One of the really fast ways to turn someone off the outdoors, especially if they’re new to the whole tramping thing, is to slowly poison them with monotonous food.

No matter how awesome the terrain and inspiring the wilderness, if the trip’s sustenance is rice, pasta and porridge followed by more rice, pasta and, you guessed it, porridge, you can be certain they’re going to be counting the hours till the ordeal is over.

What you need is, to quote the famous Cleese-ism, “something completely different”, like this laksa, to break things up a bit and hopefully those new tramping buddies will stick with it for the long haul.

Profile
Serves: 2 people
Weight: 550g
Volume: 2L
Calories: 1650 kcal
Cost: $9.00
Cooking time: 20min
Fuel: 100ml of white spirit or 45g of gas. *

*Based on an MSR Whisperlite or Primus Classic operating at sea level.

Ingredients

• 300g smoked chicken
• 100g rice vermicelli
• 100g coconut milk powder
• 1 vegetable stock cube
• 5 tbsp laksa paste
• 100g dried green beans
• 1tsp brown sugar
• 50g bean sprouts
• 5cm of cucumber, sliced.
• Rind of one lime and coriander (if you’re keen)

This version is ideal for a weekend trip into the backcountry. If you’re going out for something bigger, just swap in dehydrated ingredients (mushrooms, nuts etc) to make an expedition version.

Method

Soak noodles in boiling water then drain, keeping two cups of the liquid. Add powdered coconut milk and a crumbled vegetable stock cube to the reserved hot water.

Heat a saucepan and add the laksa paste. Lightly fry for a couple of minutes before adding the remaining stock and coconut milk liquid, plus the brown sugar.

Bring to a simmer. Add in the dried beans and chicken, cook for three minutes.

Put the drained noodles into bowls then pour in the laksa, top with bean sprouts, lime rind and coriander.