A nice crisp refreshing rehydrated salad for an on the go lunch on the trials.
My best friend and I have been doing backpacking and camping adventure for a few years now, we now make a yearly trip up to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) for a full escape, and I found a new love of creating delicious dehydrated trail meals:
I love variety , so I make every meal different. –KT
Last year was the first time I had seen a cold rehydrate recipe, so I had to give it a try, and to my surprise it has become a staple in our BWCA meal kit. Easy to rehydrate on a day of paddling. Just add some water to the dehydrated salad, wait an hour for it to rehydrate and you have a delicious bean salad to eat with some crackers, add some chicken or tuna and you have a high protein lunch for on the go.
Cowboy Caviar
Listed are the ingredients all ingredients are dehydrated, and the oil and true lime packet are left on the side:
1/2 Cup Dehydrated Black beans
1/2 cup Dehydrated black eyed peas
1/4 cup Dehydrated chopped tomato
1/4 cup Dehydrated corn
1/4 cup Dehydrated bell pepper
1/2 Dehydrqated bunch cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp salt
1 pkt true lime
1pkt olive oil
1pkt chicken or tuna
Section 2: Add Numbered Directions
You keep the oil, lime and chicken and tuna packet Separate. Put all the rest together in a ziplock. You add about a cup of water and let it soak for an hour, I think the corn takes the longest to rehydrate, so i usually just test that. (we brought a container to rehydrate some things in that we could just clean out and use again. Plastic bags and vacuum sealed bags separated by meal and day seem to be the best option for light weight and easy to pack in and out.
If you have a dehydrator, go ahead and dehydrate all of the ingredients first, if you do not have a dehydrator there are a few options on amazon where you can buy dehydrated vegetable packs to add into your meals, I did this last year (because i'm a procrastinator) and it worked out really well, and I have some leftover for this season!
In a plastic bag, combine all of the dehydrated veggies and beans and dry seasoning (leave the true lime, olive oil and any tuna or chicken packets out).
When you are ready to rehydrate add oil, and vegetable pack into a container, add about a cup of water, shake, and put it back in your pack for an hour or until the corn is rehydrated, add how much true lime you would like, and any additional protein.
Eat with crackers, or by its self with a fork, and be ready for the next leg of your adventure.
Let me know what you think, and what your go-to trail meals are in the comments! I'm always looking for a way to expand our on the go kitchen!