ml
Mix together in a Zip Loc bag, not the water of course, unless your cold soaking, that’s all the prep done.
Calories and Weight
The total weight for the ingredients, the Zip Loc bag, and the BIFI sausage comes to 112 grams.
For the total Caloric value of this recipe:
✅ Curry Couscous Base → ~380 kcal
✅ 25g Mixed Nuts (Walnut, Pecan, Hazelnut – 642 kcal/100g) → ~160 kcal
➡ Total Calories: ~540 kcal
Cooking on Trail
For on the Trail Cooking, it boils down to getting your water to the boiling point. Throwing all the Ingredients in, leaving out the BIFI sausage for now. And cooking for a few minutes. I am one of those weirdos that does not like their pasta all dente, so I cook the snot out of it. Adjust your cooking time on how you want to cook the Couscous.
Give it a watch over on my YouTube Channel to see how the end result is gonna look like.
Happy Hiking and Hike for Purpose!
Frank
I'm Frank, the main guy and owner of this website. Loves hiking, gear and bushcraft. And can get quite nerdy about them. In the woods several times a week preparing for my next hike. Always searching for another hill, which is quite difficult in the Netherlands. That's why I search around several countries. More about me on the about page.
