Hamburger Soup, Dry Bag Version
Ground beef, potato flakes, and dried vegetables rebuilt into a one-pot camp soup.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 34 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dehydrated cooked ground beef | 2 oz | browned, rinsed of fat, then dried; fat is what turns rancid |
|---|---|---|
| Beef bouillon | 2 tsp | paste or powder, enough for 2 cups |
| Dried potato dice | 1/3 cup | or 1/4 cup potato flakes added at the end |
| Dried carrot | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried chopped onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tsp | |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | stands in for a can of diced tomatoes |
| Dried green beans | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | replaces the fat you drained off at home |
Method
- Pour the bag into your pot with 600 ml of water. Stir so the tomato powder does not clump on the bottom.
- Bring it to a boil, then drop to the lowest flame that keeps it moving.
- Simmer 10 to 12 minutes with the lid on. The potato dice and carrot decide when it is done, so bite one.
- Kill the heat, stir in the oil, and let it sit five minutes off the stove. The beef needs that time to finish rehydrating.
- If it is still thin, stir in a spoonful of potato flakes.
The original is a stovetop soup built on a can of tomatoes, four cups of broth, and raw potatoes. None of that travels. The fix is to move the slow, wet work home: brown and dehydrate the beef, use tomato powder instead of a can, and cut the vegetables small enough that they rehydrate in the same twelve minutes the potatoes need. Bouillon replaces the broth so you carry seasoning instead of water.
Rinsing the fat off the beef before drying it is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the bag is edible in week two. Fat left on dried meat goes rancid fast. You add the calories back at camp with the oil, which also gives the soup the body it lost when the beef stopped being greasy.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag at home. Oil rides in a dropper bottle. Dehydrated beef keeps about two weeks at summer temperatures, longer if you vacuum seal it and keep it out of the sun.
Variations
- Swap the beef for a foil pouch of chicken and use chicken bouillon. No dehydrator needed.
- Instant refried bean flakes in place of the meat make it vegetarian and thicken it at the same time.
- A pinch of smoked paprika covers for the browning you lose by cooking the beef at home.
https://mealswithmaria.site/hearty-hamburger-soup