Last weekend we were in the Catskills, backpacking along the Black Dome Range and Escarpment Trails. We covered about 20 miles and traversed about 11,000 vertical feet over the course of ascending and descending six 3,000+ foot peaks. That kind of hiking can make a soul mighty hungry. (And thirsty, but I'll leave the cumbersome mechanics of wilderness water collection and purification for another time.)

I wanted to create a dish for our trip that would be light to carry, use little fuel to prepare, and provide adequate nutrition. Of course, I wanted it to taste good as well, but I guess three out of four ain't bad.

My first thought was a lentil and couscous stew. Both central components have an excellent weight to nutrition ratios, and are also satisfyingly hearty. I make them frequently at home. The roadblock is that although lentils are the quickest-cooking legumes I know, they still take much too long to attempt over a tiny backpacking stove. There are two methods to make them cook faster, however, and I used them both: grinding and presoaking. In the final, and successful, version, I used a coffee grinder to crush the lentils to a sand-like consistency, and then soaked them in a plastic bag for about an hour before cooking. After soaking, I boiled the mixture until thick, and then added a handful of mixed dehydrated vegetables and some cooked couscous. The resulting stew had a perfect texture, smooth and substantial, just like camp comfort food should be. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the flavor: in addition to burning the bottom of the pot when I made it on the backpacking stove, I had trouble with the seasoning. As someone who seasons food as she goes along, it is hard to adapt to creating a mix, putting the spices into the ground lentils before cooking rather than tasting and adjusting them. It made me really nervous, and I ended up just using salt and trusting that the dehydrated vegetables would add enough flavor - they didn't.

The dish still holds promise, however, and I will definitely be correcting it and packing it on future trips. Next time, I'll try adding some Indian spices, and using individual dehydrated vegetables rather than a mix. I think I will also switch to a red lentil, just to make it look a little more appetizing - without the definition of lentil shapes, the yellow-green gloop wasn't much to look at. Given the flaws, I'm not going to write a recipe, but if you are interested in experimenting, a cup of ground lentils can be soaked and cooked in two cups of water and makes a good serving for three people.