Tuna Mornay Rebuild
Cheese sauce, pasta, tuna, corn, and peas, all dry in one bag until the water hits.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 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
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Small quick-cook pasta | 6 oz | macaroni or small shells, nothing thicker than 5 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Mornay or cheese sauce mix | 1 sachet | about 1/4 cup of powder |
| Full cream milk powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried peas | 1/2 cup | |
| Freeze-dried or dehydrated sweet corn | 1/2 cup | |
| Foil-pouch tuna | 2 pouches, about 5 oz total | pouches, not cans, the water is dead weight |
| Chicken or bonito stock powder | 1 tsp | |
| Mustard powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Shelf-stable grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried parsley and onion flakes | 1 tbsp total | |
| Lemon powder or one lemon pepper packet | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | a pinch, optional |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Dump in the pasta, peas, corn, and onion flakes together.
- Simmer until the pasta bends, six to eight minutes. The vegetables rehydrate in the same water and cost you nothing extra.
- Cut the heat. Most of the water should be gone. Pour off any excess into your mug and drink it, it is stock.
- Stir in the sauce mix, milk powder, stock powder, mustard, parsley, and lemon. Work fast so the powder does not clump on the pasta.
- Fold in the tuna, parmesan, and oil. Lid on for two minutes off the flame, then stir once and split it.
The original is a home dish built on cans and a fry pan. The rebuild moves everything to powder and one pot. Freeze-dried peas and corn go in with the pasta because they need the same boiling water the pasta already requires, so there is no second stage and no draining step.
Milk powder next to the sauce sachet is what keeps it from tasting thin. Add the powders off the heat, not into a rolling boil, or the starch grabs and you get lumps around a hot pot in the dark. The mustard and lemon are there for the same reason a home cook adds them: dairy powder and tuna both go flat without an edge.
Packing
Everything dry except the tuna and oil goes into one bag at home, sauce powders included. Tuna pouches ride flat against your pack frame. The oil goes in a leakproof dropper bottle.
Variations
- Swap the tuna for a pouch of chickpeas and use vegetable stock, soy milk powder, and a vegan cheese sauce powder. Nutritional yeast with onion powder, garlic powder, and smoked paprika does the same job if you cannot find the powder.
- No mornay sachet: two tablespoons of flour whisked into the milk powder plus an extra ounce of hard cheese gets close.
- Instant potato flakes, a tablespoon at a time, will save a batch that came out soupy.
https://slowerhiking.com/recipes/tuna-mornay