Trail Stroganoff
Beef, mushrooms, and noodles in a mustard-dill gravy. Sour cream comes from a powder.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 14 min
- total time
- 24 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef or beef crumbles | 2 oz | stew meat will not rehydrate in a pot; use freeze-dried |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1/3 cup | crush the big pieces so they soften evenly |
| Wide egg noodles | 1.5 oz | the thin ones cook fastest |
| Beef bouillon powder | 1 tsp | |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp | buttermilk or whole milk powder also works |
| Cornstarch | 1 tsp | |
| Dried dill | 1/2 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Mustard powder | 1/2 tsp | stands in for Dijon |
| Worcestershire powder | 1/2 tsp | or a few drops from a dropper bottle |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Butter powder or olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 600 ml of water. Add the beef, mushrooms, bouillon, dill, garlic, onion, mustard, and Worcestershire. Simmer three minutes so the meat and mushrooms drink first.
- Add the noodles. Simmer another six to seven minutes, stirring so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Pull the pot off the stove and wait a minute. The pot should be hot, not boiling.
- Stir the sour cream powder and cornstarch together dry, then sprinkle it in while stirring. Dumping it in one lump gives you white pebbles.
- Add the fat, cover, and let it sit two minutes. The starch and the residual heat do the thickening.
Slow cooker stroganoff runs on three things a stove cannot give you: hours, a fridge, and cubed stew meat. Hours become minutes with freeze-dried beef and dried mushrooms, both of which rehydrate in the same water that cooks the noodles. Stew meat is the one substitution you cannot fake — chunks of beef need a long braise, so the freeze-dried version is doing real work here, not just saving weight.
Greek yogurt becomes sour cream powder, added off the heat. Cultured dairy splits when it boils, which turns gravy into grit, so the pot comes off the flame first and the powder goes in mixed with the cornstarch. The starch keeps the grains apart long enough to dissolve and thickens the sauce as it cools. Mustard powder and dried dill carry the flavor that Dijon and fresh dill would; they weigh nothing and do not leak.
Packing
Two bags. Bag one: noodles, mushrooms, and every powder except the sour cream and cornstarch. Bag two: sour cream powder and cornstarch, premixed. The beef rides in its own bag so you can see it is still sealed.
Variations
- Swap the noodles for instant mashed potato flakes stirred in off the heat. Faster, and no simmer.
- A foil packet of chicken instead of the beef works, with chicken bouillon.
- Gluten-free: rice noodles and a bouillon without wheat.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/slow-cooker-beef-stroganoff