Canned Curry Hot Pot
Two cans, one pot, ten minutes. The meal you make when setting up camp already took the whole evening.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 16 oz
- cal / oz
- 39
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Canned chunky meat curry or hot pot | 1 large can (about 400-500 g) | beef, lamb, or chickpea versions all work |
|---|---|---|
| Canned mixed vegetables | 1 can (400 g) | drained |
| Canned potatoes | 1 can (400 g) | drained and halved |
| Cocktail sausages, canned | 1 small can | optional, mostly for the second person |
| Oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Bread rolls or flatbread | 2 | for mopping |
Method
- Open every can before the pot goes on the heat. Doing it one-handed over a fire is how cans end up in the coals.
- Warm the oil in the pot. Tip in the drained potatoes and let them take some colour, three or four minutes.
- Add the curry straight from the can, then the vegetables and sausages. Stir once.
- Heat until it steams through, about five minutes over a burner or off to the side of the fire where the flames are not licking the pot.
- Season, then eat out of the pot with bread.
- Wipe the pot with the last of the bread. That is most of the washing up done.
This is the overnighter meal, not the trip-of-a-lifetime meal. Everything comes out of a can already cooked, so the only real job is getting it hot. That matters more than it sounds: after a long drive and a tent setup in the dark, a three-course plan is a way to be eating at ten o’clock.
The potatoes are the part worth the extra four minutes. Browning them in oil first gives the pot some texture instead of a uniform wet stew, and they carry the curry sauce. It is heavy food to carry, so this belongs in a vehicle, a boat, or a base camp you drove to. The same cans stored permanently in the truck double as the emergency box if a night out turns into three.
Packing
Cans live in a milk crate or a plastic tub in the vehicle, not in a soft bag where the ring pulls catch on things. Keep a spare box of the same cans permanently stowed with matches and firelighters as emergency food, and check the dates once a year.
Variations
- Swap the curry for canned chunky soup or baked beans and the method does not change.
- A packet of instant noodles broken into the pot stretches it to three people.
- Chilli flakes and a squeeze of lime cut through the tinned flavour.
https://www.4-wheeling-in-western-australia.com/camping-food.html