No-Waste One Pot
Built to use up the odd ends of a food bag: rice, a hunk of sausage, and whatever dried vegetables are left.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 500 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
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 1 1/2 cups | parboiled, not raw long grain |
|---|---|---|
| Summer sausage | 4 oz | or any dry-cured sausage that keeps unrefrigerated |
| Dried mixed vegetables | 1/2 cup | peas, carrot, bell pepper, onion, whatever is left over |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp powder | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder, black pepper, chili flake | 1 tsp total |
Method
- Dice the sausage while the water heats. Pieces the size of a dime rehydrate the rest of the pot with their fat.
- Bring 500 ml of water to a boil with the dried vegetables, bouillon, and tomato powder. Hold it there four minutes so the vegetables get a head start.
- Dump in the rice and sausage. Stir once, cover, and pull it off the heat.
- Wait eight minutes without lifting the lid. Then stir in the oil and spices.
- If it is soupy, leave the lid off two more minutes. If it is dry, add water a splash at a time.
This is the meal you make on the last night, when the food bag holds a cup of this and a scoop of that. The structure matters more than the exact contents: a starch that rehydrates fast, a fat, a salt source, and something that used to be a vegetable.
The order is the part worth keeping. Dried vegetables need real boiling time and instant rice needs almost none, so the vegetables go in first and the rice goes in last, off heat. Reverse that and you get mush around gravel. The sausage is doing double duty as protein and as rendered fat, which is why the oil is only a tablespoon.
Packing
Rice, vegetables, tomato powder, bouillon, and spices go in one bag at home. The sausage rides whole and gets cut in camp, so it does not sweat grease into the dry mix.
Variations
- Swap the sausage for a foil pouch of chicken and add it at the end, off heat.
- A handful of instant potato flakes will thicken a batch that came out too wet.
- Skip the sausage and the oil doubles as the fat source, but plan on eating more of it.
https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/no-waste-menu-plan