camp meals

Fruity Breakfast Rice

Instant rice, dried fruit, and butter powder. A soft breakfast for a stomach that isn't awake yet.

calories
420
weight
3.5 oz
cal / oz
120
protein
6 g
serves
2, scales
prep
2 min
cook
3 min
total time
5 min
water
300 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.

  • Breakfast
  • Dessert
  • Canister stove
  • Alcohol / Esbit
  • Backpacking
  • Thru-hike
  • Bikepacking
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • Gluten free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Dump and stir

Ingredients

Instant rice 1 cup the parboiled kind that rehydrates off heat
Diced dried fruit 1/4 cup apple, apricot, and raisin blend works
Dry milk powder 2 tbsp
Butter powder 2 tbsp
Brown sugar 2 tbsp
Cinnamon 1/2 tsp
Salt a pinch

Method

  1. Boil 300 ml of water in the pot.
  2. Dump the bag in and stir until the powders dissolve and no dry rice is sitting on top.
  3. Take the pot off the stove, put the lid on, and leave it fifteen minutes. A cozy or a jacket wrapped around the pot helps in cold air.
  4. Stir again before eating. It thickens as it sits.

Instant rice is already cooked and dried, so it only needs to reabsorb water. That means the stove runs for the boil and nothing more, and the fifteen-minute wait is done off the flame. Cheap on fuel, and the pot never scorches.

The butter powder and dry milk are what turn it from wet rice into something with body. Both go in dry with everything else, so there is nothing perishable and nothing to measure at camp. Stir a second time at the end. The starch and the milk solids need it to come together.

Packing

Everything goes in one quart freezer bag at home. If you would rather not cook in the pot, pour the boiling water straight into the bag, seal it, and let it sit inside a cozy for the same fifteen minutes.

Variations

  • Swap the dry milk for coconut milk powder and the butter powder for coconut oil to make it dairy-free.
  • Add a scoop of vanilla protein powder after the soak, not before, or it clumps.
  • Eat it after dinner instead. Half a batch is about right as a dessert.

https://trailcooking.com/breakfast/fruity-breakfast-rice