Pumpkin Curry Sauce

Jump to the recipe for Pumpkin Curry Sauce…

As much as I love fall, it is a really hard time of year.

I go from a very active summer, hiking 10-20 (or more) miles a day, sometimes 4-5 days a week to sitting at a desk job. No amount of morning situps, lunch time walks or bedtime yoga can match that.

The real problem is that I get used to eating to meet the demands of that activity and it is VERY HARD to just turn that off. Dried fruit, nuts, etc. are great for a life on the trail but not so much for your average 9-5 and warding off the battle of the bulge when you are closer to 50 than 40. I have done pretty well at avoiding the 10-15 lbs I used to gain during winters past but I can tell I’m not doing so well this year. I just read in the blog Living In Yellow that blogging will make your butt flat. Great. At least the colder weather means more layers.

Enough of my whining, you came here for a recipe for Pumpkin Curry Sauce…

One of my new dinners that I have been enjoying on the trail this summer is a nightshade free version of curry. Curry isn’t something I have been enjoying for very long.  In fact, I probably didn’t try it until making the switch to paleo.  My experimentation with spices went WAY, WAY up when I began to try all sorts of new flavorings for my food. Then I decided to go nightshade free to see if it helped with my arthritis.

You could almost hear the screeching of tires of my spice experimentation. At least for blends I didn’t make myself, that is.  Try and find a spice blend that doesn’t include a nightshade pepper of some kind.  This even includes paprika!

Although I usually pick spices up at my local co-op a few blocks away because I remember I need something in the middle of making a dish, my favorite store to visit for spices is World Spice Merchants by the Pike Place Market in Seattle. I just love to wander there and smell the spices. I even read the labels so I can get ideas for my own spice mixes.

If you didn’t know, curry originates in India and is actually a blend of spices you can either use in a dry powder or in a paste from a jar. Usually including fresh or dried hot chilies. This means I can’t pick it up ready-made and still avoid nightshades.

#turmeric #cumin #coriander #ginger #mustard #cardamom#cinnamon #blackpepper #anise #garlicpowder #caraway #lemon

When I decided to start making my own curry mix, I did a search for some examples of curry spice mixes online and found a few on Paleo Mom and Jane’s Healthy Kitchen. My normal M.O. is to sprinkle my spice mix over sweet potatoes or roasted veggies. But for my backpacking meals I wanted to do more for extra calories, so I decided to make up a sauce to use it in.

For my Pumpkin Curry Sauce, I start with some basics like onions and mushrooms, go with coconut cream and then added some canned pumpkin to thicken it up. My curry is more about flavor than heat and you can up the dry mustard and ginger to give it more spice if you want. I do add some dehydrated ginger into each meal afterward. If you personally don’t have a problem with nightshades, feel free to add chili powder to get your desired heat level. First, dice your onions and mushrooms and sauté in coconut oil until soft. You can sauté in water to reduce oil for dehydrating if you prefer.

Stir in the coconut milk and pumpkin along with your curry spice mixture.

Add the lemon juice and freshly grated ginger. Stir and let simmer on medium low for about 5 minutes.

This Pumpkin Curry Sauce smelled SO yummy, I couldn’t help but have some for dinner right away. Topped with cashews and fresh cilantro it was delish! My bf totally agreed, even if he likes things a bit spicier.

But this is a backpacking blog, so let’s get it ready to take on the trail! After the mixture cools down a bit, use your food processer to blend it into a creamy sauce.

Spread it out on your jelly roll trays in your dehydrator and let it become completely dry (you can pick it up like leather).

Toss it back into the food processor and pulse until you have very small crumbles or powder. The smaller it is, the easier it will rehydrate.

Start with a quart size freezer bag and add your desired ingredients to make a meal. I like to use:

Dried curry sauce (1/4 cup)
sweet potatoes (1/2 cup)
extra mushrooms (1 Tb)
ginger (a pinch)
cabbage (1/4 cup)
cashews (1 TB),
dehydrated chicken (2 Tb)-if going meatless, use a protein of your choice or more cashews
a few tablespoons of powdered coconut milk.

