Egg Drop Soup, Freeze-Dried
Broth, corn, and egg ribbons from a bag. A hot dinner that weighs almost nothing.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 140
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 6 min
- total time
- 8 min
- water
- 500 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
- Winter / snow
- Bikepacking
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Powdered chicken broth base | 2 tsp | bouillon powder, not a cube; it dissolves faster |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried whole egg powder | 3 tbsp | about two eggs |
| Freeze-dried corn | 1/4 cup | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Turmeric | 1/4 tsp | |
| White pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/4 tsp | taste first, broth base is already salty |
| Dried chives or freeze-dried green onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Toasted sesame oil | 1 tsp | dropper bottle |
Method
- Bring 500 ml of water to a boil. Add the broth base and the corn and let it sit off a low flame for two minutes so the corn rehydrates.
- In your mug or a spare bag, stir the egg powder into about 60 ml of cool water until there are no dry lumps. Do this while the corn soaks.
- Stir the cornstarch, ginger, garlic powder, turmeric, white pepper, and salt into a spoonful of cold water. Pour that into the pot and hold a simmer for a minute until it thickens slightly.
- Take the pot off the stove. Pour the egg slurry in a thin stream while stirring in one direction. The ribbons form in the residual heat.
- Stir in the chives and the sesame oil. Eat it out of the pot.
Egg drop soup is mostly technique, and the technique survives the trip intact. The cornstarch slurry is what keeps the egg suspended: without it the egg sinks and you get broth with a lump at the bottom. Thicken first, then pour the egg off the heat and stir. Boiling egg powder directly in the pot scrambles it.
The home version wants fresh eggs, fresh ginger, and green onion. Egg powder, ground ginger, and dried chives do the same job dry and weigh a few grams. Turmeric is not there for flavor so much as color, which matters more than it should when you are eating grey food in the dark. Sesame oil goes in last, after the heat is off, or the toasted smell cooks away.
Packing
Broth base, corn, cornstarch, and all the spices go in one bag. Egg powder rides in its own bag, because it clumps if it meets the cornstarch early. Sesame oil in a 15 ml dropper.
Variations
- A crushed handful of rice noodles in the pot turns it into a full dinner, but it stops being gluten-free only if you use wheat noodles.
- Freeze-dried chicken adds 15 g of protein for about an ounce.
- Skip the corn in cold weather and add more egg powder instead.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/15-minute-egg-drop-soup