Thermos Couscous Lunch
Boiled at breakfast, eaten at noon. The jug does the cooking while you walk.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 8 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.
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Day hike
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant couscous | 3/4 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried chickpeas, cooked and dehydrated | 1/3 cup | or freeze-dried chickpeas from a pouch |
| Dried vegetables | 1/4 cup | bell pepper, tomato, and onion flakes |
| Vegetable bouillon | 1 cube | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Smoked paprika and cumin | 1 tsp total | |
| Dried lemon peel | 1/2 tsp | or a squeeze packet of lemon juice |
Method
- Tip the dry bag into a wide-mouth insulated food jug. Pour the oil over it.
- Boil 400 ml of water and pour it in. Leave 1 cm of headspace so you can stir.
- Stir once with a long spoon, seal the lid, and put the jug upright in your pack.
- Wait at least 45 minutes. Four hours is fine. Stir before eating; the couscous settles.
- Eat straight from the jug. Rinse it with the last of your drinking water.
A vacuum jug is a stove you already carried. Boiling water plus instant couscous is a retained-heat cook: the grain only needs to sit in water above about 70 C, and a decent jug holds that for hours. You get a hot lunch on a day when stopping to set up a stove in the wind is the last thing you want.
The details that matter are headspace and preheat. Fill it to the brim and you cannot stir, so the top layer stays dry. Fill a cold jug and the steel drinks your heat before the couscous does. Dried chickpeas rehydrate on the same schedule as the grain, which is why they are here instead of lentils — lentils would still be gravel at noon.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag at home, bouillon crumbled in so it dissolves. The oil rides separately. Preheat the jug with a splash of boiling water and dump it before filling — a cold steel jug steals enough heat to leave the couscous gritty.
Variations
- Swap in instant refried bean powder and skip the couscous for a gluten-free version.
- A foil packet of tuna stirred in at noon adds 20 g of protein without changing the boil.
- In summer, skip the boil: cold water, four hours, and it comes out as a cold grain salad.
https://primusequipment.com/products/flinta-insulated-lunch-jug-0-55-l-1