Instant Potato Base with Dried Vegetables and Cheese
Three packets of potato flakes, ground dried root vegetables, and grated hard cheese dried at home. One pour of hot water and dinner is done.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 7 min
- water
- 400 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 3 single-serving packets | the kind that already contains milk powder |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | skip if the packets are already milk-based |
| Dried carrot, celery root, and parsley root | 2 tbsp total | ground to a coarse powder in a spice grinder |
| Hard cheese, 45% fat | 1.5 oz | grated and dried in a low oven at home |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
Method
- Boil 400 ml of water and pull the pot off the flame.
- Pour in the whole bag and stir hard. It will look thin for about thirty seconds.
- Cover and wait two minutes. The dried root vegetables need that time to soften.
- Stir in the oil, then eat straight from the pot.
This is a base, not a fixed dinner. Instant potato flakes rehydrate in off-boil water in under a minute, which is the whole reason they are the backbone of so many trail meals, but on their own they are bland starch. The dried root vegetables are what give it a savory floor. Grinding them to powder matters: whole dried carrot chips are still leathery after two minutes in a pot, powder is not.
Drying the grated cheese at home is the substitution that makes this work without a cooler. A 45 percent hard cheese loses most of its water in a low oven and then keeps for weeks, and it dissolves back into hot potato instead of sitting in it as a lump. Salt goes in the mix at home so you are not carrying a shaker for one meal. Scale it by making one bag per person rather than doubling into one pot; the flakes thicken too fast for large batches to stir evenly.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag at home, cheese included once it is fully dried and cooled. Oil rides separately in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- A small tin of fish or pate stirred in at the end turns it into a heavier meal.
- Instant rice or crushed soy granules in place of one potato packet changes the texture.
- Wild mushrooms picked on the walk, sauteed in the oil first, then the water and the bag on top.
https://www.treking.cz/testy/jidlo-a-piti.htm