The convenience of freeze-dried backpacking meals is undeniable – they’re ultralight and just require boiling water. These homemade backpacking recipes are designed with those advantages in mind, because at the end of a long day hiking, I look forward to a hot meal at camp with minimal preparation and clean-up. Just-add-water to a boil bag, stir, wait, and eat.
The drawback to most pre-packaged camping food is that the options quickly become limited, especially if avoiding common allergens like soy or gluten or if you must follow a low-iodine diet that requires a careful monitoring of salt. But even without a restricted diet, most commercial backpacking meals are tolerable at best.
After watching family members lug a few extra pounds of food into the backcountry in order to reduce their sodium intake or meet their dietary. needs, I decided to create my own just-add-water backpacking meal recipes using a combination of bulk ingredients easily available from the grocery store and online retailers. No food dehydrator or freeze-dryer required; no unnecessary weight in the backpack.
These recipes have all been tested where it counts: by famished hikers in campsites miles from anywhere! But I also test them in my home kitchen, without hiker hunger putting its thumb on the scale of taste.
Just Add Water Backpacking Meal Recipes
These meals can be fully prepared with the addition of boiling water. We use our trusty Jetboil because we like how quickly and reliably it boils water in undesirable conditions which reduces the amount of fuel we need to use (and carry), but any backpacking stove will do. Just like what you’ll find with pre-made backpacking meals, you’ll also need to use mylar boil bags to ensure heat retention and adequate rehydration.
DIY Backpacking Meals from the Grocery Store
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Almost every backpacking meal uses an easily rehydratable carbohydrate base as its staple ingredient, many of which are available at certain grocery stores and readily available online. These include:
- Instant Rice: Minute Instant White Rice is my go-to, as it rehydrates well in around 10 minutes after adding boiling water and is available practically everywhere in the US. Even though it says “instant”, I’ve found that instant brown rice options rehydrate poorly compared to white rice unless you are heating directly on a camping stove.
- Couscous: The perfect instant meal, as regular couscous never has to be boiled. I use bulk unflavored couscous in my recipes, but boxed couscous mixes can also make easy grab-and-go meals from the grocery store.
- Instant Potatoes: Cheap and quick. You’ll definitely want to spice these up to get that “complete meal” feel, but in a pinch nothing can beat a bag of mashed potatoes. You can find pouches of Idahoan instant potatoes in almost every grocery store, and even some gas stations, nationwide.
- Instant Noodles: Ramen noodles have been a backcountry staple of thru hikers for years. I use this particular brand of instant rice noodles as the point of departure for any number of noodle soups and backcountry “stir fry” recipes. Make sure to read the labels carefully; if the directions require cooking for more than a minute or two, it’s unlikely to rehydrate well under the ‘add boiling water and wait’ method.
Other light weight backpacking ingredients from the grocery store include:
- Freeze Dried Onions: Typically found in the spice aisle, Litehouse freeze dried red and green onions add depth of flavor as well as (in the case of green onions) a nice pop of color to many of the recipes
- Coconut Milk Power: Once only available at speciality retailers, I’m finding this more and more frequently in the baking goods or coffee creamer aisle. I use coconut powder as a sauce base anytime I want a delicate balance of sweet and savory spices.
- Peanut Butter Powder: Add it to oatmeals, create a peanut sauce for noodles or just snack on a spoonful of rehydrated peanut butter. PB powder is packed with protein and none of the weight.
- Freeze-Dried Fruits: Look for these alongside the dried fruits as well as with the baby foods (toddler yogurt drops also make a delicious freeze-dried backpacking snack!).
Most of my recipes also incorporate additional ingredients that will arrive in a day or two if ordered from Amazon Prime, but a few – such as those that use my favorite instant penne pasta base – require ingredients only available from select online suppliers. I recommend you source these ingredients at least two weeks before your trip to account for shipping times. Once you have everything in place, though, the actual meal prep process itself takes a matter of minutes.
Cold-Soak Backpacking Recipes
No stove, no problem! Cold-soaking is a method that requires nothing more than water and time. The following dehydrated meals are designed to be cold-soaked, making them perfect for lunches on the trail. Just add cold water, hike a little more, and you’ll be ready to be eat by time you find a scenic stopping point.
- Instant Backpacker Chicken Salad
- Cold Soak Coconut Chia Pudding
- Instant Hummus Mix
- Reconstituted Peanut Butter & Crackers
And even though the following recipes were designed to be served hot (and are unarguably better that way), these rice based meals can be cold soaked when necessity strikes.
We’re constantly adding new meals and recipes to our repertoire to that you can eat better in the backcountry. If you’ve found the recipes here helpful, we appreciate the support. Stay tuned for the recipes we’re currently fine-tuning and field-testing, or leave us a comment letting us know what meal you’d like to see us develop next!
Buy Me A CofFee- Cold Soak “Waldorf” Lentil Salad (coming soon!)
- Cold Soak Broccoli Salad (coming soon!)
- Sweet Potato Pecan Rice (coming soon!)
- Penne Alfredo w/Mushrooms (coming soon!)
- Chili “Mac” & Cheese (coming soon!)
6 Comments
Thank you for the awesome meals. It’s really difficult to find meals that you can just add water. I don’t like to carry a pan or use too much fuel to cook for prolonged periods. Add some more recipes. I look forward to trying more. I’ve tried all but the hummus and plan to try that next trip.
I did add freeze dried sausage to the lasagna, a little more water, and a little longer soak time. Both are great. With or without.
Appreciate the kind words Dana! And thanks for sharing the lasagna tip with fellow backpackers. It really made our day to hear that you’ve both tried and enjoyed so many of the recipes thus far. I hope you find my newest recipe for Lemon Chicken Couscous to be just as good – we just returned from “field-testing” it on Mt Rainier and it’s quickly becoming my new favorite!
We had your coconut chicken and rice in the Sierra and it was delicious. Thank you for the recipe! For the chicken I cooked a chicken breast, shredded it, added a lot of fish sauce for flavor, and dried it in a convection oven at the lowest setting.
Great tip Telford! The flavor combinations in the coconut chicken & rice would definitely pair well with the umami of the fish sauce – yum! Appreciate you sharing your experience with us. We absolutely love hearing of all the places these meals take our readers. Happy hiking!
After dehydrating food for over 30 years I finally convinced my better half to aquire a HarvesRight, medium, freeze drier. I love this machine.
6 months into this I was asked if I could FD candy. I agreed and started researching candy. When my newly FD candy was sampled I was asked I’d I was going to sell it. So I started a FD candy business on the side. I have made meals and snacks for many reasons. I FD cooked cabbage for road munchies.
Some of our meals have been beef stew, chili, vegetable beef stew, corned beef and cabbage, lasagna and tuna noodle casserole.
Carrots, green beans, corn, sweet baby snap peas and ocra make great snacks.
Continuing to try new things.
We have the same model and I agree it’s been a great addition to our backcountry meal prep! In fact I’ve already developed and tested some new home freeze-dry recipes that I’ll be posting on the site soon (like peach cobbler!), even though most of the recipes currently on the site are designed to made with easily purchasable freeze-dried ingredients. Stay tuned!