Tomato Basil Soup, Dry Build
A pot of tomato soup rebuilt from powder, flakes, and dried herbs. No blender, no stock carton.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 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
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Tomato powder | 1/3 cup | the whole backbone of the soup |
|---|---|---|
| Vegetable bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp powder | |
| Dried onion flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried carrot and celery | 2 tbsp | from a soup vegetable blend |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried basil | 1 tsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1/2 tsp | |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable canister kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 500 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the onion, carrot, celery, and the bay leaf.
- Simmer five minutes. The dried vegetables need that long or they stay gravel.
- Kill the heat. Whisk in the tomato powder a spoonful at a time so it does not clump.
- Stir in the bouillon, garlic, basil, and parsley. Let it sit two minutes with the lid on.
- Fish out the bay leaf. Add the oil, then the parmesan, and season.
The original is a pot of fresh vegetables simmered in a quart of stock and then blended. None of that travels. Tomato powder replaces the plum tomatoes and the broth carton at once, and it arrives pre-blended, which removes the only piece of equipment the recipe really needed. Bouillon stands in for the vegetable stock, and dried mirepoix does the work of the onion, carrot, and celery.
Order matters more than technique here. The dried vegetables go in while the water is hot and stay in for the full five minutes; the tomato powder goes in off the heat, or it scorches on the pot bottom and turns bitter. Butter is gone, replaced by olive oil, which carries better and does the same job of rounding out the acid. The parmesan is optional, but it is where most of the protein comes from.
Packing
Everything dry except the cheese goes in one bag at home. Parmesan and oil ride separately; the cheese cakes if it meets tomato powder in the pack.
Variations
- A handful of instant potato flakes turns it into a thicker chowder.
- Skip the parmesan and the oil covers the fat; that makes it vegan and dairy-free.
- Broken pasta or couscous added with the vegetables makes it a full dinner.
https://domesticsuperhero.com/skinny-tomato-basil-soup