Minestrone Meatball Pot
Dehydrated soup, dried meat, one pot. Italian dinner that fits in a bear canister.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 17 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried or home-dehydrated beef meatballs | 3 oz dry | cooked, cooled, sliced in half, then dried hard |
|---|---|---|
| Dried minestrone soup mix | 1 cup | a dry vegetable-and-tomato soup base, or your own dehydrated soup |
| Small dry pasta | 1/3 cup | ditalini or small shells if the soup mix has none |
| Dried spinach flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Grated hard parmesan | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable green-can kind is fine and does not need a fridge |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Bagel chips or hard crackers | 1 oz | stands in for the bread on the side |
Method
- Put the meatballs, soup mix, and pasta in the pot with 600 ml of water. Stir once.
- Bring it to a boil, then back the flame off to the lowest simmer that still moves the surface.
- Ten to twelve minutes. Stir every couple of minutes or the tomato solids scorch on the bottom.
- Cut the heat. Stir in the spinach flakes and put the lid on for three minutes.
- Add the oil and the parmesan, stir, and eat with the crackers.
The original is a fry pan job: brown fresh meatballs, pour in a carton of soup, wilt fresh spinach, toast bread on the side. None of that survives a pack. Fresh meat and a litre of liquid soup are the two heaviest things you could carry, so both get dried. The tradeoff is time — dried meatballs need a real simmer, not a soak, and that is the fifteen minutes.
The browning step is gone and it costs you something. Fat and oil bring back part of what searing would have. Add the parmesan off the heat so it melts into the broth instead of clumping on the pot floor, and add the spinach last so it rehydrates without turning to sludge.
Packing
Meatballs, soup mix, pasta, and spinach go in one freezer bag. Cheese in its own small bag, oil in a leakproof bottle, crackers somewhere they will not get crushed. That order matters less than the oil not getting loose.
Variations
- A foil pouch of chicken or a summer sausage cut into coins replaces the dried meatballs and needs no rehydrating.
- Tomato soup base plus dried mixed vegetables works if you cannot find minestrone.
- A pinch of fennel seed and red pepper flakes makes the meatballs read as Italian sausage.
https://www.advrider.com/minestrone-meatballs