When you’re hiking or backpacking on the go, or just in the planning phase of such, there may be meals you don’t want to take the time to extensively plan. And if you’re going gluten free, it’s even more of a pain to get your trail food prepped. This gluten free recipe works good with the Jetboil MiniMo, from my experience making it.
My girlfriend has Celiac Disease, and though she’s not into backpacking, and has currently stopped day hiking, secondary to tree and grass allergies, I’ll still occasionally ponder upon the realm of gluten free backpacking food, because you never know, she might get back on the trail one day.
This recipe is as basic as it gets for the sake of simplicity, and you can always add your own favorite dehydrated amendments to it, but it’s just meant to do four things: provide carbs, provide salt, provide hydration, and provide warmth. Basically it will get your ready for the trail in the morning, especially if you combine it with a side of protein, that you’d naturally want to do before your hike. See my guide to protein and hiking for more info on that, and my guide to carbohydrate timing as it applies to hiking.
Ingredients
- A Gluten Free Chicken, Veggie, or Beef Bouillon Cube; I’m using a Not-Chick’n, plant-based cube from Edward & Sons which is also vegan
- 2 oz. (56g) of Thai Kitchen Stir-fry Rice Noodles that are also Non-GMO verified from the nongmoproject.org
- Around 500mL of water
If you want to add a packet of olive oil, and some dehydrated veggies, that’s entirely possible. Folks in the Amazon reviews/answers are saying these veggies are indeed gluten free, though they can’t rule out factory contamination. If you want to play it safe, just get your own dehydrator and dehydrate your own veggies.
Equipment
I’m using a Jetboil MiniMo for this soup. Not only does it boil the water super fast, since it cuts down on the wind entering the space between the burner and the pot, but it has a shallower pot I can use a regular sized spork with. It further has a heat resistant lid you can sip the hot soup broth through, after you eat the noodles. Also you don’t need matches to ignite the burner – it has its own built in igniter, which makes things easy. And it’s a good ‘real food’ cooker in that you can turn the heat up or down on it, and it’s precise enough that you can turn a rolling boil into a simmer as needed. The only con of this system is that the fuel canister doesn’t fit inside the pot with the stove.
Nutrition
- Fat – 2.5g
- Carbs – 45g
- Protein – 4g
- Sodium 1,600mg
- Calories – 25 + 180 + 16 = 221
Instructions
Nothing to it: grab your noodles with two hands and break them into smaller lengths to fit in the pot. I usually break them into thirds, but am still experimenting. Throw in your water and bouillon cube as well, bring the ingredients to a boil, then cut the heat down as much as you can to let the noodles rehydrate. It takes around 5 minutes after the boil starts to rehydrate them. Occasionally stir the mixture to break up the bouillon cube. Once the noodles are tender, turn the stove off and unhook the cooking pot from the stove.
Discussion
The sodium bolus gets you ready for an intense and sweaty hike if you have a high sweat rate or are entering a trail area that is exceptionally hot relative to what you had been experiencing beforehand. Drink the broth at breakfast, and before breaking down camp, to allow time for the absorption of fluid into your body, then drink another 200-300mL of water, with a carb/protein snack, 10 or 20 minutes before your hike. This mimics the National Athletic Trainers’ Association guide for being properly hydrated before exercise. Sodium is imperative when consuming large amounts of fluid to avoid hypervolemic hyponatremia.
If you know sweating isn’t going to be much of an issue, such as you will be on a cool, flat path, you can cut down the sodium by using just half of a bouillon cube.
How Does It Taste?
It’s neither good nor bad. Not as good as a Backpacker’s Pantry soup for sure, but a lot cheaper. But hey, when it’s cold in the morning, and you don’t want to deal with a fancy hot breakfast, it hits the spot.
Further Reading
I’ve started to cover gluten free commercial dehydrated backpacking food with a hiking nutrition angle so check out my first article on the subject here.