Check out my posts Eat Your Veggies and Almond Ginger Chicken Satay to see about how I dehydrate my veggies and chicken and this post Sweet Potato Staples for how I do those up.

This is one of the reasons I like to store my dehydrated items separately so I can mix and match for a little variety on the trail. I did make this sauce first with a cup of sweet potatoes as the base (more calories), but when also using sweet potatoes as my carb in my meals, it really was too sweet. That sauce did better with another carb like rice, which you can see in my pictures from the trail at the beginning of the summer. Because of the coconut milk and oil I use in the sauce, Pumpkin Curry Sauce does have some fat content and would be best stored in the fridge or freezer until you head out on the trail.

Editor’s note: Three months after starting this recipe and post, I have finally managed it get out. I almost didn’t think it would happen. I tried this with sweet potatoes, pumpkin, and even some unknown squash as a sauce base before finally settling on pumpkin. Each time I made it, I would forget to take a picture of some step. Sometimes recipes just don’t come out as easy as you think they will.

Second editor’s note: since posting this recipe, I have started using a few different bases to add the curry sauce to that I really love in order to include more vegetables or reduce my carbohydrate intake at times. My Trail Meal Bases: 5 Grain Free Swaps has all the details!

If you are new to dehydrating or want more information, especially if you need your meals to last more than a month without refrigeration, please visit my Dehydrating 101 page to find out how to do it safely. If you enjoyed this recipe, head over to my Hiking and Backpacking Paleo Index for over 60 tasty treats to take on your next outdoor adventure!

Pumpkin Curry Sauce

Prep Time
15 minutes

Cook Time
10 minutes

Total Time
37 minutes

Course: Dinner, Lunch, Main Dish

Cuisine: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nightshade Free, Paleo, Vegan

Servings: 4 servings

Ingredients

Curry Spice Mix

1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground anise
1/4 teaspoon ground caraway

For the sauce

2 tablespoon coconut oil
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1 medium diced onion
1 cup coconut cream
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 1/2 tablespoon curry spice mix
1 Tb lemon juice
1 Tb freshly grated ginger
salt to taste

Toppings

raw cashews
cilantro

Instructions

The Sauce

- First, mix up the first set of ingredients (your spices). You can keep this in a small glass jar as it will be enough spice mix for 3 batches of sauce.
- Dice your onions and slice your mushrooms and sauté in coconut oil until soft and starting to brown. You can also sauté in water to reduce the amount of oil for dehydrating.
- Stir in the coconut cream and pumpkin along with your curry spice mixture, lemon juice and grated ginger. Salt to taste.
- Let simmer on low about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Serve now over your favorite veggies, noodles or meat or puree in your food processor for a more unified cream sauce (or if you want to hide the mushrooms from your kids). Makes about 2 cups of sauce.

The Backpacking Meal

If you haven’t pureed the mixture yet, do so now. You want to have the sauce be as uniform as possible so it dries consistently.
Spread out onto the jelly roll trays in your dehydrator as thin as you can, thicker means a longer drying time.
Set the temperature to fruits/veggies (about 130 degrees) and let it go until the sauce is completely dry and can be picked up off the tray. You may need to flip it over so the other side dries, too.
Pulse the dry sauce in your food processer until it makes a powder. The finer it is, the more easily it will rehydrate.
Combine the curry sauce powder (1/4 cup) with the following dehydrated ingredients: sweet potatoes (1/2 cup), mushrooms and ginger, cabbage (1/4 cup), cashews (1 TB), chicken (2 Tb), cilantro (a pinch) and a few tablespoons of powdered coconut milk. For vegan, substitute with your favorite protein or more cashews.
Keep in a quart size plastic bag in your fridge until ready to head out on a trip. Makes 4-5 meals.
At camp, add hot water to cover. Let sit 8-10 minutes until vegetables are tender. If using the cold water method, add water to cover 1-2 hours before you want to eat and let soak until tender.

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