Thursday, March 01, 2012

40 Days-Artichoke with Lemon Soup

I took a small break from the dehydrating.  It is to the point now that any procrastination means something may not get done.  I have one month and ten days left and I would guess that I have half of my lunches done and a third of my dinners.  Dinners are still giving me troubles, although I did come up with a winner:  Artichoke with Lemon Soup.

This is a light soup with a strong artichoke flavor backed by lemon and is brightened up with the vivid greens and it can be made hardier in camp by adding some meat.

Artichoke with Lemon Soup
Artichoke Lemon Soup in the dehydrator.

1lb artichoke hearts (fresh or frozen)
½ cup rice (cooked in stock)
1 cup stock (for rice)
1 cube bouillon dissolved in 1 cup water
1 teaspoon tarragon (dried)
1 can of Great Northern White beans
½ cup greens (spinach or collard)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Cook rice in stock.  Once cooked transfer to a large saucepan add all the ingredients.  Cook until hot then turn off heat.  Because the artichoke hearts are much larger than the beans the soup needs to be blended some.  Using a blender or food processor pulse small batches of soup to end up with a chunky final product (or puree, it preferred).  Spread on trays to dehydrate.   My first batch filled three trays and I used two fruit leather trays and one tray covered with wax paper.

When in camp rehydrate with hot water and eat as is or add meat (tuna/ chicken pouch or summer sausage).

When making soups that I plan to dehydrate I use less liquid than typical.  Cooking the rice in the stock infuses the rice with flavor.  Dissolving the bouillon cube in a cup of water will give the soup the flavor of the bouillon without having to remove the excess water from the broth while dehydrating.

The recipe is about 8 servings so maybe four servings on the trail.  Maybe even less.  It dried to almost nothing.   I'm really looking forward to this meal on trail.

2 comments:

  1. Hey! my name is Maya and I'm hoping to thru this year too. I can see that you have been dehydrating like crazy, and I had a quick question. Are you using good old ziplocs or are you trying something fancier like a vacuum sealer? Just curious what you had decided as I stare at all my dehydrated food.

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  2. Hey Maya. As I've been making food I've been storing it in air proof containers. My Mom, who is my resupply person, is going to package the food in zip locks as needed and send it to me. Do you have any good recipes/ links? I could use a couple more meals for variety's sake.

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