In a soup mood, I chanced upon this recipe from Soup - Superb Ways with a Classic Dish (Contributing Editor: Debra Mayhew). In the process of pureeing it, I realized, "Hey! This would make a great, thick and hearty trail meal!"

So... with some variations and time tested wisdom about dehydrating tricky foods I've put this recipe together. I've omitted the oil for sautéing and heavy cream for thickening for dehydrating purposes. The result... it's still very thick and can be stretched in the field by (very) gradually adding more water. Here ya go: Dehydrated Chicken and Almond Soup

Ingredients: Serves 4 very well. A side of pan fried bread takes up any extra hunger slack!

Step 1: Blanch Almonds
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Ground almonds in a chopper or mini blender. Spread on cookie sheet and toast in oven until golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Step 1a: Dehydrate Rice
Cook 1 cup Basmati Rice as directed on container. After cooked, spread on dehydrator trays with screen insert. Set temperature to 130-degrees. Dehydrate 4-6 hours; stir with fingers several times. Pack rice in loosely packed, small Zip-loc bag.

Step 2:
Spray deep skillet with oil spray. Sauté chopped leeks and ginger root until soft - not browned!

Step 3:
Lower heat and add blanched almonds, salt, peppercorns, chili, carrots, peas and chicken. Fry and stir constantly for about 10 minutes; add cilantro.

Step 4:
Remove from heat and let cool. In reasonable batch sizes, transfer to a blender or food processor and blend until mush. You will need to gradually add small amounts of water to the mixture in the blender to allow for a "mush" to develop for easy blending.

Step 5: (If you were serving this meal at home include Step 5, otherwise skip to Step 6.)
In portions equal to the number of batches being blended, add water (2 cups) and blend for 20-30 seconds. If you were serving this at home, bring soup to a boil stirring occasionally, lower temperature and then stir in 1 cup light cream; serve. Add cooked rice. But, for dehydrating...

Step 6:
Weigh and record weight of soup before (and after) dehydrating. The difference between the "wet" and "dehydrated" weight of the soup is the amount of water (plus, 2-3 cups of water) to be added to the soup when hydrating on the trail.

Step 7:
Ladle shallow amounts of the soup-mush onto dehydrating trays lined with inserts. Dehydrate at 140 (5-8 hours). Mush should transition into brittle flakes with no softness. After 4-5 hours, remove any dried portions and store in an opened Zip-loc bag until completely cooled off, then seal bag. GRIND the dehydrated soup flakes for (much) quicker hydration at camp.

Step 8:
Weigh contents of dehydrated weight. Determine the amount of water to be added to dehydrated mush at camp (plus the 2-3+ cups of water to be GRADUALLY added when hydrating at camp). Label a heavy grade vacuum sealed bag with the soup name, date dehydrated, dry weight, amount of water to add when cooking at camp. Vacuum seal. Store in cool/dark location for up to several months.

Step 9:
When hydrating at camp, simmer soup in 3/4 of recommended water until soup/chicken texture softens. Add remaining water (plus some?) until desired thickness. Because, the chicken will be ground, it should only need to cook about 20-25 minutes. With about 10 min. to go, add dehydrated rice to soup. Add small amounts of water to get desired consistency. Serve with pan fried corn bread.

"g's Results - yet to be field tested

1) Weights:
Wet weight: 3-lb/6-oz; Dried weight: 1-lb/3-oz;
Water Loss: 1-lb/3-oz (2-3 cups of water)

2) Figuring amount of water to add at camp:
I made a sample of soup by taking 1/3 cup of dehydrated soup and gradually added 1 cup of simmering water. It seemed like a ratio of 1:3 (soup to water) offered the right soup consistency. It took 15-20 minutes to simmer before serving.

3) To serve 4:
I vacuum sealed the entire amount of dehydrated/ground soup - 3 cups. Using the 1:3 ratio, I will gradually add 7-9 cups of simmering water to soup. It will take the rice about 8-10 minutes to hydrate in the soup before serving. More water may need to be added for the rice to hydrate.