Bread Soup in a Pot
Dried bread cubes, dried vegetables, and a bouillon cube. A German way to use stale bread, made packable.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 2.8 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 12 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 7 min
- water
- 300 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dried bread cubes | 50 g | sourdough or a dense farmhouse loaf, cut to 1 cm and dried hard |
|---|---|---|
| Dried vegetables | 2 tbsp | leek, carrot, celery root, onion, parsley, lovage |
| Beef bouillon cube | 1 | |
| White pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Caraway seeds | a pinch | |
| Dried sausage or jerky | 1.5 oz | optional, chopped small |
Method
- Tip the bag into your pot and add 300 ml of water.
- Bring it to a boil, then cut the heat.
- Cover and let it sit three or four minutes so the vegetables rehydrate and the bread swells.
- Stir once and eat. Every extra minute it sits, the bread goes further toward mush.
Bread soup exists because stale bread is not garbage. Dry the cubes hard at home — an hour or two in a low oven, or a dehydrator — and they keep for months without a fridge and weigh almost nothing. Wet bread molds; bone-dry bread does not.
The loaf matters more than anything else here. Sandwich bread collapses into paste the moment it hits hot water. Sourdough or a dense rye holds its structure long enough to eat with a spoon. Dried sausage is the only real protein in the pot, so carry it unless you are deliberately going meatless.
Packing
Bread cubes, vegetables, crumbled bouillon, pepper, and caraway go in one bag. Label and date it. Sausage rides separately so its oil stays off the bread.
Variations
- Swap the beef cube for vegetable bouillon and skip the sausage for a meatless version.
- Store-bought croutons work if you did not dry bread at home.
- A spoon of olive oil at the end adds a hundred calories and keeps it from tasting thin.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-brotsuppe