This delicious, nutritious dehydrated vegetarian meal has a balance of carbs from the pearl barley and peas plus protein from the goat cheese feta (and optional edamame). Ghee adds fat and calories, creaminess, smooth mouthfeel, as well as a buttery flavour. Yum!

pot with dehydrated pea, edame beans and freeze dried feta pearl barley risotto — This recipe uses our favourite freeze-dried feta, pairing perfectly with the nuttiness of the pearl barley and the sweetness of the peas, broccoli, fennel, leek and zucchini. It’s also yummy as a pea, lemon and pearl barley risotto for vegans. Enjoy – this one is a winner!

table of nutrition information 24.3% protein — Little White Goat Cheese Company’s Freeze-Dried Feta: almost 25% protein and 25% fat, excellent hiking food when combined with carbs from the peas and pearl barley! Using edamame instead of peas increases protein still further. This cheese is also our favourite lightweight lunch when rehydrated (in seconds) with water, a splash of olive oil and a grind of black pepper, scooped up with Geoff’s homemade sourdough crackers.

Ingredients

3-4 L hot chicken or vegetable stock, held at a low simmer
1 leek, white part only, finely sliced
3 ½ large onions, finely diced
2 fennel bulbs, finely diced
½ knob garlic, minced
2 tbspn olive oil
4 cups pearl barley*
2 cups verjuice or dry white wine
large pinch saffron
2 zucchini, finely sliced
½ broccoli, finely chopped
1 bunch basil, leaves picked
6 cups frozen peas/and or 325g freeze dried peas (available in supermarkets)**
Zest from two lemons
ghee, small takeaway butter containers or butter powder
freeze dried feta***

*You can use risotto rice but we recommend pearl barley because the nutty taste and more robust texture work better in this recipe. As well, pearl barley is low GI for a longer, more sustained energy release than white rice (and also brown).

**You can substitute the frozen peas with any proportion of tinned edamame (frozen won’t rehydrate as well) for a huge protein boost as we sometimes do, but the flavour is not as sweet as with peas. Either way, add extra freeze-dried peas when packaging for sweetness.

***There are no true substitutes for feta with its tangy salty flavour in this recipe. However, at the end of cooking time you can adjust the lemon juice and salt for a pea, lemon and pearl barley version that tastes pretty darn good!

Method

Place saffron in white wine or verjuice, stir, and leave to infuse.

Heat 1 tbspn oil in a large non-stick frypan over medium-high heat and fry leek, onion, fennel and garlic until soft and translucent. Remove.

Sautéing vegetables in scant oil.in a large frying pan — *Sauteeing vegetables in scant oil.*

Add remaining oil, heat over medium-high heat and add pearl barley. Cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until well-coated, return leek and fennel mix, then add verjuice and saffron. Stir until liquid is absorbed, then add a ladle of stock. Stir until absorbed, then repeat until pearl barley is almost cooked, but still somewhat tough. Add frozen peas and/or edamame, broccoli, basil, lemon zest and a little more hot stock. Stir for another 10 minutes until peas, broccoli and zucchini are well cooked. If using freeze dried peas, add equivalent amount at packaging time rather than now.

zucchini and edame beans added to pan with risotto rice — *This is an edamame batch that maximises protein; peas are sweeter.*

Remove from heat and season well to taste, remembering that you’ll be adding salty feta cheese in camp. If you like more zing, add scant lemon juice, again remembering the feta will be tangy.

Tip pearl barley mixture into a colander over a bowl to drain excess liquid. Return liquid to empty pan and boil over high heat until reduced and slightly thickened, then pour reduced liquid onto silicone-lined dehydrator tray(s) and place into dehydrator. This step is important because, when this liquid is dried and powdered to add back in, it creates a creamy rather than watery risotto.

close up of risotto mixture in pan — Put one serve pearl barley mixture into a bowl and weigh: this is your wet mix A. Place this serve onto a dehydrator tray marked with a spoon. Fill remaining trays with mix and dehydrate at 57C (135F) until dry. Partway through, break up any clumps. This picture shows a rice risotto test batch.

Also partway through, peel reduced liquid from silicone and invert onto mesh to continue drying. When crack dry (it may be pliable while warm), powder in a spice grinder, spread onto a sheet to dehydrate for ten minutes more, then place into a bowl to make powder C.

When pearl barley mix is completely dry, weigh and record that of your marked tray. This is your Dry Mix B (one serve). Place all pearl barley mix into a large bowl.

dried ingredients in serving size portions ready for packaging — Rice risotto left front, pearl barley version right and back. We decided the rice risotto was nowhere near as nice the pearl barley version so have given you instructions only for the latter, but you can always substitute if you prefer rice.

Packaging for Two

Into each vac seal bag, place

2 x Dry Mix B
25g extra freeze dried peas (plus 325g evenly distributed between all bags only if using freeze dried peas alone)
Powder C evenly distributed between vac seal bags.
20-40g ghee sealed in a separate small pouch, or use equivalent takeaway butter containers. These can be packaged separately if you want to store the meal for an extended time (store in freezer). Vac sealing the ghee excludes oxygen and extends its lifespan significantly
24g dehydrated feta (or to taste) folded into a square of greaseproof paper or snack-size Ziploc.

Vac seal the bags.

On the outside write amount of water needed, which is 2A-2B= D, plus a little extra to rehydrate the freeze dried peas and powder.