Tomatillo Quinoa Chili
A dehydrated three-bean chili with quinoa in it. Boil, wait, eat.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 123
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 35 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
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Olive or avocado oil | 1 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 medium, chopped | |
| Celery | 1 stalk, chopped | |
| Jalapeño | 1/2 small, minced | use the whole pepper if you want heat |
| Red quinoa | 1/2 cup | rinse it or it turns bitter |
| Garlic | 2 cloves, minced | |
| Chili powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Ground ancho chili | 1 tbsp | grind a dried pod in a spice grinder |
| Ground cumin | 1 tsp | |
| Condensed tomato soup | 1 can (10 oz) | |
| Vegetable stock or water | 1/2 cup | |
| Canned tomatillos | 3/4 cup, diced | |
| Diced tomatoes | 1 can (28 oz) | |
| Red kidney beans | 1 can (28 oz), drained and rinsed | |
| Black beans | 1 can (19 oz), drained and rinsed | |
| Chickpeas | 1 can (19 oz), drained and rinsed | |
| Lime juice | 2 tbsp | |
| Cilantro | 1/4 cup, chopped | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- At home: heat the oil in a large pot and cook the onion and celery until soft. Add the dry quinoa and stir until the grains start jumping.
- Add the jalapeño, garlic, chili powder, ancho, and cumin. One minute, then pour in the tomato soup and stock.
- Simmer ten minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomatillos, all three beans, and the lime juice. Simmer an hour.
- Stir in the cilantro, season, and let it cool. Measure the total volume and write the number down — that is how much water it wants back.
- Spread on lined dehydrator trays and dry 7 to 10 hours, until no bean is soft in the middle. Bag it in six portions with the water number on each bag.
- At camp: put the dried chili in the pot, then add boiling water up to the noted volume. Add the water second, not first, or you will overshoot.
- Lid on, off heat, fifteen minutes. Warm it back up for a minute before eating.
This is a home chili built to be taken apart and put back together. Everything wet gets driven off in the dehydrator, and beans dry well because they are mostly starch — they come back close to where they started. The quinoa is doing double duty: it toasts up nutty in the pot at home, and on the trail it rehydrates faster than any bean it is sitting next to.
The volume measurement is the whole trick. Dried chili gives you no way to judge how much water it lost, so you measure before drying and carry the number. Add the powder to the pot first and pour water in after — go the other way and you end up with soup you cannot thicken back. Nothing here needs a fridge or a cooler, and there is no dairy in it to worry about.
Packing
One freezer bag per serving, each labeled with its rehydration volume in milliliters. Write it on the bag, not on a note that will blow away.
Variations
- A whole jalapeño instead of half if you want the heat to register at altitude.
- Rehydrate thick and roll it into tortillas instead of eating it from the pot.
- A handful of corn chips crushed on top adds fat and salt where the chili has neither.
https://backpackerrecipes.wordpress.com/2011/09/14/quinoa-and-bean-chili-with-tomatillos