Vegetable Yellow Curry | Dehydrated Backpacking Meals | Trail Recipes (2024)

FAQs

Can I dehydrate curry? ›

It's not rocket science: if you can cook a basic curry, stew, rice or pasta, you can create a dehydrated meal!

Some great options are bars (Lara, Clif Bars, Kind bars, etc), nut butter packets, powdered hummus, crackers, dried fruits, nuts, and cheese. Hard cheeses will keep for a few days in your pack, as will the wax-covered Baybel cheese rounds. Be sure to pack plenty of trail mix to snack on throughout the day!

Whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner, it doesn't matter, rice and pasta make great options for hiking. I always have rice for my breakfast and throw in loads of dehydrated fruit and mixed nuts with a squirt of condensed milk.

The curry base is made with onions, tomatoes, ginger, garlic, red chilli powder and garam masala. I prefer to go with potatoes, carrots, peas, green beans, cauliflower, corn and bell peppers. Though you can use other veggies like baby corn, sweet potato and broccoli, the curry will have different flavors.

Many contain ingredients that should not be dehydrated (oils, fats, eggs, or dairy) or are loaded with sodium or preservatives. If you want to dehydrate condiments, make sure you read the label.

Bottom line: Spices never truly “expire” in the same way meat, veggies, or dairy products do. But they do lose their flavor, color, and potency over time.

You could be plant-based in some environments if you were there at the right season, but it's impossible to be plant-based long-term in the wild without meat. So, let's first dig into basic nutrition so you understand what you need in order to survive and why you need meat and fat to survive in the wild!

Eat five or six small meals per day that not only include a protein food, but also a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and plenty of water. More than half your calories each day should come from quality carbohydrates, which fuel your muscles.

A general rule of thumb for dehydrating vegetables: If you can normally eat them raw, you don't need to cook them before drying. Depending on your rehydrating method, though, you might want to cook all your vegetables first.

How do you rehydrate backpacking meals? ›

Re-hydrate food fastest with boiling water

Re-hydrating food goes fastest in boiling water. Place your dehydrated vegetables and meats in your cooking pot, add enough water to completely cover the food, then bring the water to a boil. Keep adding water as necessary to keep the food covered.

Storing dehydrated foods

Storage locations: All dried foods should be stored in cool, dry and dark areas. Storage times: These range from 4 months to 1 year. Storage temperature: The higher the temperature, the shorter the storage time.

Dehydrating the Curry

Using dehydrator sheets on trays, evenly and thinly spread the curry on trays. Dehydrate at 145 degrees (f) for 12-18 hours or until dry and crispy.

Spread curry paste on a liquids/fruit leather tray of your food dehydrator and dry on medium heat for about 6-8 hours, or until it is crumbly. Put any vegetables or herbs that you want dried on a separate tray in the dehydrator for the same time.

We most commonly us this paste within a Thai Green Curry dehydrated meal. Before leaving on a trip, we'll put two tablespoons of Thai Green Curry paste powder in a Ziploc with two tables of coconut milk powder, rice noodles and dehydrated vegetables.

Spread the Chickpea and Vegetable Curry mixture on dehydrator trays covered with non-stick sheets or parchment paper. Dehydrate at 63C/145F for 8-10 hours until brittle. Divide dried meal into 4 equal portions (about 100 gr/ 3.5 oz each) and put into separate zip-lock bags.