How to Make Delicious Freeze-Dried Grits
The winning recipe from our latest freeze-dried breakfast competition!
At least once a year we hold a recipe face-off. Renee vs. Tim, two recipes enter, and only one comes out a winner. This time around we set the theme to be freeze-dried breakfast, and the stakes were high: we were tied 2-2, with Renee winning our first contest, Tim winning the next two, and Renee winning the fourth. That means best-of-five bragging rights were on the line, and we both went all-in.
Tim put together a strawberry-banana rice pudding, and Renee whipped up savory grits with kale and beans. Since we judge these ourselves we played to each-other’s weaknesses: Renee is biased towards sweet breakfasts and Tim towards savory. After cooking, freeze-drying, and assembling our meals, we packaged them in mylar bags and then headed out on a hike for the show-down.
After a fun cook-off that we took even more seriously than usual, it was time to crown the winner. Both meals tasted great, but Renee’s grits were really amazing. It is clear — Renee is this year’s champion, and for the first time in two years, she holds the title as our CRO: Chief Recipe Officer. Below is Renee’s winning Recipe.
Recipe: Savory Trail Grits (~4 servings)
Required Equipment:
A Freeze Dryer. Ours (which we HIGHLY recommend) is the Harvest Right Small Home Pro.
Ingredients:
1 cup old-fashioned grits (not quick)
4 tsp vegetable boullioun (Vegeta is our favorite)
1 can black-eye peas
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
1 cup oat milk
3 cups water
2 cups chopped kale
Splash of olive oil
Preparation Instructions (at home):
Bring water and oat milk to a boil.
Slowly add grits and then vegetable boullioun.
Reduce heat to low. Slowly boil for 15-20 minutes until grits are thickened (see target texture in photo below).
While grits are boiling, put a little bit of oil into a heavy pan and sauté the kale for about 10 minutes, until it’s just a little bit blackened. (Since this recipe will be freeze-dried instead of dehydrated a little bit of oil is OK.)
When grits are done, remove from heat.
Drain black-eye peas and stir them into grits along with nutritional yeast and cooked kale.
Spread evenly on freeze dryer trays and have your freeze dryer run a full cycle. Ours took approximately one day to complete.
Package into 4 mylar bags for single-portion servings on the trail!
Rehydration Instructions for the Trail (per serving):
Empty freeze-dried meal into your backpacking cookware and cover with about 1 cup of water.
Bring to a boil.
Reduce heat to your stove’s lowest setting and boil for about 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add water if it starts to get too thick — maintain a thick (but not burning consistency).
Let cool and enjoy!
Note: We expect this recipe to cold-soak beautifully, but since it’s brand new we haven’t tried that yet. To cold soak, add water to grits and let it sit for about an hour, shaking or stirring occasionally. (If you do this method, please let us know how it goes!)
Video Instructions (Youtube):
