A note about Bramble & Spice Backpacking Recipes: These recipes are intended for one or two night backpacking trips. I like eating real food when I’m hiking and I’m always willing to carry a little extra weight in order to eat well. Everything really does taste better in the mountains.

These potatoes are spicy, flavorful, and easy. They’re the perfect dinner after a day of hiking or, as we enjoyed them, as a warm lunch on a beautiful day snowshoeing. 

The onion can be cut up either at home or at camp. If making this as a dayhike lunch or as the first night on a backpacking trip, the onion can be prepped ahead of time if you aren’t bothered by a few whiffs of raw onion. If this is a night 2 or 3 dinner, I would wait to chop up the onion until you’re about to use it. If you have a small cutting board that you like to bring, that works perfect, otherwise you can carefully cut the onion set inside a metal bowl. Do not use a silicone bowl as a holder to cut in. The onion can be roughly chopped, just remember that the larger the pieces, the longer it will take to cook. 

This recipe calls for several ingredients that will be difficult to find at an average grocery store. If you have an Indian market nearby, they should have everything you’ll need. If you don’t, all of the spices can be found on Amazon. I’ve also found the fresh curry leaves at my local Asian market. If you can’t find the curry leaves, don’t substitute with curry powder, just omit them. Ghee is great because it is shelf stable. If you don’t have any, use olive oil instead.

Backpacking Indian Potatoes on Naan

This recipe is adapted from Indian(-ish) by Priya Krishna

Serves: 2

Ingredients weight: 1 lb 5 ½ oz* this may vary depending on the size of your onion and what naan you bring

Gear required: stove, pot, stirring utensil, cup to measure water, knife & cutting board (optional)

2 Tb ghee

1 Tb black mustard seeds

10 fresh curry leaves

1 tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp asafetida 

1 ½ tsp kosher salt

3 dried red chiles, roughly chopped

¼ tsp ground cayenne

1 small yellow onion, diced (see note above)

1 cup water

⅔ cup instant mashed potato flakes

4 pieces naan

At home:

Prepare the ingredients by preparing four individual bags. One bag with ghee, one with the spices (including curry leaves), one with the potato flakes, and one with the naan. If chopping the onion in advance, dice and put in a bag. 

At camp:

Roughly chop up the onion. In the pot, melt the ghee until it’s hot and shimmering. Add just the curry leaves – they will sizzle and pop. After several seconds, add the remaining spices and toast them for several seconds in the ghee until very fragrant. Add the onion and saute until cooked through. Add the water and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat off and stir in the potato flakes. Stir until all the water has been absorbed. Spread roughly ¼ of the potato mixture onto each piece of naan. Enjoy!