Couscous and Bulgur

[whizbang]

Does anyone ever cook these up as a quick meal? I was thinking about carrying olive oil, crushed red pepper, parmesan, salt and peper, dried onions and garlic powder, and a few other odds and ends that I can throw in with some raisins and nuts and other dried fruit or tuna or whatever: quick and easy freezer bag meals that you only really need to warm water for and weigh a few pounds for many days worth. You can make it in a bag as your water warms. Add lemon juice and dried parsley and make tabouleh, add pine nuts and currants, etc. Would you get enough nutrition if you carried some protein powder and other trail foods like snickers, cheese, crackers, etc.? Couscous is a pasta, while bulgur is merely cracked wheat, and both are easy to find. Neither look very impressive at the nutrition sites, having only 6-8 grams of protein per cup or so, and not much else but carbs. I would be eating more than a cup per serving, perhaps 2 or more?. Any nutritionists on Whiteblaze?:-?

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Great idea. By complimenting the amino acids (choosing additions that have lots of the things grains don't like soy, beans & milk) you could up the usable protein.

[bigcranky]

I'm hardly a nutritionist, but I love couscous as a trail food (and even in 'real' ilfe). It's the perfect start to a freezer bag dinner -- couscous, dried veggies, some sort of spice, and just add boiling water and let sit 5 minutes. Yum.

Couscous, raisins, cashews, and curry powder.
Couscous, dried tomatoes, parmesan cheese, olive oil, pepper.
Couscous, powdered milk, brown sugar, raisins, dried apples, cinnamon. (breakfast)

etc., etc. Yes, we add protein powder to most of our bag meals to get the needed protein. Plain whey powder seems to work the best for us -- sort of a dairy flavor, and it dissolves pretty well.

I like to experiment at home with different trail foods. Have fun.

[sarbar]

Yep, love couscous! I toss in curry, can of chicken, dried veggies (usually freeze dried). One of the guys over on the bp.com forums has been coming up with some really good recipes lately using couscous!
Bets of all, you can get whole wheat couscous :)

This isn't high class food, but my son scarfs it down:
Cheesy Couscous:

In a quart freezer bag put:

1/2 cup couscous
3 Tbl. cheese sauce powder
1/4 tsp. salt, if desired.
1 Tbl. dry milk

In camp: add 1 cup boiling water. Mix well, seal and pop in a cozy. Let sit for 10 minutes, stir again. A very good recipe for young kids. This is my son's favorite backcountry recipe.

Serves 1

This is one I put up by Paddlin, from the bp.com forums:
Mexican Chicken:

In a quart freezer bag put:

1/3 cup couscous
1 ½ tablespoon dried mixed vegetable flakes/freeze dried vegetables
1 tspeach dried adobo & chipotle powder
1 packet low sodium chicken bouillon (1 tsp)
½ tsp Mexican spice
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp granulated onion powder

Also take 1 can chicken (4.5 to 5 ounce size)

In camp, add ½ cup boiling water and the canned chicken, including liquid into the bag. Stir well and let is sit in a cozy for 10 or so minutes.

Stir and top off with some fresh ground pepper if desired, and dig in.

For the dried adobo and chipotle powder, puree a can of the stuff and dehydrate until crumbly, run through a food processor/blender until it is almost a powder. Need to do the dehydrating outside, this stuff has a strong smell.

Serves 1.

[gumball]

Love couscous, too, you can cook it with just about anything in it and it is a nice grain. I add either TVP to all my meals for extra protein.

[starryliza]

I think bulgar takes a long time to cook/absorb the water, its not as fast as couscous is. Or maybe I'm thinking of barley..?

[speedy]

Ah, 2 of my favorite trail foods. I usually keep a small ziplock of either hydrated for my 15 min stops. Just take a few bites and zip it back up. Keeps the hunger pains away better than anything else I've found. It's also moister than the "on the move" trail snacks that I eat. Marrakesh Express' mango salsa flavor is by far my favorite. I've been inching in on figuring out their recipe, but I'm not quite there yet. But yeah, it makes a great meal time food as well. Bulgar takes about 20 mins to rehydrate I've found. Speaking of which I think I'll go make some for lunch now. :D speedy

[Nean]

I love couscous too. I met a hiker once who said he didn't like it because it didn't fill him up.:confused: Reminded me of another hiker who after a couple of hours at an AYCE, needeed to go out and eat somewhere else because Chinese food didn't fill him up!:eek: To me, 5 plates of food are 5 plates of food.

[whizbang]

Not a lot of bulgur ideas out there, are there?;) Couscous is pretty easy and popular, but bulgur recipes are not as easy to find. It does take a little longer to saturate, but if you boil your water instead of using just warm or even cold water, it only takes a few minutes longer than couscous. I like it pretty simple, and I don't think it goes as well with as many things as couscous does. A little onion, a llittle garlic...
I did some looking on nutritiondata.com and they say that kasha - buckwheat groats - is better for you than either bulgur or couscous. In one of their charts, couscous stands well below both of them, and below things like macaroni. Bulgur and kasha are more nutritious than couscous, but that doesn't include any additions. Add just handfull or two of nuts and fruit, and the balance swings back to coucous, nutrition-wise. I don't add much to bulgur, and I don't think you usually add much to groats, although now I'm going to find some and see, but you can do lots with couscous. Plus, 1 cup of dry couscous has over 650 calories, lots more than either (~450 for bulgur and ~550 for groats). Couscous is cooked and dried pasta, while bulgur and kasha are just hulled and crushed grains (kasha is a grass I read?), so I think they are more "nutritious" than coucous: more micro-nutrients and that sort of thing. In the end, I think I'll eat more couscous than bulgur, and I bet I don't eat many groats at all. For me it comes down to taste and convenience, since I think they must weigh about the same. I can think of a lot more interesting easy things to do with couscous, and I love all your ideas! Here's to cheap easy light-weight cooking. Millet, anyone?