Dehydrated Chicken Minestrone
Delicious and nutritious chicken minestrone
This delicious filling soup is one of the few recipes that you can make partially by recombining separate ingredients, especially if you make up large batches of mixed dried vegetables to use with ramen for breakfast. These mixes include peas, corn, carrots, potatoes, swedes, turnips, plus numerous green vegetables – whatever takes your fancy. I also make up a mix of finely sliced leafy green vegetables (kale, Tuscan spinach, spinach, zoodled zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, brussels sprouts, plus mushrooms) that rehydrate relatively quickly, so you may prefer these. Any vegetable mix can be used.
Ingredients (for approximately 12-16 serves)
2 leeks, finely sliced
500g ditalini (small macaroni) OR instant noodles
Mixed dried herbs (spring onion, parsley)
Packs of cream of chicken, country chicken and/or spring vegetable soup powder, stock powder OR home-made chicken stock powder
*Use more protein for longer distance hikes
1-2 kg* lean chicken mince (or chicken + turkey mince)
2 large onions finely diced
2 carrots finely diced
200g peas
3 corn cobs, kernels removed
4 cloves garlic
1 stick very finely diced celery
Our estimated nutrition information (approximate only) for a 12 serve batch using 1kg/35.3oz of chicken mince is 3350kJ (800 cal) of energy and 47.0g/1.7oz protein per serve. Using 2kg/70.6oz of chicken mince to make 16 serves should yield around 2850 kJ (681 cal) and 47.1g/1.7oz of protein per serve. 12 serves from 2kg/70.6oz of chicken mince should yield around 3800kJ (910 cal) of energy and 62.8g/2.2oz protein. All these estimates assume you do not blot or rinse the mince so the meals would either need to be made shortly before hiking or be frozen for storage. Alternatively, add 10ml olive oil per serve for an extra 80 calories.
Cheat’s Clever Hacks:
Dehydrate mince (or use dry TVP) + Commercial mixed dried vegetables + soup pasta + soup sachet (chicken, minestrone, spring vegetable, cream of chicken, chicken and vegetable, or vegetable).
Method
1.Brown lean chicken mince in scant oil.
2. Blot or rinse if desired to remove fat*.
*Unless you rinse or carefully blot your chicken mince after cooking, this dehydrated soup needs to be stored in the freezer so the chicken fat doesn’t go rancid. Vac-sealed, it will still last several months outside the freezer. If rinsing, don’t discard the rinse water: you’ll use it to cook the pasta later.
3. Next, caramelise leeks, onions, corn and garlic in a small drizzle of oil.
4. Return chicken to pan. Add peas. Season.
5. Meanwhile parcook ditalini in chicken stock (or chicken rinse water which has had the fat blotted from the surface) for 5-6 minutes, or approximately half the cook time. Drain well.
If using instant noodles, simply package them separately and either add to the soup towards the end of rehydrating in camp, or rehydrate separately.
6. Make a test serve: you only need to do this once if you record all your quantities. Measure 100g-150g/3.5oz-7oz of the cooked chicken mince and vegetable mix and place in a small saucepan. Record weight (A).
Add 1-2 tablespoons (weighed) of mixed dried leafy vegetables and/or dried herbs (here spring onion and parsley). Add measured amount of water (B) to reconstitute veg and make a suitably liquid soup, and simmer till veg are soft.
Add measured extra water and soup powder; stir well to prepare the soup for your test serve.
7. Add about ¾ cup weighed par-cooked macaroni (or cooked noodles). Cook a few minutes more until soft. Add soup powder (1 sachet per serve is about right) and adjust seasoning. Put into soup bowl and correct proportions of meat/veg, pasta, water/concentration of flavours to your taste and appetite, recording adjustments. Taste and adjust until it’s yummy!
My back-of envelope calculations.
Note test dry calculations bottom left. These vary depending on the vegetables in your mix.
8. Dehydrate a single serve of the meat, vegetable and pasta mix on one tray, and mark the tray with a teaspoon. Fill the rest of the trays with the meat, vegetable and pasta mixed in the same proportions as your single serve test mix, but leave out the dried leafy vegetables/herbs if you are using them.
A big batch of chicken minestrone ready for dehydrating
9. Measure the dried weight of your marked tray (DRY WEIGHT B). You now have dry weights of all ingredients, as well as amount of water added.
The mixed dried soup ready for packaging.
If you don’t have mixed dried vegetables, you can cook your onions and chicken mince, and add fresh diced mixed raw veg after step 3. Then cook soup as you normally would but with minimal amount of stock. Drain. Blend the drained water with just enough veg to thicken it; dry it separately and powder. For a test serve, add a weighed measure of par-cooked pasta to veg and meat. Add water, stock powder/soup packet to make up a test serve.
Packaging for TWO (halve figures if packaging for ONE)
As a guide, our lightish version of chicken minestrone (with less meat) for two people is 220g (excluding soup powder) and in camp we add about 1250ml/42.3oz water, which is the maximum amount our pot holds.
Into a vac seal bag (for long term storage) or ziploc (short term storage) place
2 x DRY WEIGHT B
2-4tbspn dry leafy vegetables
2 sachets chicken soup powder, or your preferred amount
2 x seasoning as measured for your test batch.
Vac seal, not too tightly so as to prevent ingredients from poking holes in the bag. Label with date, dish, and amount of water to add (2 x your recorded amount in the test batch).
In Camp:
Slit open the top of your vac seal bag.
If you have a large pot, you can simply empty the soup pack, meat and vegetables into the pot and bring it to the boil. Switch off heat and put pot into a cosy for 20 minutes to rehydrate. However, if your pot is too small, especially for two serves, your minestrone can end up a little too thick. In this instance, add just the soup powder to your water, bring to the boil, and then pour the full amount into your vac seal bag with the meat and begetable mix. Fold over the top, seal with a peg, and place bag into a cosy for 25 minutes to rehydrate.
Enjoy!