Dehydrated "Just add water" Meal - Lentil Soup VEGAN friendly

     In my opinion, one of the most irritating things about "Meal in a Jar" recipes or dehydrated meal recipes is that they are impractical.  You think you are just going to be storing some ingredients in a jar and you just add water.  This is often NOT the case.  They call for some dry ingredients, then they also call for jars of things like oil, sauce, etc.  

     Other times part of the recipe calls for dehydrated foods (which can be prepared at home), and other ingredients are freeze dried (which requires specialized equipment, or a specialized setup at the very least).  If you're going to spend a fortune on buying freeze dried foods, why the heck wouldn't you just buy the ready made ones?  I want to give you recipes that you can reproduce,  even in a grid down situation.

     Also, dehydrated meal recipes often throw in things like a pound of bacon.  Oh yes.  It's the apocalypse and all, but let me just go catch a pig for dinner!!  For this reason, I will be working to not only provide you recipes for LEGITIMATE just add water foods that can be prepared at home with little more than a food vacuum sealer and dehydrator, but I will be showing you how to prepare the stored foods.  I may even make the foods so you can see how they look prepared.

     The first of such recipes is Just add water Lentil Soup.  This can be placed in a jar or a vacuum seal bag, whichever you prefer.

I am not going to give specific amounts for each Pint sized amount.  I am going to give you the recipe to make 4 servings

10 ounces of carrots.  I used a pack of Bolthouse Farms Matchstix 

16 ounces of celery hearts.  I used the Dole brand.

1 small bag of onions.  My bag had 8-10 mediumsmallish onions.  I used one onion out of it for my pizza sauce when I made homemade pizza from Scratch, and the rest I dehydrated for this project.

3-4 large slicing tomatoes.  Each serving has 3-4 large dehydrated slices in it.  

and 4 basil leaves

So you start by dehydrating the onions, carrots, celery, and tomato.  I have a regular round nesco dehydrator.  I wanted to make sure to get as much moisture out as possible so I let the stuff dehydrate for about 12-14 hours.  

One thing that I learned from this project is do NOT underestimate how tiny these pieces can get.  I thought I would only have to worry about the onion, but boy was I wrong. 

Most dehydrator trays have holes to allow airflow.  Mine looks like this.

I strongly recommend wrapping the trays in aluminum foil and poking many holes in the foil to allow airflow if keeping the ingredients separate matters to you.  It matters to me, so I'm kind of OCD about it.  :)

I put the onions on the bottom

followed by the carrots.

Finally I topped it off with celery and basil leaves

I already had the tomato from a previous recipe, but you do it in the same manner.  You slice it and lay it out flat.

Try and make sure your slices are about the same so they will dehydrate evenly. 

Now that everything is dehydrated, start by putting the following in the bottom of each pint mason jar (or bag if you prefer to vacuum seal them):

• 2 crushed bullion cubes.  You can do beef, chicken, or veggie.  Using veggie makes this meal vegan friendly. 

• 1/2 Tablespoon salt

• 1/4 Tablespoon pepper (or more if you like things spicy)

• 1 heaping teaspoon of garlic powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme 

• On top of that put your slices of dehydrated tomato.  If you are using a mason jar, they'll probably fit right in.  If you're vacuum packing, you may choose to cut up the tomatoes for a better fit.  Each of the four servings should have 3-4 tomato slices.

Now is the time to separate your veggies out into 4.

• Place 1/4 of all of the carrots in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the onions in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the celery in each jar/package

• Place 1/4 of all of the dried basil in each jar/package (1 leaf each) crushing as you place.

• If you are using a mason jar, fill the rest of the jar up with lentils to the rim leaving little headspace.  If you are not, then put about a cup of lentils in each bag.  I had 2 1 pound bags and had about a half of a bag left when splitting 4 ways.

• Top with 1/2 bay leaf

Label Each Bag/jar: Add 6 cups of water and cook for 1 hour on medium high.  Making sure that you keep at least about an inch of water above the solids at all times.  remove the bay leaf before serving.