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.

78 Days-If at First You Don't Succeed

For the past two days my dehydrator has been humming away.  It's been making the house smell rather good.  I've been tackling lunch foods.  I've selected five different recipes for my lunches.  All of them to be eaten cold with (or without) cheese, summer sausage, and something bread like.

For the re-fried beans I started with one can of pinto beans and it seemed like only minutes later I had re-fried beans.  I used up my other four cans on pinto beans.

 

Five cans worth of re-fried beans

Re-fried Black Beans

2 cups canned Pinto beans

1/2 cup chicken stock (or water)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon chicken Bouillon (omit if using stock)

1 teaspoon onion powder

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

Next was tapenade-olive past.  Again, very quick to make. 

Lentil Tapenade almost dry

Castle's Lentil Tapenade
 

1/4 cup (dry) red lentils
1/2 t vegetable or chicken bouillon or stock
1/4 t garlic powder

1 T  roasted red pepper, cut tiny
1 T  olives
1 T lemon juice
1 t dried parsley
black pepper to taste

Cook the lentils in the stock for more flavor.  I've adjusted the recipe for a larger batch: 3 cup dry red lentils cooked in 1 cup stock and 3 cups water.  3 cans of olives seasoned to taste.  That gives me about 4 trays to dehydrate. 

I had cooked more lentils than I had olives so I used the rest of the lentils in another lunch recipe.  I choose red lentils because they pack in 170 calories in each uncooked quarter cup serving.  And it's 13 grams of protein per serving.  Taste-wise it doesn't seem to have much of a taste of its own, but does pick up the taste of what it is cooked in and mixed with. 

Corn and Lentil Salad

Re-fried beans-dried.

1/4 cup (cooked) red lentils
1/4 cup corn
1/2 teaspoon chicken or vegetable bullion
1 tablespoon dried parsley
1/2 teaspoon onion flakes
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1 T orange juice
salt and pepper to taste

Next time I think I'll add roasted red peppers to this one.  It looks bland.