Avgolemono Camp Soup
Egg-lemon soup rebuilt from freeze-dried chicken, orzo, and a shelf-stable egg powder.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 650 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Orzo | 1/2 cup | cooks in about 8 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken bouillon powder | 2 tsp | or 2 cubes crushed |
| Freeze-dried or canned chicken | 3 oz | foil pouch chicken works if you skip the drain |
| Dried kale flakes | 1/4 cup | dehydrated at home or bought as kale chips, unsalted |
| Whole egg powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried lemon juice powder | 1 tbsp | or one squeeze packet of shelf-stable lemon juice |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | optional, for calories |
Method
- Bring 650 ml of water to a boil. Stir in the bouillon, orzo, chicken, and kale flakes.
- Simmer 8 minutes, stirring often. Orzo sticks to a thin pot floor faster than anything else you carry.
- While it cooks, put the egg powder and lemon powder in your mug with 3 tbsp of cold water and stir until smooth. No lumps, or you get scrambled egg.
- Pull the pot off the heat and wait a full minute. Then ladle in about half a cup of the hot broth to the mug, one spoonful at a time, stirring the whole time.
- Pour the warmed egg mixture back into the pot and stir. Do not put it back on the flame.
- Add pepper and the oil. It thickens as it sits.
Avgolemono is a soup thickened with egg instead of cream, which is exactly what you want on trail: no fresh dairy, no roux, no flour. Whole egg powder rehydrates well enough to do the same work, and lemon powder carries the acid without a leaking bottle.
The tempering step is the only place this can go wrong. Egg poured straight into boiling broth curdles into strings. Warm it slowly in a mug first, off the flame, and it turns the broth silky instead. Kale flakes are not traditional but they rehydrate in the same eight minutes the orzo needs and add something to chew.
Packing
Orzo, bouillon, kale, chicken, and pepper go in one bag. Egg powder and lemon powder go in a second small bag, because they get added off the heat and you do not want to be sorting that out mid-cook.
Variations
- Instant rice in place of orzo makes it gluten-free and cuts the cook time to five minutes.
- Skip the egg entirely and thicken with a tablespoon of potato flakes. Different soup, same job.
- A pinch of dried dill is closer to how this gets served at home.
https://www.pinchmeimeating.com/avgolemono-greek-lemon-chicken-soup-orzo-kale