5 Long-Lasting Recipes Every Prepper Should Master (With Pictures)

The grocery stores have been closed for weeks. Your premade survival meals and food storage are beginning to dwindle. You are looking at those buckets of rice, beans, and flour. You know that soon, if nothing changes, you are going to have to break into those buckets to eat. How do you feel about that? Do you know how to use these ingredients to their fullest? Or are you going to be learning how to cook rice the first time you open those buckets and are depending on those calories? Below we have 5 recipes based on long-lasting ingredients that will make food storage life a much more enjoyable experience.

Bread Dough

From a basic bread dough, you can make all kinds of things! You can sweeten it to make leavened desserts or add numerous flavorings to make different types of bread. You can shape it in tons of ways to make rolls, baguettes, and so on.

If you can make bread every couple days or at least once per week you will get really good at it in no time.

Ingredients

• 6 Cups of Flour
• 2 Tbsp of Salt
• 2 Packets of Dry Yeast
• 2 Tbsp of Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp of Sugar
• 1 Cup of Warm Water

Process

Step 1. In a large bowl, which gives you plenty of room to work, add your flour and salt. Stir in the salt with a fork or whisk.

Step 2. Create a well at the center of the flour and then pour in warm water, dry yeast, and sugar. Allow this about 5 minutes for the yeast to rehydrate and activate.

Step 3. Now add your olive oil into the center and begin to mix the flour into your yeast mixture. Slowly mix the flour into the well until you get a dough that is sticky but something you can grab and get out onto a table for kneading.

This will not take all of the flour so do not simply try and mix all the flour into the liquid mixture. Instead, take your time and watch the dough come together.

Step 4. Knead your dough until it becomes elastic and smooth. This should take around 10 minutes. You may need to add a little flour at a time, as you need, if the dough becomes sticky during the process.

It should not stick to your hands. It should be smooth.

Step 5. Let your dough rest for at least 10 minutes in a dry place. I like to coat my dough with olive oil and put it in a large bowl covered with plastic wrap.

Step 6. Punch the dough down a bit and then shape it into whatever you’d like. Or pour it into a bread pan. Allow it to rise another 10 minutes before baking. You can also divide it up to make smaller things like rolls.

Pro Tip: Water Matters in Any Long-Lasting Recipes

If you want quality dough – whether it’s for bread, pizza, focaccia, or anything else – every single ingredient matters. But one element most people overlook is water. The truth is, water impacts the entire cooking process on a chemical level, and its purity is absolutely essential. After all, water is life.

If you’re serious about preparedness and want to secure up to 40 gallons of pure water per day, ditch the conventional methods and check out a backpack-sized water generator you can rely on – during a crisis or just daily peace of mind. This device pulls clean, drinkable water straight from thin air. Yeah, you read that right.

I’ve already made the switch – no more tap water, no more questionable sources. The investment was small, the payoff huge. God forbid a real crisis hits… but if it does, at least I’ll have clean water.

Now Make Foccacia

Find a high sided baking pan or a shallow glass baking dish. Coat the bottom of the pan in olive oil. After you punch the dough down you can place it into a glass baking dish or pan. It should be one that is somewhat flat. Dimple the dough with your fingertips as you spread it out across the bottom of the pan.

As you press your fingers into the dough it will fit itself naturally into the pan. Work your way from the center out.

Finally, drizzle olive oil over top the dough and then sprinkle with some fresh herbs like basil and oregano. Bake at 400 degrees for 20 – 30 minutes.

Quick & Easy Long Lasting Recipes: Pasta Dough

While not necessary, I believe that a pasta maker is a great investment for preppers and homesteaders. Making pasta is easy and it’s much easier with one of these.

Ingredients

• 4 Eggs
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 2 Cups of Semolina Flour
• 1 Cup of White Flour
• 4 Tablespoons of Olive Oil

Process

Step 1. Place all your flour into a large bowl and create a well in the center. Add all of your eggs and olive oil to that well.

Step 2. Mix up the eggs, yolks, and olive oil in the well using a whisk or a fork.

Step 3. Slowly start to incorporate the flour into the well. A dough will begin to form as you continue to incorporate the flour.

Step 4. Once the dough comes together a bit you can pour the mix out onto a clean table and begin to knead it by hand. This is not bread dough so you will not have to knead it as long. You are just going to continue to bring the excess flour into the dough and knead till it becomes elastic and smooth. (5-8 minutes, something like that)

Step 5. Pasta dough must rest in the fridge. I put mine into a large Ziplock and close it. Leave it in the fridge for 20 minutes to an hour to rest before rolling it out.

