A vegan creamy polenta dish that is packed with the umami goodness of tomatoes and mushrooms. Ideal for overnight trips or for preparing towards the start of a longer backpacking trip.
Handful ofdried mixed mushroomsbroken into smaller pieces
3-4tbspcoconut milk powder
20gnutritional yeastapprox 1/4 cup
Salt and pepper to taste
Sauce Mix
3tbspoil from a jar of sundried tomatoes
1/4cupoily sundried tomatoeschopped
2tbsptomato soup powder
1/2tbspdried thyme leaves
3clovesgarlicminced
1/2tspdried minced onion
Apinch ofred chili flakes
Instructions
At Home
Package the 2 types of ingredients separately. Make sure the sauce mix is in an air-tight container!
At Camp: 2-pot Method
In the larger pot, pour 3 cups of water and the dry ingredients. Let them hydrate for a bit as you prepare other things. If you have the time, let it hydrate for 30-45 minutes while you set up camp - this will reduce the cooking time, but is totally optional!
After it has hydrated a little, bring the pot to boil. Cook until the polenta is done and the red lentils are al dente. Stir and add more water if needed. It will continue cooking in the residual heat if you cover it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes before serving.
In the mean time, pour the sauce mix out into a smaller pot or pan. While the polenta mix is resting, fry the oily sauce mix until it sizzles a little.
Add about 1/4 cup of water and mix to create a sauce consistency. Add more water if needed.
Cook just enough for it to heat through, then it's ready to be served over the polenta!
At Camp: 1-pot Method
The main change here is to put everything into one pot with a little more water, mix properly, keep stirring, and add more water if needed.
Cook until the polenta is done and the red lentils are al dente. It will continue cooking in the residual heat if you cover it and let it sit for 5-10 minutes afterwards.
Notes
You could use instant polenta instead of quick-cooking polenta. It would reduce the cook time, but would be heavier due to greater water content. I haven’t tried this and cannot recommend, but if you do, let me know how it goes!
The recipe specifically calls for split red lentils because they cook relatively quickly. Other lentils generally do not.
You can substitute oily sundried tomatoes with the desiccated kind, but you might want to rehydrate them a little before putting them in the sauce.
The tomato soup powder replaces the tomato paste from the original recipe. It also contains salt and other seasoning.
You can use any combination of dried herbs: rosemary, thyme, oregano, basil, etc.