Zaanse Mustard Soup
A flour-and-oil roux, bouillon, and a spoonful of coarse mustard. Dutch soup that fits in a pot.
- calories
- 300
- weight
- 2.7 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 5 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 350 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.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Day hike
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Coarse-grain mustard | 1 tbsp | a takeout packet works; mustard does not need a fridge |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | |
| Sunflower oil | 2 tbsp | carried in a small bottle |
| Bouillon cube | 1 | beef; vegetable if you want it meat-free |
| Bacon bits | 1 tbsp | or dried chives, or fried onions |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Water | 350 ml |
Method
- Put the oil in the pot over low heat. When it thins out and shimmers, stir in the flour.
- Keep stirring for a minute or two, until the raw flour smell turns toasty and the paste bubbles.
- Pour in 350 ml of cold water and crumble in the bouillon cube. Stir hard and scrape the bottom. Cold water into hot roux is what keeps it from going lumpy.
- Bring it to a boil, still stirring. It will thicken as it comes up.
- Kill the heat, then stir in the mustard. Do not boil it after this point.
- Lid on for two minutes, or into a pot cozy. Stir, season, and scatter the bacon bits on top.
This is a Zaanstreek soup stripped down to what a stove can do. At home it starts with butter and finishes with cream. Both are dead weight on trail, so the fat comes from oil instead and the body comes from the roux alone. It still thickens, because thickening was always the flour’s job.
The order matters more than the ingredients. Cook the flour before the water goes in or the soup tastes like paste. Add the mustard after the heat is off — boiling it flattens the sharpness that the whole recipe exists for. Around 75 g of dry ingredients for a hot bowl is a fair trade in cold weather.
Packing
Flour and bouillon go in one small bag, bacon bits in another. Oil in a leakproof dropper bottle, mustard in a packet or a film canister.
Variations
- A vegetable cube and dried chives in place of the beef cube and bacon bits.
- Powdered milk stirred in at the end gets you closer to the cream version at home.
- Instant potato flakes will thicken it further if your roux comes out thin.
https://www.hikeforpurpose.com/trail-meal-zaanse-mustard-soup