I had some extra Trail food after packing it all up last night and decided to cook some for practice.
I'd made this lentil stuff... lentils, dried carrots, dried onions, granulated garlic, tomato-sauce "leather" with basil. I took a chance and put together a lot of it and bagged it up w/o having tried it first.
So tonight I tried it, hoping it wasn't awful, which would require opening a lot of bags and taking it out.
No worries. It's YUMMY!!! I have it in about half my bags; the other half have split-pea soup (with carrots, instant potatoes, powdered milk, and my ever-present garlic and onions.) I'll tell you, after I ate the WHOLE hiker-appetite-size portion, I wished I had it to look forward to every single week.
The split-pea soup will be good, too, but, oh, my, I don't know if it could be as good as this lentil stuff.
I found that it takes more water and more simmering time than I'd anticipating. That's good to know. I'm glad my JetBoil stove simmers! Also, I'm taking a plastic peanut butter jar for the purpose of pre-soaking my suppers -- put them in the jar with water at lunch time and then cook up the pre-soaked stuff in camp. That will shorten simmering time and save fuel. I didn't completely cook the vegetables I dried; just blanched them enough to stop enzyme action to prevent whatever minimal deterioration might occur in dehydrated food over 6 months. So even when they're rehydrated, they'll need to cook a little.
I LOVE that lentil stuff. I'll make more for here at home before I hike.
3 comments:
And things always taste even better on the trail so I imagine that lentil stuff will be FABULOUS!
Appetite is the square of the miles.
Flavor is multiplied by the distance since the last town stop. And, get this; pizza and ice cream don't affect people wearing backpacks. You develop a teflon middle.
Sounds like you are in for a delightful gastronomic summer.
Steve
I would like the recipes for some of this dried lentil mix that you are making.
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