Camp Salsa from Dried Everything
Tomato powder, dried peppers, and dried onion rehydrated in a bag. No cooler, no knife.
- calories
- 90
- weight
- 1.1 oz
- cal / oz
- 82
- protein
- 3 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 5 min
- water
- 180 ml cold
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dinner
- No cook
- Cold soak
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Tomato powder | 1/3 cup | sold for camp cooking; sun-dried tomato ground in a blender works |
|---|---|---|
| Dried tomato flakes or diced sun-dried tomato | 2 tbsp | this is what gives it chunks |
| Dried bell pepper flakes | 2 tbsp | green and red both fine |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Crushed red pepper or chile flake | 1/4 tsp | start here, add more once it is wet |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | leave it out if you are on the wrong side of that argument |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Lime juice powder or citric acid | 1/2 tsp | cider vinegar powder does the same job |
Method
- Pour the whole premix into a quart freezer bag or a jar.
- Add 180 ml of cold water. Squeeze the air out and work it with your fingers until nothing is dry.
- Let it sit 20 minutes. The pepper flakes are the slowest thing in there and they decide when it is done.
- Taste it. Too thin, wait longer. Too thick, add water a splash at a time.
- Adjust heat and salt now, not before. Dry chile flake tastes like nothing until it hydrates.
Real salsa is a cooler problem: tomatoes, onions, peppers, and a knife. This version moves all of that to the dry side. Tomato powder rebuilds the base, flakes and dried pepper give it something to chew, and the acid powder replaces the lime you did not want to carry.
The wait is the recipe. Everything hydrates at a different rate, and the flavor you taste at minute two is not the flavor at minute twenty. Salt and heat go in at the end for the same reason. Scale it up freely, since the only limit is bag size.
Packing
Everything is dry powder and flake, so it all goes in one bag at home. Carry a spare pinch bag of chile flake and salt if you like to push it at camp.
Variations
- Stir in a spoonful of dehydrated refried beans to turn it into a dip that holds a chip.
- Hot water instead of cold cuts the wait to about five minutes, but the texture goes softer.
- Add a packet of instant rice and it becomes a bowl instead of a condiment.
https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/salsa-recipe.448