Eating Plant-based On Your Travels Is Super Simple!
We have hit the open road! Yay!
At around this time each year, we pack up the kids, hire a caravan, and head up to Coral Bay for two glorious weeks of sun, sea and not much else. I can hardly find the words for how relaxed this little part of the world makes me feel. All thoughts, stress, and concerns float out into the ocean and you are left with the simple things in life… kids playing, strangers connecting and the sun filtering through the trees.
Travelling on a plant-based diet takes a little bit of planning though when you head beyond… well… beyond Geraldton. The smaller towns that you assume should be packed full of fresh produce, unfortunately leave you a little underwhelmed. I have yet to arrive in Carnarvon and find any decent bananas despite the massive crops of banana plantations surrounding the town centre. I knew to expect this though as we have done this trip many times before, the big difference this year is that I was much more organised before we left. I cooked up a substantial amount of staples that will cover the base of the majority of our meals. In fact, we will likely eat even better than we do at home, but I will cover what I made in another post in the next few weeks.
Yesterday we drove the final stint from Carnarvon to Coral Bay… it was a short 3-hour drive (short in comparison to the 8-hour stint on the first day from Perth to Galena Bridge), but it was hot… really hot. When we stopped for a lunch break the mercury was over 40 degrees and the sun felt like it was burning a layer of skin away, so by the time we hit Coral Bay we were all pretty exhausted. After we had completed a basic set up, we hit the beach. It was just what we needed to reaffirm that we had finally arrived. Just over 12ookms of driving over 2 1/2 days.
The discussion quickly turned to dinner.
This year we are travelling with two other families – both of whom are not plant-based. This doesn’t tend to cause an issue as we are all pretty self-sufficient but I was craving a red sweet potato curry and seems I had two, large, sweet potatoes to be used, so I offered to make enough for everyone. A few were skeptical – one even suggested it wouldn’t be the same without meat. I know these people well though and like to believe that secretly they knew it would be delicious so were trying to bait me to prove it. It worked.
I had brought with me an Ayam Thai Red Curry Paste – the only curry paste brand that I could find that didn’t contain shrimp or fish sauce, a can of coconut milk, a can of chickpeas, 1 capsicum, 1 red onion and 2 sweet potatoes. It really was that simple – I have included this in recipe format below.
I chopped all the fresh food when we got back from the beach so that I could throw it all together when we were ready to eat, and that is exactly what I did.
So what was the verdict… absolutely delicious. Every single person thoroughly enjoyed it and the meat was not missed at all.
The point is… eating plant-based doesn’t have to be complicated… it doesn’t have to always be made completely from scratch but it can always be delicious.
I have added an additional can of coconut milk to this recipe as I think it would have improved the overall taste – in the moment I only had one can on hand so I added water instead.
Simple Thai Red Curry
2 sweet potato
1 red capsicum
1/2 red onion
1 can chickpeas
2 cans coconut milk
1/3 jar Ayam Thai Red Curry Paste
- Chop sweet potatoes and red capsicum into 1cm cubes and slice red onion. Place into a pot.
- Cover with coconut milk and bring to the boil.
- Add chickpeas before serving.
- Serve with white rice, topped with coriander.
Food should nourish and make you feel good, not overwhelm and complicate your life, but for now… I’m heading back to the beach. x
