Pork and Potato Trail Stew
Freeze-dried pork, potato flakes, and a pile of dried vegetables. Thick enough to stand a spoon in.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 min
- water
- 550 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
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Car camping
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried pulled pork | 2 oz | a foil pouch of chicken works the same way |
|---|---|---|
| Instant mashed potato flakes | 1/3 cup | the thickener, added last |
| Dried potato slices or hash browns | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried carrot, celery, and onion | 1/4 cup total | |
| Dried mushroom slices | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried kale or spinach flakes | 1/4 cup, loosely packed | |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Onion flakes | 1 tsp | |
| Granulated garlic | 1/2 tsp | |
| Italian seasoning | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground sage and ground thyme | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 550 ml of water to a boil.
- Dump in everything except the potato flakes, oil, and salt. Stir once.
- Simmer on the lowest flame you can hold for eight minutes, stirring now and then so the vegetables do not weld to the bottom.
- Cut the heat and let it sit covered for three minutes. The mushrooms and pork need that time more than the potatoes do.
- Stir in the potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it thickens to stew. Pour the oil over, add salt and pepper, eat.
The original is a fridge-clearing soup: leftover roast pork, a cutting board of raw vegetables, two quarts of stock. None of that travels. Freeze-dried pork and dried vegetables carry the same flavors at a tenth of the weight, and bouillon replaces the stock so you are not hauling water you could scoop from a creek.
The potato flakes do two jobs. They stand in for the diced potatoes that would otherwise need twenty minutes of fuel, and they turn a thin broth into something closer to stew. Add them off the heat and slowly, because there is no undoing a pot of cement. The oil goes in last for calories and to keep the whole thing from tasting like salt water.
Packing
Everything dry except the potato flakes and oil goes in one bag. Flakes ride in a second small bag so you control the thickening. Oil in a leakproof dropper bottle, inside a ziplock.
Variations
- Swap the pork for a foil packet of tuna or a second bouillon cube and call it vegetarian.
- A spoonful of instant refried beans instead of potato flakes thickens just as hard and adds protein.
- In cold weather, add another tablespoon of oil. It is the cheapest warmth you carry.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/pork-potato-soup-recipe