News:

The Best Fishing Forum In The UK.
Do You Have What It Takes To Be A Member?

Main Menu
Please consider a donation to help with the running costs of this forum.

DIY backpacking meals- Tommy Soup

Started by bushy palmer, December 10, 2013, 11:26:15 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

bushy palmer

I've been putting some thought into comfort foods for my 8 day trek planned for this summer and decided I'd like to have a go at making a good homemade tomato soup that's light to carry, non-perishable and can be made on site without any fuss.
I don't like cup-a-soups; I've never found one that doesn't taste like chemicals but I cannot deny how handy they can be. With this in mind, I've tried to recreate their simplicity using the new dehydrator.

For the soup I used:
Two medium onions roughly chopped
Two stalks of celery roughly chopped
Two large carrots diced
Four medium potatoes diced
Dessert spoon of Tomato puree
A can of chopped tomatoes
An oxo cube
Dessert spoon of Salt, 
Dessert spoon of Sugar
Crushed black pepper
2 dried bay leaves

Now, as I intended to dehydrate the soup I softened the onion, celery, potatoes and carrot using just a tiny amount of Olive Oil with loads of crushed black pepper (fat doesn't dehydrate so use sparingly)
[attachimg=1]
When softened, I added the tin of tomatoes, salt, sugar, tomato puree, bay leaves and covered in beef stock made from the oxo cube. If I was making the soup for instant consumption I would have used homemade stock, but as I could not say for sure just how much fat there is in my own stock I opted for oxo as I could see that it was less than 5% saturated fat.
[attachimg=2]
[attachimg=3]

I simmered the soup for about twenty five minutes and removed the bay leaves before liquidising and passing through a sieve to remove any residual tomato skins, strings of celery etc.
[attachimg=4]
[attachimg=5]
After confirming that the taste was right, I measured the soup to see how much I had before putting it through any other processes- this would give me an idea how much the finished product would make; I had just under two litres.

I put the soup back on the hob to reduce it down by about 20% before spreading thinly over five trays in the dehydrator and dehydrated at 52degrees.
[attachimg=6]
Here is a view of the soup "leathers" after dehydrating. They can be left like this and you can tear off strips as required and rehydrate with boiling water.
[attachimg=7]
I transferred my leathers in to a food processor and blitzed for a few minutes. The end result was 2 litres of soup reduced to 350ml of dry mix with a consistency of somewhere between pot noodle and tropical fish food and the smell was intense.
[attachimg=8]
But was it a success?
Well, I so happen to share my home with a tomato soup snob. A connoisseur who looks upon anything non "Heinz-y" with deep suspicion and ultimate rejection. I was nervous offering up a bowl for supper last night for the ultimate in taste tests.
[attachimg=9]
And that's a thumbs up!


Wildfisher

Good stuff. That's the ultimate test passed.  :D

bushy palmer

Aye- little madam came in from school there and demanded more for her lunch!

Wildfisher

How do you measure the water for re-hydration?  Just guess?

bushy palmer

When I finished making the soup I measured how much I had in terms of volume and I had roughly 2 litres (approximately ten cups). I then divided the dehydrated mix in to ten portions so that when rehydrating in a cup I'm just filling the cup with boiling water.


Wildfisher

Have you tried dehydrating beer yet? Now that would be a real winner.    :D

bushy palmer

 :D

Not yet- but you may be surprised how often I've been asked that in the last two weeks :D

Wildfisher

Not even slightly surprised. This is Scotland.   :lol:

Inchlaggan

Moving into entrepreneurial mode, I am happy to supply dehydrated water at 50p a pint (plus P&P).
'til a voice as bad as conscience,
rang interminable changes,
on an everlasting whisper,
day and night repeated so-
"Something hidden, go and find it,
Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost beyond the ranges,
Lost and waiting for you,
Go."

bushy palmer

Quote from: Alan on December 10, 2013, 07:32:03 PM
This is the confirmation :8) are there no nutrients lost in the drying process?

My head's buzzin with all the different stuff I've read but I think that's why fruit and veg are dehydrated at a lower temp than meat as it keeps more nutrients in. Think I may have read that you loose some vitamin C

Go To Front Page