Late summer in the high Sierras is one of my favorite times to go backpacking. Thunder storms are rolling in, the cool of fall is starting to show, and mosquitoes are almost all dead. We had rain, then hail, then thunder and lightning, which all gave way to perfectly blue skies at the summit of the divide at 11,700 feet.
The grueling climb burnt some serious calories, so we needed some epic food to refuel for the next day of chilling and fishing in the back-country. I thought a pre-made mixture of dehydrated veg and quinoa would be perfect. It’s super lightweight, quinoa is packed full of protein, its cheaper than dehydrated meals, and its relatively quick to cook. Here’s how I did it.
I like to rinse my quinoa before cooking it, but since that would be a pain in the back-country, I just rinsed it at home and dried it out on a towel. It didn’t take much time at all. I used a mandolin slicer to finely slice carrots and celery for the dehydrator. I then dehydrated them below 110 degrees so nutrients aren’t lost. The tray on the right in the photo above is the same amount of hydrated veg as the tray in the middle. Dehydrators are cheap and worth the investment. I even did some sun dried tomatoes for the hike up. Perfect snack. I bought dehydrated shitake mushrooms and dehydrated onions.
Recipe for 4 large servings:
- 2 1/2 cups quinoa
- 4 carrots dehydrated
- 4 celery stalks dehydrated
- 1 cup dehydrated shitake mushrooms
- 1 cup dehydrated onions
- 3 bay leaves
- 1 stick lemongrass
- Salt and pepper
- Rinse and dry quinoa at home
- Dehydrate vegetables or buy dehydrated vegetables at home
- Cut lemongrass into large sticks that will fit in your pot. You will remove them along with the bay leaves after cooking.
- Put all in one bag and preseason with salt and pepper.
- When on the trail, double the volume with water in a pot, bring to boil and turn to low to simmer for 20 minutes or until cooked. The outside temp and altitude will affect how long it takes to cook. If it is running dry, add some more water. You’ll know its done when you can’t see the white in the center of the quinoa kernels.
- Remember to remove bay leave and lemongrass. Eating these would suck. Don’t do it.
