Trail Dal
Red lentils, tomato powder, and enough spice to matter. One pot, twelve minutes.
- calories
- 790
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 122
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 14 min
- total time
- 16 min
- water
- 600 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
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Car camping
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Red lentils | 1/2 cup | split, not whole brown; they break down on their own |
|---|---|---|
| Instant rice | 1/3 cup | the parcooked kind that rehydrates in five minutes |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | stands in for the fresh tomato |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Ground cumin, coriander, and turmeric | 1 tsp each | |
| Cayenne or chili flake | 1/4 tsp | more if you like it |
| Salt | 3/4 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Lemon powder or citric acid | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Dump in the lentils, onion, and all the spices except the lemon powder.
- Simmer on the lowest flame the stove will hold, stirring every couple of minutes so nothing welds to the bottom. Ten minutes.
- When the lentils have collapsed into a rough puree, stir in the tomato powder and the instant rice. Cover and kill the heat.
- Wait five minutes. Stir in the oil and the lemon powder. Add hot water by the splash if it has gone stiff.
The original is a van kitchen dish built on fresh onion, tomato, and a fridge. None of that travels, so the aromatics come out of a spice bag instead: dried onion and garlic powder do the base, tomato powder does the acid and body. Red lentils are the reason this works at all. They need no soaking and give up their structure in about ten minutes, which is roughly one small canister’s worth of simmer.
The rice goes in off the heat because it only needs steam, and cooking it alongside the lentils would just mean more fuel and a scorched pot. The oil and the lemon powder go in last for the same reason they would in a real kitchen. Fat carries the spice, acid keeps a pot of lentils from tasting flat and heavy at the end of a long day.
Packing
Lentils, spices, onion, and salt premixed in one bag; instant rice and tomato powder in a second, since the rice goes in late. Oil rides in a bottle, upright, in an outside pocket.
Variations
- A handful of dried spinach flakes in the last two minutes adds bulk for almost no weight.
- Swap the rice for a flour tortilla eaten alongside if gluten is not a concern.
- Coconut milk powder, 3 tbsp stirred in at the end, makes it richer.
https://thevanabondtales.com/vegetarian-van-life-meals