It can be a challenge to get vegetables into meals sometimes. There are a few reasons for this. They take up space, which can make it hard to package. They aren't calorically dense, so when you're trying to up the calories in a meal, they don't pack a lot of punch. But they obviously offer a lot in terms of flavor (which can be a double-edged sword sometimes) and micronutrients, so we strive to find good ways to incorporate them. I love broccoli cheese anything, really, so this was a natural for me, but Jamie has not always been a huge fan in the past. Once I kind of stopped cooking so much, oven roasted broccoli is one of his go-to veggies when he has to fend for himself, so maybe this will be a hit. We'll see soon enough!
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup Instant Rice
3/4 cup Freeze Dried Chicken
1/3 cup Freeze Dried Broccoli
1 Tbsp Cheddar Cheese Powder
1 Tbsp Butter Powder
1 Tbsp Collagen Powder
1 tsp Minced Onions
1/4 tsp Minced Garlic
1/4 tsp Dry Mustard Powder
1/4 tsp Salt and Pepper
*2 Tbsp Freeze-Dried Cheddar Cheese
*2 Tbsp Olive Oil (Always added when preparing on the trail, not when packaging.)
DIRECTIONS:
Combine the ingredients (excluding freeze-dried cheese and olive oil) in a meal pouch or prep bowl, tossing to integrate all the ingredients better.
Put the freeze-dried cheese in a separate baggie.
Remove as much air as possible and seal.
PREPARATION:
Add 1 1/4 cups boiling water and 2 Tbsp olive oil to the meal pouch.
Let rest in a meal cozy or other insulated container 8-9 minutes, mixing in the freeze-dried cheese toward the end of the rest.
Stir well and dig in.
A Word or Two About the Ingredients
Freeze-dried chicken is, of course, a very prominent ingredient in many trail dinners and there are a lot of options out there. I recently tried this Fresh and Honest Foods chicken and was impressed with the quality AND price. I will definitely buy it again.
Similarly, there are a lot of options for free-dried vegetables, too. I tried this Augason Farms broccoli because I wasn't very happy with some other brands which included lots of stems and few florets.
Stems are all fine and good if they're not the predominant component in the mix! I was pleased with this one. Really fresh looking and it rehydrated well. They also have a great selection of other high-quality freeze-dried foods.
This recipe also features my perennial favorite Hoosier Hill Farm. This was my first use of their cheese powders. I have another recipe I put together using one of their blends, but for this one I just stuck with their good, simple Cheddar Cheese Powder.
And as you may have noticed, I use this butter powder and heavy cream powder in so many recipes. They are just great, simple and clean, and a really great way to add lots of flavor and much-needed calories. They really are staples for us.
Another way to pump up the flavor and calories is with cheese. We have used both Emergency Essentials and Nutristore brands, and they are fairly comparable.
The #10 cans will last us a very long time since it's used mostly as a mix-in or topping for certain meals.
Jamie had once mentioned that when it was included in the pouch directly with the other dry ingredients, it tended to clump together when it was rehydrated. So I did a little test (not that I doubted his story!) and saw what he meant.
Now, I typically include it separately so it can be mixed in toward the end or sprinkled on bite-for-bite. It's likely a bit more crunchy than gooey, but still has good flavor and a great added value in the calorie and fat categories.
Let me know what you think!
Weights and Measures
Another good one, Shelby!