Trail Stuffed Peppers
Dehydrated taco beef, Spanish rice, and a bell pepper you carried in your pot.
- calories
- 825
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 30 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
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Extra lean ground beef or turkey | 1/3 lb | 7% fat, leaner dries better and keeps longer |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered taco seasoning | 1/3 packet | |
| Hot sauce | to taste | |
| Knorr Spanish rice sides | 2 packets | |
| Shredded lite cheese | 2 oz | |
| Sliced black olives | 1 small can, drained | |
| Green onions | 2, sliced | |
| Bell pepper | 1 large, or 5-7 mini sweet peppers | carried fresh, the only perishable item |
Method
- At home, brown the meat in a skillet, breaking it into small crumbles. Stir in the taco seasoning and hot sauce. With 7% meat there is nothing to drain.
- Spread the meat on a parchment-lined dehydrator tray. Scatter the olives, onions, and cheese over the top. Dry until no piece is soft, turning the crumbles every hour.
- On trail, one to two hours before dinner, add just enough cold water to the meat bag to cover the crumbles. Seal it and keep walking.
- In camp, put the rice in the pot and barely cover it with water. Boil, then simmer six to seven minutes until most of the water is gone. Add more a splash at a time only if it goes dry early.
- Slice the pepper straight into the pot along with the soaked meat. Stir, bring it back to a boil, then kill the heat.
- Cover and wait five minutes. The pepper softens and the last of the water gets absorbed.
This is a burrito filling without the tortilla. The pepper is the point: it goes in raw at the end and stays crisp, which is the one texture a dehydrated dinner cannot fake. It is also the only thing in the bag that can spoil, so buy it in town and eat it in the first day or two.
Water discipline decides whether this works. The rice gets barely covered, not flooded, and the meat rehydrates cold in its own bag while you hike so it does not need pot water at all. Too much and you get soup with peppers in it. This needs a 1.3 L pot or bigger; two servings is a lot of volume.
Packing
Meat, cheese, olives, and onions go in one quart freezer bag. The two rice packets ride inside that same bag in a snack bag so the soak step does not wet them. The pepper lives inside the cook pot, which is the only thing that keeps it from getting crushed.
Variations
- Swap the taco seasoning for 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce simmered into the meat for 15 minutes before drying, and use 1 cup instant white rice instead of the Spanish sides.
- Triple the batch to use a full pound of meat, then split it into three dinner bags.
https://thehikingtreeblog.wordpress.com/2020/04/10/gourmet-trail-recipes-stuffed-peppers