camp meals

Turnip and Split Pea Mash

Root vegetable, greens, and peas cooked down into one thick pot. Field crops, carried dry.

calories
640
weight
5.3 oz
cal / oz
121
protein
26 g
serves
1, 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
  • Basecamp
  • Winter / snow
  • Car camping
  • Vegetarian
  • Vegan
  • Dairy free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Dehydrate ahead
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Dehydrated diced turnip 1/2 cup cut small at home, 1/4 inch or it never rehydrates
Dried turnip greens or kale 1/2 cup crushed, packs down to nothing
Split pea soup powder 1/2 cup instant, not whole split peas
Quick oats 1/4 cup
Roasted sunflower seeds 3 tbsp hulled
Vegetable bouillon 1 cube
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Garlic powder and black pepper 1 tsp

Method

  1. Boil 500 ml of water. Drop in the bouillon, the turnip, and the greens.
  2. Simmer eight minutes with the lid on. The turnip needs every one of them.
  3. Cut the heat. Stir in the pea powder and the oats and keep stirring, or the peas will clump.
  4. Cover and let it sit three minutes. It thickens as it rests.
  5. Pour the oil over the top and scatter the sunflower seeds on last so they stay crunchy.

This started as a list of things planted in a field: turnips, rape, winter peas, oats, sunflowers. None of that is trail food on its own, so the crops got dried and reassembled. Turnip is the reason it takes ten minutes instead of five — dense root, slow to take water back on. Cut it small at home and the wait is bearable.

The peas and oats are doing the structural work. Pea powder brings protein and body; oats keep it from separating into vegetable chunks sitting in broth. Oil and sunflower seeds are the calories. Leave them out and this is a side dish, not dinner.

Packing

Turnip, greens, pea powder, oats, bouillon, and spices go in one bag. Seeds and oil ride separately — the seeds go soft in with the powder, and the oil finds a way out of anything.

Variations

  • Swap the turnip for dehydrated sweet potato if you want it sweeter and faster to cook.
  • A spoonful of tomato powder turns it from a mash into a stew.

https://www.huntingpa.com/threads/plot-recipes.392