Cold-Soak Potato Salad
Freeze-dried potatoes, mayo packets, and thirty minutes of patience. Cold water is the only cooking.
- calories
- 660
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 132
- protein
- 8 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 300 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.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Cold soak
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried potato dices | 2 cups (2 oz) | freeze-dried rehydrates more evenly than dehydrated |
|---|---|---|
| Celery, dried | 1/2 rib, chopped | |
| Red onion, dried | 1/4 cup, finely chopped | |
| Mayonnaise packets | 4-6 tbsp | 6 packets, unopened until camp |
| Red wine or apple cider vinegar | 1/2 tbsp | 2 condiment packets |
| Yellow mustard | 1/2 tbsp | 2 packets |
| Sugar | 1/2 tbsp | 1 packet |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried dill | 1/2 tsp | |
| Paprika | a sprinkle | its own small bag |
| Bacon bits | 1 tbsp | optional, imitation bits are shelf-stable and vegetarian |
| Pickle relish | 2 packets | optional |
Method
- At home, run the chopped celery and onion in a dehydrator at 135F for 4 to 6 hours, until they are hard and give up no moisture.
- Bag the potatoes, celery, onion, sugar, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dill together. Paprika goes in a pill bag inside that bag, along with the sealed condiment packets.
- In camp, pull the packets out. Add cold water to the bag or pot until it just barely covers the dry mix. Under-pour on purpose; you can add more, you cannot take it back.
- Wait 10 minutes minimum, 30 if you have it. The potatoes should bend, not crunch.
- Squeeze in the mayo, mustard, vinegar, and bacon bits. Stir until every piece is coated.
- Dust with paprika and let it sit five more minutes before eating.
Potato salad is a refrigerator dish, so the trail version has to solve two problems: no cold storage and no stove. Freeze-dried potato dices handle the first, since they come back to something with structure in cold water instead of collapsing the way dehydrated slices often do. Mayonnaise packets handle the second. They are shelf-stable until opened, and they carry the fat that makes this a meal rather than a side.
The water is the whole game. Barely covering the mix leaves the potatoes to pull in what they need and no more; overshoot and the dressing thins out into soup you cannot fix. Thirty minutes beats ten by a wide margin, so start it soaking when you drop your pack and go do something else. The five-minute rest after the dressing goes in is not padding either, the dill and garlic need a moment in the fat before they taste like anything.
Packing
One quart freezer bag holds the dry mix; the sealed packets ride inside it so nothing gets left behind. Eat straight from the bag and there is nothing to wash.
Variations
- Two tablespoons of powdered egg soaked in with the potatoes adds protein and lets you cut a mayo packet or two.
- Vinegar powder in place of the liquid packets drops a little weight and removes a leak risk.
- Skip the bacon bits and relish and it stays a clean vegetarian lunch.
https://thehikingtreeblog.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/gourmet-trail-recipes-potato-salad