Red Beans & Rice – Backpacking Meal

On my youtube channel I’ve started a little once a month backpacking meal series.  Just to have something that’s more nutritious, filling, and sometimes lighter than the prepackaged meals you can buy.

My little ditty for the current month is this red beans and rice.  I’ve been tossing this around in my head for some time, but beans … Every time I dehydrate beans it’s hard to rehydrate them in a timely manner.

So on the back burner it went.

Then I found some dehydrated red beans from Harmony House and decided to give those a whirl.  They rehydrate like a dream man!

Before we get on with this, I want to talk about the meat in this.  My original thought was to use cured chorizo, and I still might in the future.  That was my first thought because I usually bring some kind of cured meat with me anyway to slap on a tortilla with some Laughing Cow cheese for lunch.

But when cleaning up my camping closet and going through my food, I found some dehydrated hamburger meat.  I went with that and it works!  If you wanted, you could toss in some Spam.  Don’t judge, I bring that crap with me on every trip.  If you’re a vegetarian you could easily throw some dried mushrooms in it.

Let’s do this.

RED BEANS & RICE – BACKPACKING MEAL

INGREDIENTS

1 cup water
1 packet of Savory Choice chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1/4 teaspoon freeze dried garlic
1/2 teaspoon dehydrated onion
1 teaspoon dehydrated bell peppers
1/3 cup dehydrated red beans
1/4 cup instant rice
1/4 cup dehydrated hamburger meat or any meat of your choice
hot sauce, optional

DIRECTIONS

In a zip top bag, combine all ingredients but the water and the packet of chicken broth, just toss that into the bag with the ingredients (don’t open it). At the campsite, add your ingredients to your pot, including the chicken broth. Add the water. Stir.  Bring to a boil, stirring once or twice to melt the chicken broth into the water.  When it reaches a boil, turn the heat off and let it sit until rehydrated. Stir occasionally, add hot sauce if using.