Veggies in the pantry, Veggies in the bowl

My comments here are going to be quite similar to my comments on storing dried beans. In this missive I’ll review the storage and basics of dried vegetables, always a good addition to soups, stews, noodle dishes (ramen).

As spoken prior “These have an incredible shelf life, and with a little care can become the Methuselah of your pantry. Just there, always ready, and just never dying.”

In storing dried food stuff one must guard against the triple threat of oxygen, humidity, and light. We will tackle these with a minimal amount of gear and fuss.

Note if some of these concepts and words seem the same to you, well they are. The same concepts that apply to beans, will apply to rice, will apply to pasta, will apply to dried veggies, will apply to … <INSERT NAME OF FOOD STUFF HERE>

You get the picture, so understand the concepts and be able to skim for the important data and do your own interpolation.

Portioning

Let’s get some basics out of the way:

• The standard ratio is 1 cup dried veggies, 2 cups water
• One cup of veggies will yield 2 cups reconstituted vegetables
• The standard serving is 1/3 cup or ~6 tablespoons

Based on my family eating habits I’ll estimate that 2/3 cup of veggies (approx 4 oz or ~125 grams), is about right for a single cook.

Storage

I grabbed several 12 oz jars of dried vegetables from Amazon, (they were sold as vegetable soup mix, but had no “stock” power component), and will cook from one and store the rest. Rotating my stock by ordering a new jar when I use the open one, and placing the new jar into a light proof / vermin proof container. I will of course label this with the purchase date

I do look closely at the added chemicals and sodium. The one I use has no preservatives and a minimal amount of salt.

Notes:

The overall goal of this post is to convey the concepts of portioning to a desired yield, long term storage methods, rice types and basic uses. This is NOT an all inclusive list, do the basic research on each type of rice and do experiment.

I simmer 3 tablespoons of veggies in 2 cups of water, with a 1/2 tsp of garlic, then add a packet of ramen noodles and cook the noodles. From there addition of sesame oil, soy sauce, chili oil will deliver a tasty healthy filling bowl of noodles for little or no effort.

Cooking tips

• Remember 1:2
• Simmer for 10-15 minutes or
• Soak for 20
• Use the simmer / soak water to cook with

Quick Noodles

Quick, Healthy, Tasty, Filling

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 20 minutes mins

Course Main Course, Snack, Soup

Cuisine Asian, Global

Servings 1

Calories 159 kcal

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 2 cups Water
• 3 tbsp Dried Vegetable Mix
• 1 pkg Ramen Toss the seasoning package
• 1 tsp Chili Oil
• 1/4 tsp Minced Garlic
• 1/4 tsp Ginger Paste
• 1 tbsp Soy Sauce Low Sodium
• 1 tsp Toasted Sesame Oil

Instructions

 

• In a medium bowl, add dried veggie mix, garlic, ginger, water
• Microwave for 5-6 minutes
• Add noodle, microwave for 3 minutes
• Add the rest, toss and serve

Notes

One can add an additional cup of water and a second package of noodles for an extra filling meal.

For an additional kick, (to your taste as this can be spicy) one can add:

• 1/4 tsp of dried jalapeno
• 1 tsp of Sambal Oelek
• 1 fresh thai chili, seeded and minced
• 1/4 tsp of gochugaru

Nutrition

Calories: 159kcalCarbohydrates: 17gProtein: 4gFat: 9gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 2857mgPotassium: 200mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gCalcium: 46mgIron: 1mg

Keyword Noodle Sauce, Noodles, Vegetable

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!