Home-Dried Garden Vegetable Soup
Cabbage, carrots, and greens from the garden, dried flat and rebuilt in a pot with potato flakes.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 3.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 150
- protein
- 12 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 min
- water
- 550 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Dehydrated shredded cabbage | 1/2 cup | shreds thin and dries faster than almost anything else |
|---|---|---|
| Dehydrated carrot coins | 1/4 cup | slice thin or they stay crunchy |
| Dehydrated onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried kale or collards | 1/4 cup, crushed | |
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1/3 cup | the thickener |
| Gluten-free vegetable bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp powder | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper and a pinch of dried garlic | to taste |
Method
- Put the cabbage, carrot, onion, kale, and bouillon in the pot with 550 ml of water. Let it sit five minutes cold if you have the time; the vegetables rehydrate faster than they boil.
- Bring it to a boil, then hold a low simmer for six to eight minutes. The carrots decide when it is done.
- Take it off the heat. Stir in the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it thickens to a stew.
- Pour the oil over the top, add pepper and garlic, and stir.
This is what a spring garden looks like after it goes through a dehydrator. Cabbage, carrots, onions, and hardy greens all dry well and rehydrate fast, which makes them the useful ones to grow if some of the harvest is meant to end up in a pack. Tomatoes and lettuce do not survive the process in any form worth carrying.
The potato flakes are the structural part. Dried vegetables alone give you a thin, weak broth with things floating in it, and no real calories. Flakes turn it into a stew, and stew carries oil. The oil is where most of the 540 calories actually come from, so do not leave it home.
Packing
Dry everything at home on trays and pack the vegetables, bouillon, and seasoning into one bag. Potato flakes ride in their own bag so they do not soak up moisture from the vegetables. Oil goes in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- A handful of instant refried bean flakes adds another 8 g of protein and more body.
- Dried mushrooms deepen the broth more than any amount of extra bouillon does.
- Swap the potato flakes for instant polenta if you want a thicker, heavier bowl.
https://thesurvivalmom.com/spring-gardening-5-steps-grow-eat