Dehydrated Spicy Pulled Pork with White Beans & Kale
I love creating fun recipes for backpacking! Heck, honestly you could just make this for dinner in the comfort of your own home!
Backpacking meals often tend to give me seriously gas (TMI I know, however I know for a fact I am not alone!). Making my own backpacking meals has really helped ease the gas situation and helps keep me fueled for my amazing adventures!
This summer we were prepping for a 4 day backpacking trip in the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho, I had been eagerly waiting for the adventure for nearly a full 365 days, since our short one night trip last summer. We were setting out to accomplish the Alice-Toxaway Loop- with a spur of Lake Imogene- in total this loop was 30ish Miles and some 5,600 ft of elevation, with heavy packs. We also knew we would certainly need to fuel our bodies well! So weeks prior to our trip, I spent a bit of time in my kitchen coming up with tasty, fueled food to dehydrate! This, personally was my favorite!
DIY Dehydrated : Pulled Pork w/ White Beans & Kale://
Deets://
Cook up a Pork Shoulder Roast - I used this recipe : Note: Trim as MUCH excess fat as you can!
https://www.amandanjohnson.com/recipes/spicy-paleo-crock-pot-carnitas
1 bunch of kale - chopped
1/2 Sweet Onion
1 can of white beans
1/4 Nutritional Yeast
Sea Salt
1 pouch of spicy taco seasoning- I use https://sietefoods.com/collections/taco-shells/products/spicy-taco-seasoning
Spray Coconut Oil
Process://
Now- preparing the pork to dehydrate is a process as you want to remove as much excess fat as possible, so the dehydrated pork won’t spoil! Once the pork has been cooked, let cool. With hands remove any additional excess fat that you couldn’t trim off while raw. And shred the pork well.
Then take a few paper towels- place in a backing dish and top with the pork. This is an additional way to strain fat from the pork. You might need to do this a few times.
Once the pork has strained fat, you should have a slightly dry like pulled pork.
Meanwhile, as your pork is straining fat you can prepare the rest.
In your pan, slightly spray with coconut oil (I use spray coconut oil, because you don’t want a ton of excess fat as it will make the dehydrating process slower!). Add onions, sprinkle with sea salt and let cook down, approx 5 minutes. Add chopped kale, sprinkle with a touch of sea salt and cook down until wilts. Add in can of beans and pulled pork. Sprinkle with taco seasoning (to YOUR liking! You may or may not end up using the entire pouch). Drizzle a 1/4 cup water on top and stir well to combine the taco seasoning. Now, top with nutritional yeast! Because you can’t top with cheese (because cheese won’t dehydrate well), the nutritional yeast helps add a nice cheesy flavor! Taste test and add any additional taco seasoning or nutritional yeast to your taste buds!
Pro Tip: Something to keep in mind, once the food dehydrates I feel you lose some flavor so I like to season mine just a tad more than I normally would as I find it holds a good flavor punch once it is re-hydrated!
Arrange well on your fruit leather trays - dehydrate at 145 degrees for 8-10 hours. I like to check on the dehydrating process around 4 hours in, and go through and with a fork and break up pieces to assure everything is getting a nice air bath!
Finished product! Nicely dried!
Now: How to cook in the wild!!!
Divide dried food evenly into zip lock bags, I did approx 1 1/2 cups of dried pork mixture in each bag.
Process to re-hydrate://
Because I only had ziplock bags on hand prior to our trip, I had to cook the meal in our titanium cups, which is no big deal it worked perfectly. Just keep in mind this method does have a bit more of a clean up process. See below!
Boil water in cup, approx 1 cup of water for each bag of food. Add food to boiling water, stir and boil for 1 minute, cover with lid and let rest for 15 minutes. Enjoy.
I like to pack in with some hot sauce packets- top with hot sauce and enjoy mindfully.
Clean UP!! Please practice leave no trace principles! If you have left over food in your cup do not clean it in Alpine Lakes!! Ever go to filter some water, and see someone’s left over food in the water source? Ya, me too. And it’s gross and is troubling for the eco-system of the lake.
My tip: eat it all. LOL. No but really if you can, wipe out the cup and place your waste in your trash bag you pack out. If you can find a running source of water, to then rinse your cup.
Please note: if you are still experiencing some digestive discomfort while backpacking, ie gas, bloating here are a few tips.
Digestion, starts in the BRAIN! So when I say eat mindfully, sit down, take 5-10 big deep breaths through your nose and slowly release through your mouth. This can help reduce stress and hopefully get your body in the parasympathetic state (rest and digest).
Chew your food, REALLY REALLY good. Like at least 30 chews. This helps break down the food into more digestible pieces and the more you chew, the more saliva is created helping the digestion process!
Lastly,
If these tips still leave you feeling bloated and full of miserable gas - Contact me today for a free discovery call to help you tailor a nutrition plan to get you feeling your best on your adventures!
Happy trails my friends!
Amanda
