Dehydrated Zucchini Mac
Vermicelli, home-dried zucchini, and a cream cheese triangle that melts into sauce.
- calories
- 500
- weight
- 4.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 109
- protein
- 17 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 13 min
- water
- 400 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dehydrated zucchini | 3 tbsp | sliced thin, dried 4-6 hours |
|---|---|---|
| Vermicelli or other thin pasta | 70 g | thin shapes rehydrate in the same time the zucchini does |
| Chicken bouillon powder | 1 heaping tsp | or one crushed stock cube |
| Full fat milk powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried parmesan | 1 tbsp | nutritional yeast works too |
| Shelf-stable cream cheese wedge | 1 | |
| Chili flakes, turmeric, mustard powder | a pinch each | |
| Salt and pepper | a pinch each |
Method
- Bring 400 ml of water to a boil.
- Dump in everything from the bag except the cream cheese. Stir once so the milk powder does not clump on the bottom.
- Return it to a boil, then kill the heat and put the pot in a cozy for five minutes. Or keep it on a low flame and stir, which uses more fuel.
- Unwrap the cream cheese and stir it in until the sauce goes smooth. Salt to taste.
Zucchini is 95 percent water, which makes it useless in a pack and ideal in a dehydrator. Sliced thin and dried for five or six hours it turns into brittle chips that weigh nothing and come back to something like texture in boiling water. If you do not have a dehydrator, buy dried vegetables rather than fighting your oven for six hours.
The sauce is milk powder plus a cream cheese wedge. Milk powder alone goes thin and chalky. The cream cheese carries fat and holds the whole thing together, and it is stable at ambient temperature for the length of most trips. Stir it in off the heat so it emulsifies instead of breaking.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag. Label it with the contents and the date you dried the zucchini. The cream cheese wedge rides in its own foil, outside the bag.
Variations
- Vegetable bouillon, nutritional yeast, and a plant-based milk powder make it vegan.
- A tablespoon of olive oil or ghee pushes it past 600 calories.
- A pouch of tuna or chicken adds 20 g of protein.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-zucchini-mac