Backpacking food is essential fuel in the mountains, and never more so than on a long-distance walk – but it can be far more than just fuel. If the meal I’m carrying for the end of the day is unpalatable or doesn’t give me the energy,I need to recover for upcoming exertions, I could be facing a miserable night and poor performance the next day. Put simply, the food you carry in your back pack is mission-critical – as is choosing the best backpacking meals for you.
There are a few objective constraints to backpacking that make wise food choice all the more important. Cost, weight and calories are going to be priorities for most people.
It may be easy to find cheap, lightweight and highly calorific alternatives, but nutritional value and the quality of ingredients can suffer. Convenience also ranks highly and helps newcomers to backpacking develop good fuelling habits at the start and end of the day.
Specialist meals are really easy and quick to prepare, and are often eaten from the bag, so whilst there may be additional packaging to carry out, there is less washing up to do at camp! This is where specialist dehydrated meals find their niche – fast, nutritious and tasty.
Ultimately, it comes down to your personal tastes, and this is a far more subjective category of product to test than many others. In other words, you may not like what I like. The good news is that there has never been a better range of high-quality options than there is today.
Learn more about nutrition when hiking and check out our expert gear reviewers’ best camping stoves for 2023.
Calories: 504 | Calories/100g: 394 | Calories/£1: 56.06 | Time to hydrate: 9 minutes | Vegetarian/vegan: vegan | Allergens: none listed
One of the best backpacking meals I’ve tried in recent years is LYO Expedition’s nettle curry, and this brand has a reputation for coming out with unusual recipes that make a real change from the norm when it comes to dehydrated meals, so I was intrigued to try its vegan barley and lentil risotto with avocado mousse.
First impressions were very positive. The packaging is intelligently designed, with two sets of tear points (one at a lower level for ease of eating) and clear pictorial instructions for preparation. I found the 9-minute stated rehydration time to be conservative; it was adequately hydrated after only about 6 minutes.
Read the full review of the LYO Expedition Vegan Barley and Lentil Risotto.
Calories: 647 | Calories/100g: 428 | Calories/£: 84.58 | Time to hydrate: 10 minutes | Vegetarian/vegan: vegetarian | Allergens: durum wheat flour, celery
Blå Band is a stalwart Scandinavian brand that has been offering dehydrated backpacking meals for many years. One quirk – some might call it the brand’s trademark – is that the packs are wider than they are tall, unlike the more typical vertical format used by almost every other brand.
This doesn’t make much difference when it comes to packing meals inside your rucksack, but it does make a big difference when preparing and eating the food. It’s easier to thoroughly mix the food with hot water (fewer hidden crunchy spots left in the corners!) and much easier to eat without resorting to a long-handled spoon.
This is a simple vegetarian meal made with couscous, vegetables (carrot, red pepper, cabbage, leek, sweetcorn), and spices. I found that it rehydrated quickly, more quickly than the stated 10 minutes, and tasted really good.
Read the full review of the Blå Band Couscous with Chilli Spiced Vegetables.
Calories: 800 | Calories/100g: 534 | Calories/£1: 88.99 | Time to hydrate: 5 minutes | Vegetarian/vegan: vegan | Allergens: none listed
Expedition Foods has every base covered: a wide variety of breakfasts and main meals, and in many cases a choice of 450, 800 or 1000kcal packs. You can also buy its meals in bulk, making them a good option for extended trips or multi-person expeditions.
Expedition Foods tends to offer an extremely high energy-to-weight ratio, and its vegan mushroom risotto (I tested the 800g version) is no exception, with an unmatched 534kcal/100g. This is a long way above the next best meal tested – a clear choice for energy-intensive stuff such as high-altitude trekking or Scottish winter mountaineering. Rehydration is incredibly fast too.
Read the full review of the Expedition Foods Vegan Mushroom Risotto.
Calories: 700 | Calories/100g: 452 | Calories/£1: 70.07 | Time to hydrate: 8 minutes | Vegetarian/vegan: no | Allergens: soy sauce
Another Scandinavian brand, REAL Turmat is known for hearty meals with a bit more chunkiness than you’ll find from other brands (I’m particularly fond of its reindeer stew). This is achieved thanks to its Drytech freeze-drying technology – another method of preservation that aims to retain the food’s original characteristics.
REAL Turmat meals are also vacuum-packed. All the air is removed from the packaging, reducing its bulk, although this can actually make them slightly more awkward to pack in your rucksack as the packets are hard rather than pliable, and don’t stack together as easily.
It was a very satisfying meal, although I note that the ingredients list is quite long compared to some other meals tested and contains a few (natural) additives such as rapeseed oil and ascorbic acid. The cost is high, but if you like a meaty meal after a big hike then this is a fine choice.
Read the full review of the REAL Turmat Pulled Pork with Rice.
Calories: 510 | Calories/100g: 486 | Calories/£1: 68.46 | Time to hydrate: 15 minutes | Vegetarian/vegan: no | Allergens: soya beans, wheat flour, sesame oil, anchovy extract
Firepot specialises in a small range of meals hand-made from high-quality ingredients, cooked and then dehydrated after cooking. Like many of their meals, the spicy pork noodles I tasted are available in both standard and extra-large portions – 105g / 510kcal and 160g / 765kcal respectively, in this case. The extra-large version costs £9.45, giving 80.95kcal/£1 – this is better value, and a more realistic pack size for hungry adventurers.
The noodles themselves are very good, and it had decent texture, although I found it simply too spicy overall – the heat overpowered all other flavours for me, making me wish I had a glass of milk to hand. This is subjective, of course! Another downside is that I found the pack impossible to open without a blade. The tear line failed to tear correctly from either side.
Read the full review of the Firepot Spicy Pork Noodles.
