Instant Potatoes and Dried Sausage
Two grocery-store shortcuts and a handful of home-dried vegetables. Ready before the pot cools.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 3 min
- total time
- 5 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
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Dry cured sausage | 3 oz | chorizo or salami, sliced thin at home |
| Home-dried vegetables | 1/3 cup | carrot, onion, bell pepper, blanched before drying |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Put the dried vegetables in the pot with 400 ml of water and bring it to a boil.
- Cut the heat and let the vegetables sit five minutes in the hot water. They need the soak more than they need the boil.
- Stir in the potato flakes a little at a time until it thickens.
- Drop in the sausage slices, pour over the oil, and stir. Season and eat out of the pot.
Instant potato flakes are the whole reason this works on a stove that only really boils water. They rehydrate on contact, so the fuel goes to the vegetables, not the starch. Blanching the vegetables before they go in the dehydrator is what lets them come back in five minutes instead of staying gravel.
The sausage is cured, not cooked, so it keeps for days without a cooler and adds fat the potatoes can carry. It goes in off the heat — hot enough to soften and release its oil, not hot enough to render out what you carried it for.
Packing
Potato flakes and dried vegetables in one bag, sausage in another. Slice the sausage at home so you are not working a knife in the dark.
Variations
- A spoonful of powdered cheese or milk powder makes it richer, but drops the dairy-free case.
- Swap the sausage for a foil pouch of chicken if you want less fat.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/making-your-own-backpacking-meals