These homemade dried vegetable soup recipes are healthier and tastier than the cup-a-soup packets you can find from local stores. This post is the follow-up for the other two posts 6 Instant Meals-On-The-Go and A Week of Lightweight Nutritious Backpacking Food. I have came up with these easy and portable dry soup mix recipes originally to help my husband pack something to eat for his frequent backpacking trips. You only have to add hot water to the dry soup mix. Hot soups are perfect for hikers to stay hydrated and refill one’s energy after using up on the trail. He consumes the dehydrated soup during his hike before eating his main dish. Recently, he came back from hiking the John Muir Trail with his friend, Nick, and they told me positive and great reviews of these soups. These soups are a great meal option for backpacking trips.
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The picture below shows the dry soup mixes that are bagged up. For more details about the dried vegetable soup recipe including tips on supplies, storage, and use, keep reading!
Here’s how they look after boiling water is added:
Lots of uses! It’s a great option for backpackers and campers to use dehydrated vegetables in soup. However, preparing these bagged soup mixes is also an excellent idea for a convenient and easy meal for a trip, the office, or dorm rooms. In case of emergencies, you can keep a few of these dehydrated soup at home or in the car.
Nutritious ingredients. The vegetable in my soup mix is as healthy as the fresh ingredients, which is why I highly recommend my recipes than the cup-a-soup from stores with high sodium dry soup mix. I have come up with my recipes after researching and testing numerous products for better nutrition and flavor.
Check out this link for detailed nutritional information for the organic dried vegetable soup mix:
Calorie & Nutrition Information for each of 8 soup mixes
Where to get dry ingredients. Keep reading to find out the dry soup mix ingredients I use in all of the 8 instant soup. You can get the dry ingredients from Amazon, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods.
Light, portable, and long shelf life. These light (2 to 4 oz) and portable dry soup mix ingredients can last for at least 1-2 months.
Vegetarian? Don’t worry, you can easily change the ingredients by removing meat and replacing it with other alternatives. Some organic dried vegetable soup mix in the tips below will do.
This is lengthy! This post has multiple useful tips and recommendations for you to make your own dehydrated soups. It isn’t frequent to use Freeze-dried ingredients in everyday kitchens, so I tried to give as much detailed explanation as needed to gather these soups for greater shelf life. Bear with me. This post is a quite long!
Photo step-by-step tutorial for making 8 DIY Dry Vegetable Soup Mix
To begin with, I will talk about the range of dry soup mix ingredients followed by the ingredients used for each 8 soup recipes. They all have the same prep and cooking process. All of the soup mixes will rehydrate quickly (9-10 minutes) once boiling water is added.
THE INGREDIENTS
All except 3 instant meals need either rice, whole-wheat couscous, or noodles. It’s up to you which ingredient to use. You can prefer one over the other.
Use these quantities interchangeably in the soup recipes:
1/2 cup noodles, or 1/4 cup rice, or 2 tablespoons couscous
The dry soup mix bulk is simple to make but tastes good. For the couscous and noodles, they can quickly rehydrate with the boiling water. However, i may take more to soften the rice instead of getting the chewy texture.
- Minute (Instant) Rice–although brown rice is known to be more healthy, white rice takes two times less time to soften entirely. So, for my soup recipes, I suggest you use the White Minute rice. If you have a microwave with you, you can cook the Brown Minute rice with soups a little longer to soften the rice.
- Whole wheat couscous–it rehydrates quicker than rice so I recommend this for backpackers who need to intake calories fast.
View on Amazon: Instant Brown Rice, Instant White Rice, Whole Wheat Cous Cous
- Noodles. Some of the dry soup mix recipes have noodles inside. There are numerous noodle types that work well with the soup. Check the package instructions and search for noodles that cook in 4 minutes or less like the ones pictured below; make sure to look for faster cooking noodles so that they soften easier in boiling water like the 3 1/2 minute rotini pasta I used for the Minestrone Instant Soup Mix. My favorite is the Millet and Brown Rice Ramen; it is healthy, tasty, and rehydrates quickly. I also cut the long noodles into smaller lengths using kitchen scissors for convenience eating. You can look for these healthy ramen noodles at Costco, or check out Amazon.
View on Amazon: Millet and Brown Rice Ramen (Monica’s favorite); Annie Chun’s Brown Rice Noodles; Al Dente artisan pasta
- Caution about noodles for backpackers: If you’re preparing a meal for the trail, you may cook in a plastic bag and avoid using thin “sharp” pasta that can create holes. Otherwise, you can use a pan or a bowl to rehydrate your soup.
- Vogue Cuisine Chicken or Beef Base is included in all of my soup recipes. I looked for a flavor booster like a broth that is healthy without containing any chemicals or excessive sodium. I recommend The Vogue Cuisine brand that uses natural, gluten-free ingredients that absolutely enhance the flavor of the 8 soup recipes. VegeBase is also a healthy and tasty flavor enhancer to try out!
