Split Pea and Barley Hot Cereal
A whole-grain porridge built from bulk bin staples, cooked in one pot at camp.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 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.
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Split peas | 1/4 cup | green or yellow, cracked smaller in a blender at home |
|---|---|---|
| Pearl barley | 3 tbsp | quick barley if you can find it |
| Millet | 2 tbsp | |
| Rolled oats | 1/3 cup | goes in at the end |
| Sunflower seeds | 2 tbsp | black oil sunflower kernels, unsalted |
| Kelp granules | 1/2 tsp | salt and minerals in one shake |
| Cornmeal | 1 tbsp | or sorghum flour |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Brown sugar | 1 tbsp | optional |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the split peas, barley, millet, and cornmeal.
- Simmer on the lowest flame you can hold, stirring every couple of minutes so the cornmeal does not weld to the pot. Fifteen minutes.
- Check a barley grain. If it still crunches, add a splash of water and give it five more.
- Kill the heat, stir in the oats, sunflower seeds, and kelp. Lid on for three minutes.
- Pour the oil over and stir in the sugar if you want it sweet.
The source for this one was a homestead feed formula: split peas, barley, wheat, oats, millet, sunflower, kelp, corn. Those are all human food, and the ratio is a sound one for a hot breakfast — legume for protein, grains for starch, seed for fat. What it needed was a cook time short enough for a canister and quantities scaled to one person instead of a flock. Fish meal, mealworms, alfalfa, and oyster shell stayed behind.
Cracking the peas and barley at home is the whole trick. Whole pearl barley wants forty minutes; broken up it softens in fifteen, and the split peas fall apart into a thickener at the same rate. The oats go in off the heat because they only need to swell, and the sunflower seeds carry the fat that makes it hold you until lunch.
Packing
Crack the peas and barley in a blender at home and premix everything dry except the oil into one bag. Cracked grains cut the cook time roughly in half, which matters when it is fuel you are burning.
Variations
- Swap the cornmeal for cracked hard red wheat if you want more body.
- A spoonful of miso stirred in at the end turns it savory.
- Dried fruit in the last five minutes softens without turning to mush.
https://morningchores.com/2-easy-homemade-chicken-feed-recipes