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.
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I’ve bought the large freeze dried cava of food and used them to make my own meals. The best combo was probably freeze dried chicken, cheese, onions, and peppers with seasoning from a taco packet. I’ve paid it with minute rice and it was pretty good.
Better still was using the same ingredients to make tortilla soup. Regardless of the starch, go ahead and use twice as much cheese as you think it will need.
If your answer isn’t Skurka Beans and Rice it’s probably only because you haven’t had them yet. You can change it up with a green chili kit from https://dehydratedbeans.com/. Which, also has really good dehydrated beans (I believe Santa Fe Bean Co. is defunct).
Ooooh I’ve been looking for a source for dehydrated beans, thanks. Who knew that it would be…dehydrated…beans…dot com…
And rice and beans definitely are a great base for all kinds of recipes. I’d go further than the Skurka recipe and say that depending on what spices, sauce, and veggies you use, you actually have the template for a whole variety of backpacking recipes, which is always nice to keep things from getting boring.
I did the wonderland last year and by far the favorite meal of the trip was instant potatoes with a can of fish. We had killer meals, all dehydrated ourselves. But the instant potatoes and fish were the fave. high carb high fat high protein. Hot and ready from a jet boil.
I’ve done that with those salmon pouches. Definitely a good ratio of work to satisfaction.
Scrambled eggs with fried spam cubes. Add spices to taste
Classic. I have a Vargo pot with a frying pan lid that works great for cooking up things like eggs and spam.
Backpacking is really the only time I genuinely like spam. There’s just something about being tired and cold
Everyone in this thread crushes it compared to me. I mostly use Peak dehydrated meals, which are pricey. Good on all of you!
We got one of these: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/cosori-premium-stainless-steel-food-dehydrator-silver/6420994.p?skuId=6420994
It’s all stainless and the controls are really nice. We got ours because making our own dehydrated meals is a lot more affordable than buying pre-made. That said, it’s really nice to dump some hot water in a bag and 5 minutes later have pre-made gourmet meal.
That’s awesome. Thanks for the recommendation. I’d love to try this out. Going on the gift list!
For me it’s about super simple yet savory dishes. Oatmeal with brown sugar and cinnamon or dried berries, peanuts butter and honey wraps, jasmine rice with a few pinches from the ol sprice bag (different every time, but might have any of cumin, turmeric, garlic, onion powder, cilantro, oregano, thyme, dill, paprika, or red pepper flakes) or just a bullion cube. Simple and yummy after a long hard day on the trail or a chilly morning to warm the bones ☺️
For sure. Meals like that are a big morale booster for me. Ending a cold, rainy day with cold-soaked noodles or a protein bar or similar would be pretty soul-crushing in comparison, especially if your tent neighbor is enjoying some hot and hearty.
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.
