Patagonia Provisions Organic Savory Grains Mushroom + KAMUT

This is a tasty organic grain blend with a nice earthy flavor and good protein (15 grams per package). I think it's best suited as a side dish. Fishermen, this would sit nicely beside a fire-roasted brook trout!

Ingredients: Organic Kamut Khorasan Bulgur Wheat, Organic Bulgur Wheat, Organic Dehydrated Portabella Mushrooms, Organic Shiitake Mushroom Powder, Organic Red Quinoa, Organic Dehydrated Chopped Onion, Salt, Organic Yeast Extract, Organic Onion Powder, Organic Ground Rice Hulls, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Dehydrated Parsley, Organic Black Pepper, Organic White Button Mushroom Powder

Nutrition:

• Serving Size 1 pouch
• Servings Per Container 1
• Calories 380
• Total Fat 2.5g (3% Daily Value)
• Saturated Fat 0g (0%)
• Trans Fat 0g
• Cholesterol 0mg (0%)
• Sodium 470mg (20%)
• Total Carbohydrate 81g (29%)
• Dietary Fiber 12g (43%)
• Sugars 5g
• Protein 15g

Prologue

I’ve bought enough stuff from Patagonia over the years that they keep mailing me the artsy color catalogs every season. You know, the ones showing people that are way cooler than you and are doing cool things in cool places...

When I first saw their advertisement for Patagonia Provisions it caught my eye. I’m a fan of their apparel products and their top-shelf customer service, so I was curious what kind of food product an (mostly) outdoor apparel company would produce. So when Trailspace offered the chance to review some of them I was happy to accept.

Preparation and packaging

Like all the Patagonia Provisions products I’ve tried so far this is not a cook-in bag product, and that works for me as I don’t like to eat of bags. Preparation is simple and easy: add contents to one cup of boiling water, cover, and wait 10 minutes. In my testing it cooked perfectly per instructions.

Flavor

I liked the flavor and the word that keeps coming to mind is "earthy" and that stands to reason as this is a mushroom dominant dish. The grains and quinoa compliment the triple mushrooms well (portabella, shitake, white button). The seasoning is well done and though 470mg of sodium is a lot, it didn’t taste overly salty; I think it was a good choice with these ingredients as it draws out the mushrooms' natural flavor well.  

* I think there are two full packages in this photo: that's a lot of grains! Two of us could not finish it and we had to pack some out. 

Satiety

This dish will fill you up for sure, but ironically, it’s best suited as a side. I experienced what I can only describe as an odd food-fatigue when trying to eat this as a stand-alone meal. I couldn’t finish it. It tasted good, but I could just not get through that much grain in a sitting. It sat heavy on my belly for whatever reason.

Texture

The texture is exactly what you would expect from a grain dish and from looking at the pictures; it’s soft but still a bit grainy.

Background

I'm an avid backpacker with over 8,000 miles of trekking in the last decade. I've tried many, many brands of dehydrated food over the years. I was sent two packages of this grain mix to review and purchased another two packages specifically for a fishing trip; I've eaten it three times.