Creamy Tomato Soup for the Bag
Dried tomatoes, tomato powder, and milk powder. Thick enough to eat with a spoon or pour over pasta.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 2.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 3 min
- total time
- 8 min
- water
- 240 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
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Diced dried tomatoes | 1/2 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Dry milk powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Tomato powder | 1 tbsp | this is what makes it soup instead of tomato water |
| Diced dried onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Butter powder | 1 tsp | |
| Sugar | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dry Italian herb blend | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried garlic | 1/4 tsp | |
| Ground black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Shelf-stable bacon bits | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | to taste |
Method
- At home, run everything except the bacon bits through a blender until it is a coarse powder. The dried tomatoes need to be broken down or they stay leathery.
- Pour the powder into a pint freezer bag, drop the bacon bits in on top, and seal it. Write 1 cup water on the outside.
- In camp, boil 240 ml of water and pour it into the bag. Stir until no dry pockets are left.
- Seal the bag, put it in a cozy or inside your jacket, and wait 10 minutes.
- Stir again, salt it, and eat straight from the bag.
Blending is the step people skip and then regret. Whole dried tomato pieces will not rehydrate in ten minutes of off-heat soaking, so you end up chewing tomato leather in thin broth. Ground to a powder, they thicken the water instead, and the tomato powder pushes it the rest of the way to something with body.
The milk powder and butter powder are doing the creamy part without a cooler. Both rehydrate cold, so a boil is enough and you never simmer this. If you cook it in a pot instead of a bag, bring it to a boil, kill the heat, and cover it for five minutes; the shorter soak works because the pot holds heat and the bag does not.
Packing
One pint freezer bag per serving. Tomato powder cakes in humidity, so squeeze the air out and keep the bag flat in the pack.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use vegetarian bacon bits, or leave it out entirely.
- Pour it over cooked couscous or pasta and it works as a sauce for two.
- A 7 oz pouch of chicken stirred in turns one serving into a full dinner for two.
https://trailcooking.com/soups/creamy-tomato-soup