camp meals

Raspberry Pistachio Cold Soak Oats

Freeze-dried raspberries, milk powder, and pistachios in a jar overnight.

calories
610
weight
4.8 oz
cal / oz
128
protein
18 g
serves
1, scales
prep
3 min
cook
0 min
total time
3 min
water
240 ml cold
cost
$$

Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.

  • Breakfast
  • Cold soak
  • No cook
  • Backpacking
  • Thru-hike
  • Bikepacking
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • Eat in the bag
  • Pre-mix at home
  • Shelf stable
  • Dump and stir

Ingredients

Rolled oats 3/4 cup old fashioned, not instant or steel cut
Freeze-dried raspberries 1/3 cup crush half of them to powder
Whole milk powder 3 tbsp
Vanilla whey protein powder 2 tbsp stands in for the yogurt
Honey 1 tbsp a squeeze packet, or 2 tsp honey powder in the premix
Pumpkin pie spice 1/2 tsp
Shelled pistachios 2 tbsp chopped
Salt a pinch

Method

  1. At night, tip the dry premix into your jar and add 240 ml of cold water.
  2. Seal it and shake for ten seconds. Check that nothing is packed dry at the bottom.
  3. Leave it in the pack overnight. Below freezing, it goes in the quilt with you.
  4. In the morning, stir once and scatter the pistachios on top. Eat cold.

The original is a fridge recipe built on fresh berries, milk, and Greek yogurt. None of that travels. Freeze-dried raspberries rehydrate into something close enough, whole milk powder carries the fat, and vanilla whey covers both the tang and the protein the yogurt was providing.

Crushing half the berries matters more than it sounds. Powdered fruit bleeds through the whole jar overnight and thickens the soak, while the whole berries stay intact enough to bite. Leave them all whole and you get plain oats with red lumps in them.

Packing

Oats, berries, milk powder, protein powder, spice, and salt all live in one bag. Pistachios ride in a separate corner of the food bag so they stay crisp, and the honey packet goes wherever it can leak without consequence.

Variations

  • Swap the raspberries for freeze-dried strawberries or blueberries. The crushed-berry trick works the same.
  • No pistachios, no problem: chopped almonds or plain sunflower seeds do the job.
  • Skip the water and use a hot pour if the stove is already running. It becomes porridge in about four minutes.

https://www.tasteandtellblog.com/raspberry-overnight-oats-recipe