You have to “simplify, simplify” as Thoreau says when it comes to cooking on a KISS stove, and frankly that’s fine with me especially after a long day when you’re starving and don’t need the hassle of a long cooking and cleaning fiasco.
Simple stove means simple meals but not neccessarily boring and bland. One thing I’ve come to believe: with some imagination and resources, you can make incredible meals that are simple “just add water” concoctions in the woods.
Consider numerous gourmet sauces that you can dehydrate and reconstitute quickly. Sliced up dried zucchini/ squash and blended sun-dried tomatos with herbs, maybe try some egg-plant mushrooms etc.?.. Equals a dehydrated scrumptious sauce that takes about 3 minutes to prepare with quick cooking angel hair pasta. Pasta is cheap and light not to mention a staple in my day to day diet off trail anyway, so I don’t get too tired of it, but there are countless alternatives.
On my AT hike when not as meat conscious, I’d have dehydrated roast beef that was admittedly awesome and softened in hot water in 3 minutes or less. My mom dehydrated her famous cheesy potatos which are a personal fave at thanksgiving. The potatos were ready after a couple minutes in heating water.
Rice and beans are a challenge as many varieties require long cooking, I always liked the variety of brown and wild rices which now come in cheap instant varieties “boil-in-bag” which makes cooking quick and easy. Beans? Again, if you have time and a dehydrator, you can prepare refried/ instant whole black beans, kidney beans, etc. from canned or precooked. Or just look up mexcalirose which have convenient bags o’ instant beans pinto and black varieties.
Oh man, need I go on? Limitless KISS meal ideas. I don’t think I’ve ever missed the process of complicated cooking on the trail and argue that with some prep beforehand in town or at home, one don’t ever need miss the results. -Matt
Sweeper
