Solo Pot Savory Oats
Oats cooked as dinner instead of breakfast, with hard cheese and salami stirred through.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 142
- protein
- 29 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 7 min
- total time
- 9 min
- water
- 400 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
- Backpacking
- Canoe / raft
- Winter / snow
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Rolled oats | 3/4 cup | instant oats work and cook faster |
|---|---|---|
| Bouillon powder or a crushed cube | 1 tsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Hard cheese | 1.5 oz | aged gouda or parmesan, both keep unrefrigerated for days |
| Hard salami or summer sausage | 2 oz | shelf-stable, uncut until camp |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | a few turns |
Method
- Cut the salami into coins with your pocket knife before you light the stove. Doing it after means greasy fingers on a hot pot.
- Bring 400 ml of water to a boil, then pull the pot off the flame.
- Stir in the oats, bouillon, and onion flakes. Put the lid on and let it sit five minutes.
- Add the salami, cheese, oil, and pepper. Stir until the cheese is gone and it looks like porridge, not soup.
- If it stiffens past eating, splash in hot water. If it stays loose, wait a minute; oats keep drinking.
Oats are cheap, light, and rehydrate off residual heat, which is most of what you want from a solo dinner. The usual objection is that they taste like breakfast. Bouillon, onion, and fat fix that. Treat oats as a starch rather than a cereal and they behave like polenta.
The cheese and salami are both doing double duty as protein and as the fat that makes this filling. Both hold up for several days out of a fridge, which is why they show up in so many solo kitchen kits. Cut the meat cold and add it at the end so it warms through instead of turning to grease in the pot. One boil, one pot, one spoon.
Packing
Oats, bouillon, and onion flakes premixed in one bag. Cheese and salami travel in a second bag together, since they both leak fat. Oil in a leakproof dropper bottle, inside the food bag.
Variations
- Swap the salami for a foil packet of tuna or chicken if you want less fat and more protein.
- A spoonful of powdered milk thickens it and adds body without much weight.
- Sweet version: skip the bouillon and salami, stir in peanut butter and honey instead.
https://www.canoetripping.net/threads/what-is-in-your-solo-kitchen-kit.50612