Stuffed Tomato Skillet Rice
The baked stuffed tomato taken apart and rebuilt in one pot on a camp stove.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 500 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 1 1/2 cups dry | |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried peas | 3/4 cup | |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried bell pepper | 1/3 cup | sold as dehydrated capsicum flakes |
| Tomato paste | 1 tube, about 4 oz | tube keeps better than a can once opened |
| Hard cheese | 2 oz | parmesan or aged cheddar, grated at home |
| Breadcrumbs | 1/3 cup | panko browns fastest |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | stands in for the butter |
| Dried parsley or dill | 1 tsp | |
| Mustard powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Put 1 tbsp of the oil in the dry pot over low heat. Add the breadcrumbs and stir constantly until they go golden, about two minutes. Tip them into a mug and set aside.
- Add 500 ml water to the pot along with the onion, pepper, and peas. Bring to a boil and hold it there three minutes so the vegetables rehydrate before the rice goes in.
- Squeeze in the tomato paste and stir until it dissolves. Add the mustard powder, parsley, salt, and pepper.
- Stir in the instant rice, kill the heat, cover, and let it sit ten minutes.
- Fold in the cheese and the remaining oil. Scatter the toasted crumbs over the top and eat straight from the pot.
The original is a baked dish: tomatoes hollowed out, stuffed with rice and peas, run under a breadcrumb crust in an oven. None of that survives a trip. What does survive is the combination — sweet cooked-down tomato, soft rice, onion and pepper underneath, and something crunchy on top — so the recipe keeps the parts and drops the shell.
Tomato paste from a tube does the work the tomato pulp and sauce did, at a fraction of the weight, and it thickens as the rice absorbs the water. Toasting the breadcrumbs first is the step worth not skipping; dumped in raw they turn to paste. Butter is out, so olive oil carries the fat, and hard cheese travels a couple of days without a cooler.
Packing
Rice, peas, onion, pepper, breadcrumbs, and the dry seasonings each get their own small bag, or premix the seasonings into the rice bag. Cheese and the tomato paste tube ride in a side pocket. Toast the crumbs at home if you would rather skip a step in camp.
Variations
- A foil packet of tuna or chicken stirred in at the end pushes it past 30 g of protein.
- Swap the parsley for oregano and a pinch of chili flakes if you want it closer to a pizza pot.
https://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/3862/baked-stuffed-tomatoes