Camping seems to be the safest travel plan during COVID, but has its own set of obstacles. Instead of lounging at a cafe in a new city, you might be digging through your backpacking trying to find those snacks you packed. Make things easy with rehydrated backpacking meals.

This blog post will rank four vegan backpacking meals from four different brands. Overall, I enjoyed these meals more than I thought. If you’re heading out on a camping trip soon, consider adding these to your packing list.

Why Rehydrated Backpacking Meals?

First things first. I’m not vegan anymore. (No, wait, don’t go away!) But when I started browsing backpacking meals online, I saw that there wasn’t much of a difference between vegetarian and vegan meals. I was already a bit apprehensive to try these rehydrated beauties, and eliminating dairy might prevent some of the more graphic reviews that I found online. (Reviews on backpacking meals either described a horrific bowel moment, or reassured consumers that if you’re a true fancy knowledgable authentic backpacker, anything will taste good.)

If you love REI, you’ll find about 17 vegan backpacking meals from four different brands. Mind you, I’m just talking about dinner. There is not much to explore in the vegan backpacking breakfast meal aisle, and oats are easy enough that you don’t really need a $12 meal to satisfy you in the first place. So during my three days at Canyonlands National Park, I grabbed one vegan backpacking meal from each brand offered.

I like the rehydrated meal route more than grabbing ingredients myself because clean-up is super easy. No dishes, minus a long spoon. Once you’re done ingesting 600+ calories, you just seal up the bag and throw it in your trash bag. (The meals have two servings, but who’s judging you for eating the whole thing in one go?)

Overall, I recommend these meals. I have no crazy stomach issues to report and each meal was less bland than I expected. Here is my ranking, from “meh” to I-might-actually-eat-this-at-home.

Patagonia Organic Spicy Red Bean Chili – 6/10

$7.00 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

My favorite thing about this meal is the suggestion on the back to add a dollop of sour cream. I understand packing hot sauce, but unless you’ve got a little fridge in a tricked-out car, you’re probably not going to have sour cream on hand while eating this baby. I didn’t get to this meal while I was backpacking, so I made it from the comfort of my own apartment. I dreaded it.

If I were to eat any of these meals in my apartment, I would choose this one. Not because it tasted delicious, but because I’m glad I didn’t have to eat it and clean up after myself. The directions tell you to put the rehydrated ingredients in a pot of boiling water, instead of doing the opposite. Sure, I wouldn’t die from cleaning up a bowl in the wilderness, but if I don’t have to…

Again, I’m not vegan. The chili tasted good on its own, but I added shredded cheese and I’m not going to apologize. It was fine. I would maybe take this camping if the nights were chilly and I had an RV, because it was pretty delicious and spicy. It’s definitely better than any type of chili that I would have made around a campfire, but the fact that I couldn’t eat it out of the bag makes it a no-go for backcountry camping.

Good To-Go Herbed Mushroom Risotto – 7/10

$12.95 on Backcountry.com. Learn more about this meal here.

I played myself with this choice, because I decided to have it for breakfast instead of dinner. This hefty boy had a whopping 800 calories, and I ate the entire bag myself. (The Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai, which I split, has 920 total calories, and the chili meals each had 600 calories.) That’s a lot of calories, so it would have probably been a better meal for the early evening. The risotto tasted okay, but the texture wasn’t my favorite. I would get it again, just to have some variety.

Peak Refuel Three Bean Chili Mac – 8/10 

$12.95 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

If hot sauce is not on your list of things to bring backpacking, you may not be from Texas. Hot sauce is not included in this meal, but definitely needs a little extra spice to reach 8/10 status. I wouldn’t eat this every day, but I would happily order it again on my next backpacking trip.

Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai – 9/10 

$9.95 at REI. Learn more about this meal here.

This was the ultimate favorite, although mind games could have been at play here. Upon my first bite, I said, “It’s okay.” Throughout the rest of the trip, I longed for it. Nothing seemed to live up to it. Maybe I was impressed by the peanuts, peanut butter, and hot sauce included in the bag to mix in before eating. Maybe I just got sick of eating beans, or maybe it was the fact that a few other backpacking friends had already hyped it up in my mind. No matter what it was, I’d buy two of these for my next trip. The only downside is that it takes 20 minutes (after boiling water) to make this meal. I’m impatient, but that’s one of the reasons I schlump myself out into the desert with no cell service or Netflix. One day I won’t be so ancy.

What’s Your Favorite?

Love vegan backpacking meals? Have any tips for staying plant-based while pooping in the woods? Let me know!