Dehydrated Broccolicious Soup with Rice

This is such a delicious soup and it will bring us much joy and needed vegetables after a long day of backpacking! The recipe was adapted from a Williams Sonoma recipe titled, Cream of Broccoli with Aged Cheddar. I changed a few things but it is hard to mess with perfection! I increased the quantity of broccoli (to make it broccolicious) and substituted unsweetened soy milk for the cow’s milk just because we didn’t have cow’s milk at home. I omitted the garnishes. I also added brown rice to make it more hearty for the trail. And of course I added the dehydration process!

2 lbs broccoli, trimmed and tough stems peeled and chopped

2 TBSP unsalted butter

1 yellow onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

5 cups chicken or vegetable stock, heated

1/2 tsp dried Thyme

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 cups unsweetened soy milk

1/2 lb cheddar cheese, shredded

salt and white pepper

1 cup brown rice, cooked

“In a large sauce pan melt the butter over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until begins to brown, 5-7 minutes.

Sprinkle in the flour and sauté stirring for about one minute more. Whisking continuously, slowly pour in the stock. Add the chopped broccoli, thyme and lemon juice and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until the broccoli is very tender, about 20 minutes.

In small batches, purée the soup in a food mill or blender taking care to avoid splattering. Return purée to pan, stir in the milk and bring to a simmer over low heat. Sprinkle cheese into soup, stirring until the cheese melts and blends in. Season with salt and pepper to taste.” (quoted from the WS cookbook)

Add the cooked rice to the pot and mix together. At this point I decided to let the soup sit in the fridge over night to let the rice absorb more soup so it would thicken a bit more but it is not necessary.

Before dehydrating, determine how much soup you will eat per serving so you will know how much to pack in each freezer bag (we figured about 4 cups of soup total for all three of us: 2 adults and a toddler).
Using a teflex sheet on the dehydrator tray, evenly spread 1 cup of soup onto each tray. Dehydrate at 135 degrees for 6-8 hours. When done the soup should be dry, shrunken and sort of crisp.
Store servings (we put 4 trays worth -“4 cups”- of dehydrated soup in each bag) in a freezer bag marked with the date and contents for up to a year or more in the freezer.

To re-hydrate, pour contents into a pot and cover with water about 1 inch above the surface. Simmer until rice is soft.