It’s snowing again here. Probably won’t get plowed again. I’ve been experimenting with dehydrating various vegetarian foods. 30 days on the JMT is just too long to pay the high cost of those prepackaged backpacking meals and quite frankly there isn’t much variation for those of us who don’t eat meat.
Last weekend I played around with mini Matzo Balls made from a mix. They work great. I boiled them first and then dehydrated overnight. Put them in a cup of soup and let them sit in the hot water about 2 minutes. You couldn’t tell they were once dehydrated.
Today I dehydrated meatless meatballs and they worked equally great. First I pan fried them (not sure if that is necessary but seemed like a good idea), then placed them overnight in the dehydrator. To rehydrate, I merely let them sit in hot water much like I would on the trail.
These could be rehydrated with either ramen noodles or a flat fettuccini type noodle we found at an Asian Market. For $1.29 you can get a package of 15 rounds of noodles which when placed in water that has reached a boil will rehydrate in 3 minutes in a closed container. I like these noodles better, the texture is nice and they don’t taste as starchy as ramen. They are great in soup or in a spaghetti/fettuccini type recipe. Next week, Lentil soup.