View on Amazon: Vogue Cuisine Chicken Base, Vogue Cuisine Beef Base, Vogue Onion Soup Base, Vogue Vegetarian Chicken Base, Vogue Cuisine VegeBase,
- Dried spices. These are the dried herbs and flavors I added to all of my instant soups. I’m a fan of Penzey’s, but any dry spices will do too.
Extra delicious dried ingredients that improve flavor in the instant soups:
- Dried Parmesan cheese (not freshly grated) — Fresh cheese can expire fast so I don’t recommend it for these instant dried soups. Try to search for a good quality canned cheese to add more flavor to the potato soup. I like the Mama Francesca brand, but you can look for other good ones out there.
- Cheddar cheese powder. This power adds great flavor and is a main ingredient in the broccoli cheddar soup.
- Dried tomato powder. Added in the minestrone and tomato basil soups.
- Dehydrated soy sauce powder. I have found this key ‘magic’ powder to create that Asian instant soup taste like the pea/scallion/ginger ramen soup and the Thai coconut milk soup.
- Powdered lime juice. This adds a lime flavor to the Thai coconut milk soup. I usually use the leftover packets to naturally flavor water.
View on Amazon: grated Parmesan cheese, cheddar cheese powder, dried tomato powder, dehydrated soy sauce powder, True Lime powder
- Powdered milk, buttermilk, and coconut milk — Add creaminess with nutrients like protein and calcium to the instant soup. You can choose nonfat or whole milk powder or buttermilk powder to make your soup more creamy, or coconut milk powder to enjoy that Thai flavored creaminess. Your local grocery stores would sell regular nonfat powdered milk and buttermilk, but you may also check out Whole Foods or Amazon for organic versions, whole milk powder, and coconut milk powder.
View on Amazon: organic nonfat powdered milk, organic whole powdered milk, buttermilk powder, organic powdered coconut milk,
- Freeze-dried veggies (Karen’s Naturals brand) rehydrate quickly in boiling water and taste fresh. They are 100% natural and available at the local grocery stores, Whole Foods, and on Amazon. (They can be a tasty snack without rehydrating them–I often eat those crunchy mixed veggies as a snack.) I added the mixed vegetables, peas, and tomato bits for instant soup recipes; they’re the easiest way to add a range of greens & nutrients to instant meals.
- Freeze-dried veggies (Mother Earth brand) has a variety of veggies and is on Amazon. I used their freeze-dried mushrooms and broccoli for our soup recipes.
- Freeze-dried herbs (Litehouse brand) rehydrate quickly and have an amazing flavor. I bought these at my local grocery store, but they’re also on Amazon. Their spring onions and chopped chives were added to our dried vegetable soup recipe too.
View freeze-dried veggies and herbs on Amazon: just veggies, peas, tomato bits, broccoli, mushrooms, spring onions (scallions), chives
- Freeze-dried chicken or beef. (If you’re vegetarian, of course, you can skip the meat section.) I added freeze-dried chicken to my Chicken Noodle Soup. However, you can choose to add chicken or beef to any of the soup recipes for refilling your protein. I normally purchase a big can of freeze-dried chicken, but I recommend this only if you are making a large number of instant soups or meals. The chicken tastes amazing with its nutrition once it is rehydrated after adding boiling water. My can of chicken is from Amazon. (7 of the 8 instant soup recipes don’t require meat; so if this chicken is too costly for you, just ignore the meat altogether.)
View on Amazon: 1 lb can freeze-dried chicken, 1 lb can freeze-dried beef
IMPORTANT TO KNOW ABOUT SHELF LIFE OF FREEZE-DRIED MEAT: These cans of freeze-dried meat can store up to 25 years; however it’s a different story if you have opened the can and the air has been exposed to the food inside, which quickens decay and form bacteria. Make sure to rehydrate the meat and eat it within one or two weeks. Store the meat in the freezer to extend its storage life. With a Foodsaver, vacuum sealing can keep the food fresh for up to 1 year. I normally use the Foodsaver to vacuum seal 1-2 cup portions of the unused freeze-dried chicken.
View on Amazon: Foodsaver Vacuum Sealer
- Instant potato flakes are added to the Creamy Potato Instant Soup. There are some boxed brands at your local grocery store. Check out Amazon for the organic option.
- Real bacon bits. It’s your choice to add these real bacon bits to the Potato Instant Soup, but they add better flavor you like if you like bacon. Make sure to eat within a week if you add these into your bag of soup mix. Another way is to keep the bacon bits and the soup mix separate until you are ready to make the soup.
View on Amazon: organic instant potato flakes, real bacon bits
- Individual packets that boost flavor. Check out these ingredients below that you can add to your instant sups for more flavor or spice. The olive oil packets is good for backpackers to increase their calorie intake and for their health benefits.
view packets on Amazon: olive oil, Sriracha, Cholula hot sauce
HOW TO MAKE THE 8 INSTANT DRY SOUP MIXES:
- Decide how you will store the dry soup mixes. Using portable Ziploc plastic bags is a perfect option for backpackers. For containers, you can choose whichever you like that can hold at least 1 cup. You can also store the mixes in half-pint mason jars.
