camp meals

Broccoli Avocado Camp Soup

Dried broccoli and greens boiled soft, then thickened with an avocado you carried in.

calories
430
weight
3.5 oz
cal / oz
123
protein
8 g
serves
2, scales
prep
5 min
cook
12 min
total time
17 min
water
600 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
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Backpacking
  • Canoe / raft
  • Gluten free
  • Dairy free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Dehydrate ahead
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Dried broccoli florets 1 1/2 cups freeze-dried or home-dehydrated, chopped small
Dried beet greens or spinach 1/2 cup packed kale and chard work the same
Dried minced onion 2 tbsp
Chicken bouillon 2 tsp vegetable bouillon if you want it meat-free
Dried parsley 1 tbsp
Olive oil 2 tbsp half goes in, half goes on top
Avocado 1 large buy it rock hard, it ripens in the pack
Lime 1 or 1 tbsp powdered lime juice
Salt and black pepper to taste
Toasted pepitas 3 tbsp

Method

  1. Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Stir in the broccoli, greens, onion, bouillon, and parsley.
  2. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, lid on, until the broccoli is soft enough to mash against the side of the pot. Add a splash more water if it goes dry.
  3. Pull it off the heat. Add 1 tbsp of the olive oil.
  4. Scoop the avocado in and mash it into the soup with a spoon or the back of a fork. Work at it until the lumps are gone. This is your blender.
  5. Squeeze in the lime. Salt and pepper hard, dried vegetables need more than you think.
  6. Top each bowl with the rest of the oil and the pepitas.

An immersion blender is not going in your pack, so the avocado does the blending. Mashed into hot broth it breaks down into a thick green base with real fat in it, which is the whole point of the original recipe and the part that survives the trip. Everything else here is dried, because fresh broccoli and a bunch of beet greens are mostly water and mostly air.

Buy the avocado hard and unripe two or three days out. It will be ready about when you want dinner, and it bruises less than a ripe one. Keep half the olive oil for the top of the bowl: unheated oil tastes like something, and heated oil mostly tastes like nothing.

Packing

Everything dry goes in one bag: broccoli, greens, onion, bouillon, parsley. The avocado rides in a mug or the top of the pot so nothing crushes it. Oil in a leakproof dropper bottle.

Variations

  • Vegetable bouillon makes it vegan and vegetarian as written otherwise.
  • A scoop of instant potato flakes at the end turns it from soup into something closer to a stew.
  • Chili flakes or a squeeze of hot sauce covers up dull dried broccoli.

https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/broccoli-avocado-soup-with-beet-greens