Quinoa and Amaranth are both incredible grains with South American origins. Amaranth takes longer to cook and needs to be rinsed before cooking (to get rid of a bitter coating) but both are delicious when properly prepared.  Amaranth takes as long to cook as brown rice, but quinoa is relatively quick.  A fellow paddler claims that he used to put some in a waterproof container in the morning with enough water to hydrate it, then eat it for dinner without having to cook it.  Haven't tried this myself.
Thanks for the results, woodbender, I do a lot of my own dehydrating, but haven't tried a rice blend yet.

WoodBender wrote on Feb 2^nd, 2008 at 12:25am:


Tastes like Chicken
Couldn't pass up the chance to say that!
Actually its flavor is unique but I think you'll enjoy it and the nutritional value is off the charts.
IF I'm not mistaken, its one of the few food sources that provides a complete source of protein and carbs?
 It was the nutritional staple of one of the famous S American cultures, Aztecs/Incas not sure which.
 Reminds me of Cous-Cous a little bit, can take seasonings to increase versatility.

Yeah - we've looked at quinoa for this trip and I think just because it was unfamiliar we kind of passed it over.

BUT!

Tell me about the taste and texture. What is it similar to in taste? Slightly nutty maybe? Alfalfa sprouts? Sesame seeds?

By all means try the rice. I was astounded with how it turned out.  Very pleased.  I'm just happy as a clam that by going with freezer bag style cooking we can prepare and take meals that we would eat here at home but modifying them only slightly we can eat like a king and queen on the trail.

I'll look more into the quinoa! Thanks for the suggestion!

I also eat a lot of grains, including a lot of "natural" rice.   I'm going to try your recipe this weekend.  I've never dehydrated rice before, so it should be interesting.

Have you ever tried quinoa (pronounce keenwa)?  Its a very nutritious seed from S. America originally,  it cooks relatively fast (15 minutes) and to my taste, is delicious.  It has many of the essential amino acids so it's better nutritionally than most grains.

I've dehydrated beans before and they work great.  For most beans all you need is water, cold or hot.  My favorite is Anasazi beans, as they have less complex carbohydrates fats and are more easily digested than pinto.

Thanks for the idea.

Just thought I'd post results of a dehydration experiment we did. 

Been reading through the recipes on freezer bag cooking and decided we'd better start experimenting with the recipes and substitutions before we subject ourselves to this on the BW lakes in August.

My better half makes a mix of three natural rices which are unbleached and not stripped (hence the phrase "natural"). One is a long grain natural, one is a short natural red grain, and the third is the northern wild rice from the MN. rice lakes regions. (that last one is mostly for color and texture - it can be expensive)

We simply cannot force ourselves to the "instant rice" varieties - there's just no flavor and very little real food value to it.  Call us Prima Donnas but after eating my childbride's rice blend it's a hands down contest.

It takes a long time to cook the rice the first time around because it is not stripped. She adds a very mild bullion to the mix plus a couple dry herbs.  Cooks for about an hour. It makes a fanTAStic dinner dish so we thought let's try it for the BW.

We use it as a substitution for "Ben's" instant rice in the freezer bag cooking recipes.  It's a 1:1 substitute.

We dehydrated a test batch - seemed to go okay - didn't clump up real bad, broke up easy enough while drying. The whole dehydration time was about 3.5 to 4 hours at 135°.  DON'T use oil in the cooking process.

We let it "rest" for a couple days in a plastic bag and then my childbride tested it for a snack one afternoon. Simply covered it with boiling water and let it "steep" for 15 minutes. (most of the freezer bag recipes have to "cozy" for 10-15 minutes anyway) Turned out perfect.  Very slightly chewy but quite good.

It turned out to be a great experiment.  It's a great natural camp food that can be used as a main dish ingredient (ie: with dehydrated burger) or a staple side dish.  For Veggan diets it has a LOT of real food mileage and value.

If you have a dehydrator give it a shot.