Quinoa Spinach Soup with Bannock
A soup that eats like a meal, plus flatbread cooked in the same pot. Extra bannock rides along for tomorrow's lunch.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 130
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 700 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
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Quinoa | 3/4 cup dry | rinse and pre-cook, then dehydrate at home so it rehydrates in minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Dried spinach | 1 cup, loosely packed | dehydrated from fresh or frozen; it collapses to almost nothing |
| Dried carrot and red pepper | 1/2 cup total | |
| Vegetable bouillon | 2 cubes or 2 tsp powder | |
| Whole milk powder | 3 tbsp | whole, not skim, for the calories per gram |
| Garlic powder, pepper, dried thyme | 1 tsp total | |
| Coconut oil | 2 tbsp | solid at cool temps, easy to carry in a small jar |
| All-purpose flour | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Baking powder | 2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Powdered butter or shortening powder | 2 tbsp | cut into the flour mix at home |
Method
- Boil 700 ml of water. Dump in the soup bag, stir once, and drop the heat to a low simmer.
- Simmer 8 to 10 minutes. The vegetables come back first, the quinoa a minute or two later. Stir off the bottom so nothing scorches.
- Kill the heat, stir in the coconut oil, and put the lid on. Let it sit while you do the bread.
- Add cold water to the bannock bag a splash at a time, maybe 1/2 cup, working it through the bag until it is a stiff dough. Do not make it wet.
- Wipe the pot or use the lid. Melt a little oil over low heat, press the dough flat to about half an inch, and cook it covered, 5 to 6 minutes a side, until it sounds hollow and no longer sticks.
- Eat half the bannock with the soup. The rest goes in a bag for tomorrow's lunch.
Quinoa is the reason this works. It carries real protein, it cooks faster than any other whole grain, and pre-cooking then dehydrating it at home cuts the camp simmer to under ten minutes of fuel. Dried spinach and peppers rehydrate in the same window, so the whole soup is one pot and one boil.
The calories come from the coconut oil and the whole milk powder, not the vegetables. Skim milk powder weighs the same and gives you less, so use whole. The bannock is deliberately oversized: it costs nothing extra to cook while the stove is already lit, and cold flatbread the next day beats another bar.
Packing
Everything dry for the soup goes in one bag, labelled with the water amount so you are not guessing at dusk. Bannock dry mix in a second bag, sturdy enough to knead in. Coconut oil in a screw-top jar, packed upright.
Variations
- Swap half the quinoa for instant couscous if you want it done in five minutes instead of ten.
- A handful of grated hard cheese stirred in at the end adds fat and salt.
- Roll the bannock around a spoonful of jam and it becomes dessert.
https://kyraonthego.wordpress.com/2016/03/23/trip-planning-menu-planning-for-an-8-day-spring-hike-along-the-la-cloche-silhouette-trail-at-killarney-provincial-park