Vermicelli Camp Soup
Fine noodles, bouillon, and dried vegetables in one bag. Boil, wait, eat.
- calories
- 600
- weight
- 5.6 oz
- cal / oz
- 107
- protein
- 24 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 400 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
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Thru-hike
- Bikepacking
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Vermicelli noodles | 60 g | the short soup cut, not long angel hair |
|---|---|---|
| Bouillon cube or powder | 1 cube | chicken, beef, or vegetable |
| Dried vegetable soup mix | 3 tbsp | leek, carrot, celery, celery root, onion, parsley, lovage |
| Salt | 1 tsp | less if the bouillon is already salty |
| Black pepper | to taste | |
| Smoked or dried sausage | 2 small links, about 80 g | jerky or a foil tuna pouch works the same way |
Method
- Slice the sausage into coins before you leave the house, or cut it in the pot with your knife.
- Dump the bag into your pot with 400 ml of cold water. Add the sausage.
- Bring it to a boil over the stove, then cut the heat.
- Let it stand covered three to five minutes. The vermicelli and the dried vegetables both finish in that window.
- Stir, check the salt, eat out of the pot.
Vermicelli earns its place on trail for one reason: it is thin enough to cook off residual heat. Bring the water up, kill the stove, and the noodles soften while the pot cools. That is a minute or two of fuel instead of ten, which matters more on an alcohol stove than a canister.
The dried vegetable mix does the flavor work that a bouillon cube alone cannot. Bouillon is salt and not much else; leek, celery root, and lovage give the broth something to taste like. Buy a freeze-dried soup mix from the spice aisle or dry your own. The sausage is optional but it doubles the weight and roughly doubles the calories, so decide before you pack, not at camp.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart bag: noodles, bouillon, vegetables, salt, pepper. Label it and date it. Sausage rides separately so its oil stays off the noodles. Dry weight is about 80 g without meat, 160 g with.
Variations
- Skip the sausage and use vegetable bouillon for a lighter, cheaper bag.
- A spoon of olive oil at the end pushes it past 750 calories.
- Swap in a foil pouch of tuna and stir it in after the boil so it does not shred.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-vermicelli-soup