Trail Manestra
Greek orzo with beef, cinnamon, and mint. One pot, no drain.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 108
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 700 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Orzo | 1 cup | |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 2 oz | substitute a 5 oz foil pouch of chicken if you would rather not carry freeze-dried |
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for a can of tomato paste |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Kosher salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Ground cinnamon | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried spearmint | 1 heaping tsp | |
| Grated romano or parmesan | 1/4 cup | the hard shelf-stable kind in the shaker |
Method
- Pour 700 ml of water into the pot with the beef and the minced onion. Bring it to a boil and hold it there for two minutes so the meat rehydrates before the pasta goes in.
- Stir in the tomato powder, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Crush the mint between your palms as you drop it in.
- Add the orzo. Stir it once so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Drop to the lowest flame you can hold and cover. Twenty minutes, stirring every few minutes. Add a splash of water if it goes dry before the orzo is soft.
- Kill the heat, pour the oil over the top, and shake the cheese on. Let it sit two minutes to thicken.
The original is a stovetop dish that simmers meat and orzo in a tomato broth until the pasta drinks it. That structure travels well: nothing gets drained, so every calorie stays in the pot. Fresh onion and canned tomato paste are the only things that had to change. Dried minced onion and tomato powder do the same job at a fraction of the weight, and the powder dissolves instead of sitting in a lump.
Cinnamon and mint sound wrong together in a beef dish and are not. A quarter teaspoon of cinnamon is enough to round the tomato without reading as sweet, and crushing the mint as it goes in wakes up the oil in the dried leaves. The olive oil goes in at the end because boiling it for twenty minutes wastes it. Watch the bottom of the pot: orzo starches out fast and will scorch on a hot spot if you stop stirring.
Packing
Orzo, beef, onion, tomato powder, and all the spices go in one bag at home. Oil and cheese ride separately.
Variations
- Freeze-dried ground lamb or turkey works the same way.
- No tomato powder: two tablespoons of a tomato soup mix, and cut the salt in half.
- Instant couscous instead of orzo drops the cook time to five minutes off the flame.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/manestra-simple-greek-orzo-comfort-food