French Onion Mac
Dried onions, pasta, and cheese powder in one pot. Christmas dinner reduced to what fits in a stuff sack.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 142
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Small pasta shells or macaroni | 1 1/2 cups dry | small shapes cook faster and use less fuel |
|---|---|---|
| Dried minced onion | 1/3 cup | |
| Cheddar cheese powder | 1/3 cup | |
| Vegetable bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | |
| Milk powder | 2 tbsp | whole milk powder if you can find it |
| Olive oil or ghee | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder, thyme, black pepper | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Fried onions | 1/4 cup | the canned kind, crushed, carried separately |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the dried onion and bouillon and let them sit off the flame for two minutes so the onion starts to rehydrate.
- Return to a boil, add the pasta, and cook at a low simmer until it is soft, eight to ten minutes. Stir often. The onion will stick if you don't.
- Kill the heat. There should be about a finger of liquid left. If there's more, pour some off; if it's dry, add a splash.
- Stir in the cheese powder, milk powder, oil, and spices. Keep stirring until the sauce pulls together instead of sitting in clumps.
- Cover for two minutes, then top with the crushed fried onions.
A holiday casserole is really just onions cooked down until they taste like more than onions, plus starch and fat to carry them. None of that requires an oven or a refrigerator. Dried minced onion gets most of the way there if you give it a head start in hot water before the pasta goes in; drop it in cold with everything else and it stays chewy.
The cheese and milk powders go in after the flame is out. Powdered dairy on a live burner turns grainy and sticks to the pot, and scrubbing a pot is the actual cost here. The fried onions on top are not decoration. They are the only crunch in the bowl, and after four days of soft food that matters more than it sounds.
Packing
Pasta, dried onion, bouillon, and spices go in one bag. Cheese and milk powder go in a second bag, because they clump if they cook and they scorch if they hit the pot early. Fried onions ride in a rigid container or you will be eating dust.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken turns this into the dinner it was descended from.
- Half a cup of dried mushrooms with the onion pushes it toward something closer to a soup.
- Swap the cheddar powder for parmesan if you want it sharper and lighter.
https://mealswithmaria.site/christmas-dinner-ideas