Poor Man's Stew, Dehydrated
Ground beef, potatoes, and carrots in a tomato broth. A slow cooker meal cut down to one pot and ten minutes.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 122
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Car camping
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Ground beef, cooked and dehydrated | 3 oz dry | 90/10 or leaner, rinsed with hot water before drying |
|---|---|---|
| Dehydrated hash brown or diced potatoes | 1/2 cup | store-bought dried potatoes work |
| Dried carrot slices | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | stands in for tomato paste |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | replaces the fat drained off at home |
Method
- Boil 600 ml of water. Dump the whole bag in and stir.
- Bring it back to a boil for one minute, then kill the stove.
- Lid on, cozy or jacket wrapped around the pot, and wait ten minutes.
- Stir again. If the carrots still fight back, add a splash of hot water and give it five more.
- Pour the oil over the top before eating.
The original is a slow cooker recipe: six hours on low turning raw potatoes and carrots tender. Nothing on the trail runs six hours, so the softening moves home. Dehydrated potatoes and carrots have already given up their water and take it back in about ten minutes off the heat. The ground beef is cooked, drained, rinsed, and dried at home too, which is the only way meat like this rides safely without a fridge.
Rinsing the beef matters more than it sounds. Fat left on the crumbles goes rancid in the bag and blocks the meat from rehydrating. Dry it lean, then put the calories back at camp with the oil, which you control. Tomato powder replaces the paste for the same reason everything else changed: a can of paste is water and steel you would be carrying uphill.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag. The beef is the part that spoils, so dry it hard and keep it under two weeks in warm weather. Oil rides in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- Ground turkey or venison dries the same way and comes out lighter.
- A handful of instant potato flakes at the end thickens it into something closer to stew than soup.
- Crackers or a tortilla on the side if you want more calories.
https://mealswithmaria.site/crock-pot-poor-mans-stew