Sacriligious but I think it will turn out well

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

It occurred to me to try dehydrating cooked ground beef mixed with Indian Madras Lentils from Trader Joe’s. I know it’s sacreligious, but I think it will come out like a mildly Indian tasting chili-like dish. I’ll eat it with mashed potatoes. I may try dehydrating cooked chicken with the Jaipur Vegetables, next, which is a mild curry dish with paneer cheese and cashews. My apologies to the vegetarians of India.

[Anonymous]

Don’t think that’s the issue, but sounds a bit protein overload.  Lentils in and of themselves have a high concentration of protein, then mixed with beef…  That would make me feel rather heavy and lethargic.  Drink extra water–proteins require the most water to digest/break down and assimilate.

[Tipi Walter]

I’m a vegetarian but I’ve been dehydrating all sorts of prepared meals for the last several years, just for my backpacking trips.  I do most of the Amy’s organic chilies and Tasty Bite meals and Imagine soups etc.  I have a five rack dryer and can punch out enough cookable food in about 4 days for a 20 day trip.

Everything gets dried.  I also eat alot of organic brown rice and prep is easy:  Cook up a pot, spread on trays, dry thoroughly, add to dried soups in the field.  Only difference is I let the rice sit in the pot cozy for 90 minutes instead of the usual 30—it allows the hard rice to get soft.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

Good to know the tasty bite meals come out well. The nice thing about the lentil dish is that it’s very mild. The bad thing about it is sometimes it’s mostly just liquid and hardly anything of substance. This seemed like a good way to make it into actual food.

[Mary D]

Piper, how did it work out? I’ve been looking at the instant-cook basamati rice at Trader Joe’s too…

[Pedestrian]

It occurred to me to try dehydrating cooked ground beef mixed with Indian Madras Lentils from Trader Joe’s.

Or you could learn to cook and make your own lentil (or any other bean) mix. Buy dehydrated lentils (or any other beans) from Harmony House etc (NFI), add choice of spices, salt etc, mix other dehydrated veggies as desired and package it for each meal using a Foodsaver (NFI). On the trail add hot water to the above mix and any dehydrated meats and re-hydrate by letting it simmer for a while.

A bit more hassle perhaps but gives you so much more flexibility and options. Plus you’re not dehydrating some highly questionable packaged foods with all kinds of chemical stabilizers etc.

NFI – No Financial interest.

It’a amazing to me the kinds of contortions folks will go through rather than simply learn how to prepare simple meals.

[Matthew / BPL]

<3 Madras Lentils from TJs or Tasty Bite. I’d be curious to hear how they dehydrate.

Have you tried the dried split red lentils from TJs? They are quite tasty and cook quickly at home. I’ve successfully cooked them in the field with quinoa and  TJs chicken stock that comes in the little “ketchup packet” type individual serving. They take about 12 minutes of simmering at home. Backpacking I have brought them to a boil, let them set for a while (sans cozy) and then simmered again. The result is delicious.

[David Thomas]

I’ve had good luck buying dehydrated beans, onions, carrots, peas, etc, off of Amazon, putting them in pre-measured zip locks and rehydrating on the trail.

Several ways to keep from getting bored as you do that (and bump up the calories):

Add coconut-milk powder and a pinch of red or green curry paste (can be mild, depending on amount and the coconut milk mellows it).

Add a satay or Pad Thai spice mix (maybe 1/4 of a package per person) and peanut butter (very high calories) or, if you fret about gooey peanut butter in your pack, add any of the powdered peanut butter options.

Kind of 1950’s suburbia, but onion soup mix makes most any veggie dish more interesting.  Better yet, look for a recipe, mix up your own from dry ingredients and dehydrated onions, and add some to your pre-measured packages.

*TMI Warning*: I usually have meat in my meals, but on two treks in New Zealand a year ago, there were a bunch of vegetarians along so all the meals were whole-grain, veggie, organic, paleo, free-range, and gender-neutral.  And pooping, even while on a trip, even in a cat hole, was easy and required far less toilet paper than at home (think rabbit pellets versus gooey fox poop).  Yeah, probably TMI, but it was a benefit of that meal planning.

[Author]

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