Hey scoop sorry i missed this thread. Yeah, there is no gruel at the moment. I just added the line as an alternative to the 'wanted' food of the bandits. Again, i hate to be the barer of bad news but even though your idea is great, the limitations of the editor means that to make a dialogue that progresess gradually like that would mean locking certain lines, and that would lock them for all future bandits who also use the same line...i could add a gruel item, but i'd like to keep this mod as dialogue only. That said, i have another mod, (bug lantern) which lets you make 'bug porridge) which i guess is as disgusting as gruel...it would be totally possible to make another mod that has both as a dependency and adds a line with a small chance with the gruel option that makes a recruit like you suggested...don't think i can do it for the next few weeks however (life :-( )
On the other hand, keep the suggestions coming, i probably can't do most of what is suggested but it does give good ideas. Hungry bandits current dialoge is the second iteration of theirs (first was just 'give me cash) This one at least puts the emphasis on food for them. Next time i look at them they will be a bit more fleshed out.

I always assumed that Gruel meant Dust Sandwiches.
The absolute worst tasting meal in the game. Everyone hates Dust Sandwiches.

As food and crops are in this game, gruel would be the boiled outer shell of wheatstraw or riceweed. It's just basically the stuff that your cooks or gatherers would throw away when prepping it for cooking/grinding/baking.

Not sure if you could implement it exactly as it exists because those two foods don't have components, but I suppose a recipe which uses relatively a lot of water to a little bit of wheatstraw or riceweed with a result that has an extremely low nutritional value would be close enough.