Curry Couscous with Nuts and Sausage
Couscous, curry powder, and milk powder, built to rehydrate creamy instead of loose.
- calories
- 560
- weight
- 4 oz
- cal / oz
- 140
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 300 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Couscous | 50 g | about 1/3 cup |
|---|---|---|
| Full fat milk powder | 2 tsp | whole milk, not skim, the fat is the point |
| Chicken bouillon powder | 1 tsp | |
| Curry powder | 1 heaping tsp | |
| Chili flakes | a pinch | |
| Italian herb blend | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Mixed nuts | 25 g | walnut, pecan, hazelnut |
| Shelf-stable meat stick | 1 | Slim Jim or similar, optional |
Method
- Bring 300 ml of water to a boil.
- Dump in the bag of couscous, milk powder, bouillon, curry, chili, herbs, garlic, and nuts. Stir once.
- Kill the heat, cover, and let it sit five minutes. Longer if you want it soft rather than toothy.
- Slice the meat stick in and stir. It only needs the residual heat.
Couscous is the laziest starch on the trail: it does not cook so much as swell, so a pot only has to reach a boil once and then it can sit off the flame. That leaves fuel and time for nothing else, which is the whole argument for it. The problem is that plain couscous reconstitutes thin and bland.
Whole milk powder fixes that. It has enough fat to give the pot body and to round off the curry, and it does it without a cooler. The nuts and the meat stick are calorie ballast rather than flavor: 50 g of couscous alone is a snack, not a dinner. Add the meat stick at the end so it warms through instead of turning greasy.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag at home, weighed on a kitchen scale. The meat stick rides in its own wrapper until camp.
Variations
- Skip the meat stick and use vegetable bouillon for a meatless version.
- Swap the nuts for a tablespoon of olive oil if you want the calories without the chewing.
- A packet of tuna or chicken pushes protein past 30 g.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-curry-couscous