Nomad Nutrition Kathmandu Curry

A tasty curry dish that surprised me with its freshness; this one doesn’t taste rehydrated. I’ve never knowingly had a Nepalese-style curry, but if this is representative, I’m a fan. I just wish there was more in the package. As I’ll mention in all the Nomad reviews: I consider this the best brand of dehydrated, prepackaged food I’ve tried to date. It’s an expensive but high quality product.

Prologue:

When I was messaging back and forth with Alicia (Trailspace Co-Founder and Editor) about testing some food items, I mentioned that I would only be interested in vegetarian options (I’m not actually vegetarian or vegan, I just rarely eat meat). For those excluding meat altogether, the pre-packaged choices are understandably limited in the backpacking/dehydrated food genre. I was quite intrigued when Alicia came back with this brand as I had never heard of them before.

As I read about the company and product my interest was piqued further; you can check out their story here but I’ll relate that all products are plant-based, possibly non-GMO /organic (they don’t claim to be fully non-GMO/ organic but state that they “do their best” to use those type of ingredients), produced in small batches and nutritionally optimized for athletes.

I also like it when companies are aware of sustainability and commit to using local farms.

Ingredients: Rice Noodles, Potatoes, Chickpeas, Coconut Milk*, Onions, Red Peppers*, Spinach*, Carrots, Mushrooms*, Sundried Tomatoes*, Olive Oil*, Garlic*, Spices*, Sea Salt*.  *Certified Organic Ingredient.

Nutrition: (for the 100-gram package) Calories 630, Carbs 102g, Sugars (14 g), Protein 20g

*Dry mix 
*repackaged into plastic bag for large food load on a big trip

Preparation and Packaging

This is a just-add-boiling water meal so it can be prepared in the bag or in a pot. It requires only 1 cup of boiling water and 7-10 minutes to reconstitute. The packaging is paper with thin aluminized panels and works well as a disposable cooking cozy.

The first time I prepared this I was out of my head tired after a brutally long day of off-trail scrambling and had forgotten this only needed one cup of water. I added two cups and turned it into a soup. It was still good and quite tasty, but it’s better with the recommended amount of water.

*Added too much water and made soup 

*And enjoyed this camp and view while consuming it, :)

Flavor

I’ve eaten lots of Indian food over the years and most curry dishes I’ve tried are really hot. This one surprised me as it wasn’t hot at all; indeed, it was my first tame curry experience. I don’t know if this is typical of Nepalese-style curry but I found the subtle spicing really suitable to a back-woods dinner experience. As I’ve stated in other Nomad reviews; you can discern individual ingredients in this dish and I find that delightful.

Satiety

This is one area where this meal let me down a bit. I did not find it to be as substantive as I wanted for my primary meal. It certainly feels like you are getting good energy and nutrition, but I needed more food after I ate this.

*using impromptu chopsticks to eat out of the bag

Texture

When you prepare it with the recommended amount of water, the texture is wonderful. The mouth-feel is like fresh food and noodles. I was really impressed with this one as it did not seem like dehydrated food.

Conclusion

If you like a tamer curry, this is for you. Like all the offerings I’ve tried from this brand, the naturalness and taste-able ingredients are a welcome departure from the standard dehydrated fare. This dish has an especially fantastic texture; I just wish there was more in it and that it was less expensive!

Background

I have over 8000 miles of trekking experience in the last decade and I've tried many, many brands of pre-packaged meals out there over that time span. I was sent three packages of this flavor for review and have tried it twice so far.