Step 6. Pasta starts as sheets. Quarter up your dough and roll it out with a rolling pin to start. If you can get it thin enough by hand you can gently fold the pasta onto itself, almost like you are rolling it up, slice thin noodles from one open end to the next.

You judge the thickness of your cuts to create spaghetti, linguini or even large ribbons of pasta called pappardelle.

Step 7. A pasta machine rolls dough into thin sheets for you and also comes with several cutting implements that will cut your pasta into a variety of sizes. I use a pasta machine.

Step 8. As you begin to make noodles you can either hang them from a wooden spoon that is sat on two mason jars or make them into little nests and sprinkle the nests with semolina flour. They will dry a bit after a while but will not be dry like macaroni you buy in a box at the market.

Step 9. Boil the pasta in salted water for 3-5 minutes until it is al dente. Eat with your favorite sauce.

Now Make Ravioli

Instead of cutting your thin sheets of pasta you are going to leave them alone. Using a glass or small coffee much begin cutting out circles of pasta.

On one circle place your favorite ravioli filling. A little sauteed ground meat with Italian flavors like oregano, basil, and garlic, topped with shredded mozzarella is a very simple filling.

Create a simple egg wash by mixing one egg yolk with a little water. Apply the egg wash around the perimeter of your ravioli and then top it with another circle and line them up. Use fork tines to crimp the edges.

These can be frozen as is or boiled and eaten right away.

Pro Tip: You Must Learn How to Make Survival Pasta

Pasta is a staple food in Sardinia, Italy – home to one of the world’s most well-known Blue Zones, where an unusually high number of people live to be over 100. That means we’re not just talking about a reliable survival food, but also a nutritious, well-balanced meal option that supports long-term health.

In a crisis, having access to simple, shelf-stable foods like pasta can keep you going – not just physically, but nutritionally too. It’s one of those rare staples that’s both practical and proven to support longevity.

Pasta is also one of the easiest and most practical recipes you can rely on in a post-SHTF scenario. Of course, it all starts with having access to quality ingredients – and knowing how to properly stockpile and preserve them for the long haul.

I actually learned this recipe from a book that’s packed with other survival-friendly meal ideas – simple, accessible, and designed for real-life crisis situations.

The book is A Navy SEAL’s Bug-In Guide by Joel Lambert, and it features an entire chapter dedicated to crisis-proof food. If you’re not looking to waste money on overpriced, fancy meals – or if you just want to be prepared when others are falling to hunger – this is one guide you shouldn’t skip.

Here’s what else you’ll find in the food chapter:

• How to Make the Ultimate Survival Food with a 25-Year Shelf Life
• A Day-by-Day and Meal-by-Meal Rationing Plan
• How to Preserve Eggs Without Electricity for Years
• Must-Have Survival Foods You Didn’t Know Existed
• The Under $1 Walmart Canned Goods You Absolutely Need to Add to Your Food Reserves

Tomato Sauce

A good tomato sauce is one of the 5 MOTHER SAUCES in culinary arts and classing French cooking. Mother sauces are base sauces from which many things can be made.

Not to mention tomato sauce is very acidic and can be canned long term with only the water bath canning method. Which means anyone can start filling their shelves with tomato sauce. You don’t even need a pressure canner!

Ingredients

• 1 Onion, Diced
• 5 Cloves of Garlic, Minced
• 1 Tsp of Red Chili Flakes
• 1 16oz Can of Tomato Puree
• 2 Cans of Diced Tomatoes
• 1 Tbsp of Each, Basil, Ground Garlic, Italian Seasoning, Sugar
• Olive Oil

Process

Step 1. In a large pot over medium heat, add a few glugs of olive oil. Allow it a few moments to heat up.

Step 2. Add your onions and garlic to the hot oil and move it around a lot with a wooden spoon. Cook these ingredients, keep them moving, until the onion becomes translucent and the garlic becomes fragrant. Then add the red chili flakes.

Step 3. Next add all your canned tomato products and stir them together with the onions and garlic.

Step 4. Add the rest of your ingredients with a few more glugs of olive oil and stir them to incorporate.

Step 5. Simmer on low heat, covered, for about 20 minutes and then remove the lid and simmer at least another 20 minutes. I am of the belief that the longer you cook tomato sauce the better it gets!

Now Make Pizza

You can roll your bread dough out into the shape of a thin pizza and use your homemade sauce and shredded cheese to make pizza! I cook mine in a 450-degree oven.

