Jump to Recipe·Print Recipe

This make-ahead curry rice bowl is one of our favorite meals for multi-day camping and river trips. It’s easy to prep in advance, travels well in a cooler, and scales easily for feeding a group. On long river days when everyone is hungry and tired, having a sturdy, flavorful meal ready to serve makes camp feel effortless.

As I do with most river dinners, I make this curry ahead and freeze it in zip-lock bags or vacuum seal it. Prep time in camp is minimal: Just heat the curry, cook a pot of rice, and serve. I usually serve this with brown rice, a crusty sourdough bread, and a crunchy salad. Cilantro leaves and a healthy dose of cashews give it a topping pop of color and lovely crunch.

Curry rice bowl with tofu served in metal camp bowl with sourdough bread
Want to save this post?
Just enter your email and get it sent to your inbox! Plus you’ll get new posts from us every week!

Table of Contents

Why this curry rice bowl works for camping and river trips

This curry rice bowl is ideal for large camping groups because you do the main prep before your trip, and it’s infinitely customizable in camp to fit diverse tastes and dietary restrictions.

  • Make-ahead friendly: You can make the curry ahead of time (even weeks before your camping or river trip), freeze it, and layer it in the bottom of the cooler.
  • Holds up in heat: By precooking and freezing the curry, you avoid problems with bringing uncooked meat on multi-day trips, which can risk spoilage.
  • Scales easily: Curries are inherently hearty and satisfying, and served with rice, curries can efficiently serve large camping groups. Curries are a mainstay in some of our largest, 20-person-plus river trips.
  • Minimal camp prep: Once you’re in camp, you simply heat the curry, cook up some rice, and set out simple garnishes such as cashews and cilantro.
  • Vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, and carnivore options: While you’re making the curry at home, you can keep the base curry vegan or vegetarian, then divide out portions to which you add shrimp, steak, or chicken. On the river, simply heat up the different curries in separate pots.

How to prep curry rice bowls before your camping or river trip

Over time, I’ve learned some cooking and packing tips that make this curry a stunning crowd pleaser in river camp.

  1. Note that the recipe here yields a 12-person batch, so it’s already geared toward large groups. If you click the “2x” scale button on the recipe, you’ll have enough for 24 people, which is about the largest group that you could reasonably accommodate on most permitted river trips. (If you’re cooking for a family reunion, go ahead and 3x the recipe!)
  2. Roast the veggies and protein on a baking sheet before building the curry in a large stock pot. Although I’ve used a variety of vegetables, my favorite combination is mini sweet peppers, yellow onion, and sweet potatoes. With this vegan base, you can add various proteins in separate batches to accommodate other eating preferences.
  3. Adding coconut milk takes the edge off the curry spice, plays with the fire-roasted tomatoes, and make the curry vegan-friendly.
  4. Cook the proteins separately, then add to the base curry divided into different pots. This curry works well with seared steak cubes, roasted shrimp, chicken, and roasted tofu.
  5. Once the curry is cooked, pour it into heavy-duty zip-lock bags and label the vegan/vegetarian, fish-based, and meat versions. Double-bag the curry and lay the bags flat on the bottom of your freezer at home so they freeze in flat, space-efficient packages that are convenient to pack in the cooler.
  6. On your river or camping trip, be sure to take the curry out of the cooler early enough in the day that it’s completely thawed before you heat it. I use vegetable stock as the base liquid and carry some extra on the river for dilution if needed as it’s heating. Keep stirring as you heat it in river camp so it doesn’t burn on the bottom, a common threat in camp as most of us aren’t using our best heavy pans.
  7. To top off the curry, bring whole salted cashews and fresh or dried cilantro.
  8. Serve with a crusty bread (our favorite is sourdough) and a hearty salad: We often pair this curry with our camping-friendly tabbouleh grain salad.

If you’re looking for more food planning ideas and recipes for large camping or river groups, check out our time-tested guidelines for river and camping trip meal planning, step-by-step Dutch oven camp cooking tips, and food-packing tips for river and camping trips.

More camping and river trip meals

Check out these additional food planning tips, gear recommendations, and recipe ideas for your next river trip or camping adventure:

Keep exploring