Creamy Mushroom Meatballs and Rice
Freeze-dried meatballs, instant rice, and a mushroom gravy built from powder.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 32 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
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant white rice | 1 1/2 cups dry | the parboiled kind that rehydrates in five minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried beef meatballs | 3 oz | or a shelf-stable summer sausage cut into coins |
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1/2 cup | shiitake or porcini, crumbled small |
| Cream of mushroom soup mix | 1 packet | the dry envelope, not the can |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | stands in for the heavy cream |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the mushrooms, meatballs, bouillon, garlic powder, and onion powder.
- Simmer four minutes. The mushrooms need the head start or they stay leathery.
- Stir in the rice, cover, and pull the pot off the flame. Wait five minutes without lifting the lid.
- Sprinkle the soup mix and milk powder over the top and stir hard until no dry lumps remain.
- Pour in the oil, season, and let it sit two more minutes to thicken.
The original is a pressure cooker dish: canned broth, canned soup, frozen meatballs, and a cup of heavy cream. None of that travels. The soup can becomes a dry envelope, the cream becomes milk powder plus oil, and the frozen meatballs become freeze-dried ones or a sausage you can carry warm for a week.
Order matters more than technique here. Mushrooms and meatballs rehydrate slowly, so they boil first; rice rehydrates fast and turns to paste if it sits in heat. The thickeners go in last, off the flame, because starch and milk powder scorch on a stove that only knows one setting.
Packing
Rice in one bag. Mushrooms, meatballs, soup mix, milk powder, and seasonings in a second bag so the sauce goes in as one pour. Oil in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Swap the meatballs for a foil pouch of chicken and add it at the end.
- A spoonful of dried onion flakes in the first boil gets you closer to a real gravy.
https://www.thisisnotdietfood.com/instant-pot-creamy-mushroom-meatballs-and-rice