I have a lot of favorite dehydrate meals for backpacking. But sometimes I just dehydrate whatever leftover food is in the fridge and take it backpacking. In this case, I had some black beans and corn in homemade enchilada sauce. It rehydrated into a delicious spread that I put on tortillas for lunch while hiking.
You can actually dehydrate a lot of meals. However, I’ve found that creamy and sauce-based meals (hummus, pasta sauce, creamy soups…) work best for backpacking. You don’t have to worry about the texture of the ingredients getting weird (some foods too hard whereas others turn into mush). Creamy recipes are also more forgiving if you add too much or too little water when rehydrating.
I wrote a book about how to dehydrate backpacking meals. You can get it here.
Some of the recipes in my backpacking dehydrator recipes book
Like a lot of dehydrator meals, you can make this one on the trail with the cold-soak method. That basically means you just add water to the food and wait. It’s awesome because you get a delicious meal without having to bring a stove or use your precious fuel. Read more about cold-soak backpacking meals here.
While the photos aren’t the best (my husband is the photographer in the family and didn’t come on this trip), the spread tasted delicious. Here’s the recipe and instructions.
Ingredients:
- Black beans
- Corn
- Cooked rice*
- Enchilada sauce (homemade based on this recipe)
*Rice is optional. It sometimes stays chewy when rehydrated. However, my leftovers already had some rice in them so they ended up in the final dish.
Instructions:
- Blend or mash all ingredients together to get a chunky paste.
- Spread on dehydrator sheets. I use pieces of parchment paper. Leave some room for air flow.
- Dehydrate until it easily snaps when bent.
- Crumble into small pieces and pack in a baggie. The smaller you crumble the pieces, the faster it will rehydrate.
Bean+sauce before dehydrating
After dehydrating
On the Trail:
- Put the dehydrated filling into a cup or bowl.
- Pour water on top of it. Hot water will rehydrate it much faster.
- Wait 5-15 minutes for the filling to rehydrate.
- Spread onto tortillas or use it as a sauce on cooked carbs (pasta, instant rice, etc.)
Rehydrating with the cold-soak method (just add water and wait!)
Want more ideas? Check out these backpacking meal ideas. Or these backpacking tortilla ideas.
And don’t forget about my ebook. It has over 50 recipes plus tons of info on meal planning, trail nutrition and more.
Because you read this entire post, I’ll even give you a discount. 🙂
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