What are some of your favorite foods to bring/make for backpacking?
Some of mine: As an easy-to-cook grain, I recently discovered fonio, which looks and tastes a bit like tiny couscous. I combine a serving of fonio with a packet of ghee (Kroger sells those under the Simple Truth brand) and whatever dehydrated vegetables I’m in the mood for, and I have a great just-add-hot-water recipe for the back country.
Also, I learned from backpackingchef.com that you can make palatable dehydrated ground beef by cooking it with some bread crumbs, or in my case rice panko, before dehydrating. That little change alone has substantially improved the texture of my back country chilis, as dehydrating ground beef on its own turns it into something between a pebble and a piece of old gum.
Grains and fresh veggies, as I’ve found the slight weight add of fresh tastes better (and the water to rehydrate probably cancels out the weight of fresh anyway). Cherry tomatos and kale last on the trail pretty well. I’ve kept a bag of kale unrefrigerated for three days and it was still crunchy.
Good point. Bringing some fresh stuff for the first few meals helps a lot. Avocados and hard cheese are also things that I’m willing to pack in so that I can help fresh stuff for that much longer.