Toasted Cornmeal and Chia Pinole
Toasted cornmeal, cinnamon, and chia. Mixed thin as a drink or thick as a spoon meal.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 9 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 3 min
- water
- 300 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
- Snack
- Drink
- No cook
- Cold soak
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Day hike
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Fine cornmeal or masa harina | 1/2 cup | toast it at home before packing |
|---|---|---|
| Chia seeds | 1 tbsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/2 tsp | |
| Brown sugar | 1 tbsp | maple sugar works too |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Water | 300 ml | cold, from the bottle |
Method
- At home: toast the cornmeal dry in a skillet over medium heat, stirring, until it smells like popcorn and goes light tan. About five minutes. Let it cool all the way or it will sweat in the bag.
- Mix the cooled cornmeal with chia, cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Bag it.
- On trail, pour the bag into a bottle or jar and add 300 ml of cold water. Shake.
- Wait ten minutes. The chia thickens it and the cornmeal stops tasting raw.
- Drink it, or use half the water and eat it with a spoon.
Toasting is the whole point. Raw cornmeal in cold water tastes like paste; toasted cornmeal tastes nutty and mixes without that chalky edge. Do it at home in a dry skillet and it costs you nothing on trail, since nothing here needs heat once you are walking.
The chia is structural, not decorative. It swells and holds the corn in suspension so the drink does not separate into water on top and sludge at the bottom in the first two minutes. Ten minutes of soak time is the difference between grit and something you can actually finish. Sugar and salt are there because plain corn slurry is hard to drink in volume, and volume is the point.
Packing
One bag per serving. A wide-mouth bottle beats a jar if you want to drink it; the grit settles and you need to shake it again halfway down.
Variations
- Cut the water to 100 ml for a thick porridge you eat with a spoon.
- Add powdered lemonade or lime for a sour version that goes down easier in heat.
- Hot water works if you have a stove going, but it is not required.
https://www.nomeatathlete.com/fuel-your-run-the-tarahumara-way-15-pinole-chia-recipes-for-the-modern-athlete