Trail Burrito, Cheese and Bean
Rice and beans rehydrated in one pot, then rolled into tortillas you already had crushed in the lid pocket.
- calories
- 950
- weight
- 8 oz
- cal / oz
- 119
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 300 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
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Taco or Spanish seasoned rice side | 1/4 cup | Knorr-style, broken up in the bag |
|---|---|---|
| Instant refried or black beans | 1/4 cup | |
| Freeze-dried shredded cheese | 1/4 cup | or 2-3 oz hard cheese if you will eat it in a day or two |
| Dried sliced black olives | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tbsp | |
| Flour tortillas | 2, 8-10 inch | |
| Hot sauce packet | 1 | optional |
Method
- Dump the rice and olives in the pot and add water until it just covers them, then about a quarter cup more.
- Bring it to a boil, then hold a low simmer until the rice is soft. Ten minutes or so, longer at altitude.
- Pull the pot off the stove. Stir in the bean, cheese, and cilantro bag and push it under the water. Add a splash more only if it is sitting dry on top.
- Cover and wait five minutes. It will go from soup to a thick scoopable filling.
- Spoon it down the middle of each tortilla, add hot sauce, and roll.
The whole thing turns on water discipline. Rice needs a real simmer and a known amount of liquid; the beans and cheese need almost none, because instant bean flakes and freeze-dried cheese pull moisture out of anything nearby. Cook them together and you get glue. Cook the rice first, then let the residual heat handle the rest, and you get a filling that holds its shape in a tortilla instead of running out the end.
Start under on water. Adding a splash takes ten seconds; boiling off an extra half cup takes fuel you did not plan to spend. Fresh cheese works and tastes better, but it is a two-day ingredient at best in summer, so the freeze-dried version is what makes this a resupply-box meal rather than a first-night one.
Packing
Beans, cheese powder, and cilantro go in one snack bag together since they rehydrate off residual heat. Rice, olives, that snack bag, and the sauce packet all live in one quart freezer bag. Tortillas ride flat against your back panel. If the bag sits in a resupply box for months, freeze the cheese first so the fat does not turn.
Variations
- A quarter cup of taco-seasoned TVP or freeze-dried ground meat pushes protein past 40 g.
- Dried green chiles, green onion, or freeze-dried corn, a tablespoon each, for something closer to a real burrito.
- Skip the tortillas and eat it as a rice bowl. Saves two ounces and a crushed package.
https://thehikingtreeblog.wordpress.com/2016/02/03/gourmet-trail-recipes-burritos