Long Lasting Recipes: Perfect Rice

Rice is all about ratio. Different types of rice are cooked using different ratios of water to rice. For this recipe, we are going to do long-grain rice because that is the most common.

Ingredients

• 2 Parts Water
• 1 Parts Rice
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Process

Step 1. We are going to use a simple coffee mug for this recipe to explain the ratio. Start with one coffee cup full of white rice. Dump that into a large enough pot to cook it with plenty of extra room.

Step 2. Under a running sink, wash the rice off. Fill the pot about halfway with water and then pour most of it out carefully, without losing any rice. You will see that the water is cloudy. This removes any grime and excess starch from the rice.

Step 3. Once your rice is clean, at least 3 washes under the sink, then you can fill the same coffee mug with water and dump it into the pot, then dump in another. This gives us our 2 parts water to 1 parts rice ratio.

I like to add a few healthy glugs of olive oil and about 2 healthy pinches of salt.

Step 4. Bring the water to a boil and then drop it to a simmer until most of the water is gone or absorbed, and what’s left looks like porridge. Then drop your stove to the lowest setting and cover the rice.

Step 5. Cook until the rice is tender and the grains are easy to separate. I like to finish with a little more olive oil and salt before breaking it up gently with a fork.

Pro Tip: Store Essential Long-Lasting Ingredients for Survival Recipes Properly

Grid independence and access to basic ingredients for survival food are two of the most critical priorities for any serious prepper. But personally, I go even further – I pay close attention to how and where I store my stockpile. Why? Because the last thing I want is for some so-called “Good Samaritan” to come confiscate or steal my supplies when SHTF.

That’s exactly why I decided to invest in this underground bunker. It cost me less than $400 and gave me the perfect hidden spot to store rice, canned food, gear, and other essentials. Plus, it’s sturdy enough to double as a shelter in case of an earthquake, hurricane, or even an EMP attack when, you know Murphy’s Law… what can go wrong, will.

Delicious, Tender Dry Beans

Once a prepper can make rice then they need the complete protein of adding beans to the picture.

Ingredients

• Dry Beans, sorted (look over your beans to make sure there aren’t any small rocks or unwanted items in them)
• Water

Process

Step 1. Everything starts with soaking. Use a container large enough to hold your beans with lots of extra room and soak them overnight, covered with water by at least double the volume.

Step 2. Next dump them out into a colander to drain the liquid. Then put them into a large pot and fill the pot with lots of water before bringing the whole mixture to a simmer.

Step 3. On a slow low simmer cook your beans for about 1 – 1.5 hours before adding any salt or seasonings to the pot. This will ensure they get tender during the cooking process. Stir them regularly, too.

Step 4. Simmer for about 2 hours total or until the beans are tender and tasty. Leave them in the cooking liquid as they cool. Use them with rice, puree them, or in things like ragouts. Beans have tons of great uses.

Pro Tip: Beans Will Always Be Essential for Preppers

Beans have been a valuable survival food since the time of our ancestors. And for good reason. They’re packed with nutrients that can keep you alive when everything else runs out. Plus, they’re cheap, long-lasting, easy to store, and incredibly versatile when it comes to cooking.

You’ll find dozens of bean-based superfood recipes – many of which you can make right now with what’s already in your pantry – in The Lost Super Foods, the book by Claude Davis that’s helped tens of thousands of Americans prepare for the toughest food crises they may ever face.

👉 Help your Family to Stay Afloat in Any Crisis

BONUS: Curing Salt

With this salt you can make things like bacon, smoked ham, or even simple cured country ham. Curing durations will vary but this salt will kill the bacteria in your meat, and you will be able to store meat longer even without refrigeration.

• 1lb of Salt
• 1oz of Pink Salt

You can add different kinds of sugars and flavorings to this, based on what you are curing. Simply mix thoroughly.

Final Thoughts on Recipes Based on Long-Lasting Ingredients

If you are preparing to survive a serious emergency or disaster, and cooking long-lasting recipes is not on your list of preps then you are well behind the eight ball. It’s true that range time, and TacMed classes are a lot of fun but you are gonna have to eat at least 2x a day.

It should be your goal to become a great cook. If for no other reason than the fact that you live a better and healthier life when you are preparing your own meals.

Don’t open that first bucket of rice and beans without ever having tried to cook rice and beans. You will have a very rough time and likely go hungry until you get better at preparing these long-lasting foods.

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