- To avoid confusion, it’s useful to label each plastic bag before putting the dry soup mix inside. I like using the freezer Ziploc bags and not the storage one because the freezer Ziploc bags are thicker so it’s harder to break. (They are BPA-free.) Especially, if you are adding boiling water to the plastic bag, I highly recommend using quart-size Ziploc freezer bags. However, if you are adding the water after transferring the dried mix into a bowl, then a pint-size Ziploc will do. After choosing the type of plastic bag, label each of them with the type of soup, the amount of boiling water to add, and the time to let the soup rest before eating.
View on Amazon: freezer quart Ziploc bags, Baggy Rack, half-pint mason jars, Sharpie markers
- I have 2 Baggy Racks that hold my bags open as I fill the ingredients inside. It’s convenient when you are cooking alone but you need extra hands.
View on Amazon: Baggy Rack
Check out the picture above on how the mixes look in bags and jars.
- Oxygen Absorbers can store the dehydrated soup mixes for a longer period of time. I put them in King-Man’s soup mix bags to keep his food fresh during the journey. You may have seen them when you bought dried food products before.
View on Amazon: oxygen absorbers
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“COOKING” THE INSTANT SOUPS
Method 1: Inside the plastic bag. If you use quart freezer bags, they are large enough to pour the boiling water into the bag. (In case you are worried, Ziplocs are BPA-free.) Mix the ingredient and seal the bag, and let it sit for 9 or 10 minutes. It’s better if you can put the bag on a plate or bowl for a strong base (and in case your bag springs a leak). Unseal, stir, and enjoy!
Method 2: In a covered bowl. The benefit of eating the soup from the bag is that you don’t have to clean up the mess afterward. However, it’s convenient to eat soup from a bowl or mug. Check out the pictures below that shows an insulated nesting bowl, mug, and lid. It is very light and conducive to backpacking. Those bowl features keep the soup warm and nice during cold weather while the ingredients blend with the hot water.
View on Amazon: insulated nesting bowl and mug
Method 3. In microwave-safe soup mugs. These are not for traveling but are good options for a meal of instant soups at the office, a dorm, or a hotel room. You can simply add the instant ingredients and water to the bowls you prepared, cover them, and microwave them until they are boiled. Take them out of the microwave and let them cool down until the soups have a soft texture. Another way is to boil the water separately and pour it later into the bowls with the instant ingredients; mix and let them stay for 9 or 10 minutes aside. If you want to know what kinds of soup bowls I used, check out the links below; both are great.
View microwave-safe mugs on Amazon: white ceramic soup mug with lid, plastic soup mug with lid (BPA-free)
Photos, ingredients, and printable recipe links for the 8 instant soups:
The details about the weight and calories of each soup recipe are labeled for your reference. Each soup recipe are for 1 to 2 servings.
1. Minestrone Vegetable Instant Soup Mix
- Ingredients: quick-cooking rotini, freeze-dried mixed veggies, Italian herb seasoning, garlic powder, onion powder, chicken base powder, tomato powder, salt, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 2-3/8 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 126
2. Creamy Potato, Chive, Bacon Instant Soup Mix
- Ingredients: instant potato flakes, corn starch, freeze-dried chives, dried grated Parmesan cheese, instant dried buttermilk powder, garlic powder, onion powder, chicken base powder, real bacon bits (optional), salt, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 3-5/8 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 205
3. Pea, Scallion, Ginger Ramen Instant Dry Soup Mix
- Ingredients: ramen noodles, freeze-dried peas & scallions (spring onions), ginger powder, garlic powder, chicken base powder, soy sauce powder, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 2-3/8 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 73
4. Broccoli Cheddar Instant Soup Mix
- Ingredients: freeze-dried broccoli, corn starch, dried cheddar cheese powder, instant dried buttermilk powder, garlic powder, onion powder, chicken base powder, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 4 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 173
5. Chicken Noodle Instant Dry Soup Mix
- Ingredients: noodles, freeze-dried peas & scallions (spring onions), onion powder, garlic powder, chicken base powder, freeze-dried chicken, salt, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 3-3/8 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 125
6. Creamy Tomato Basil Instant Soup Mix
- Ingredients: tomato powder, instant dried milk powder, garlic powder, onion powder, dried basil, chicken base powder, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 3.5 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 108
7. Mushroom, Beef Broth, Cous Cous Instant Dry Soup Mix
- Ingredients: couscous, freeze-dried mushrooms & scallions (spring onions), onion powder, garlic powder, beef and onion base powders, salt, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 1-3/4 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 80
8. Thai Coconut Milk with Rice Instant Dry Soup Mix
- Ingredients: Minute rice, freeze-dried peas, mushrooms & scallions (spring onions), soy sauce powder, garlic powder, ginger powder, chicken base powder, corn starch, dried coconut milk powder, dried lime juice powder, salt, pepper
- Weight of full recipe in the bag: 14-1/8 oz.
- Calories per 1-cup serving: 367
Modifications. Feel free to make any changes or addition to the ingredients for 8 of these instant soups. Use other veggies or seasonings that you like. You can either add meat or make them vegetarian or gluten-free. You can use your creativity and make your own recipe.
Make your Delicious Dehydrated Soup!
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