The Ultimate Guide to Vegan Backpacking Food
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In this article, we share all the plant-based backpacking foods that are now available to vegan backpackers. Discover new products and develop your next vegan backpacking meal plan!
“Wow, what a view! I can’t believe I get to hike through this spectacular landscape. Now, what’s for dinner?!“ Does that sound like a familiar train of thought out on the trail? As backpackers, we find that our minds turn to one of two things: the scenery around us, and thinking about what we get to eat next!
Spending a little bit of time before your next trip to plan out your backpacking meals means that you will always have something tasty to look forward to. Unfortunately, if you walk into a big outdoor retail store right before you hit the trail, you may find a limited selection of vegan-friendly options in stock. But that doesn’t mean they don’t exist–you just need to know where to look!
The good news is there are more vegan backpacking food options now than ever before, even if they aren’t always carried in stores. That’s why we scoured the internet to find as many vegan backpacking food options as we could and share them all in one place.
So if you’re a plant-based backpacker, consider this your one-stop-shop!
What to Look for in Backpacking Food
While being entirely plant-based is the first criterion, vegan backpacking food should also be shelf-stable, lightweight, nutrient and calorie-dense, and quick-cooking.
Shelf-Stable
If you’re assembling your own meals, it’s important to use ingredients that can be stored at room temperature. In some ways, vegan backpackers have an advantage here because plant-based foods tend to have a longer shelf-life compared to foods that contain animal products.
Lightweight
Since you have to carry it every step of the way, backpacking food should be as lightweight as possible. Dehydrated and freeze-dried foods tend to be lightest, though there are plenty of grocery store options we’ll review as well.
Calorie Dense
Backpacking takes a lot of energy, so you need food that can properly refuel you. When we plan our backpacking food, we try to average 115-130+ calories per ounce or more to keep the weight down.
Cooking Time
Consider how much patience you have to cook your food and how much fuel you will be bringing. Quicker cooking foods tend to be preferred by most backpackers for fuel conservation.
How Much Food Should You Pack for Backpacking?
For most backpackers who plan on hiking all day with a heavier pack, Backpacker.com suggests aiming for 25-30 calories per pound of body weight, per day. For shorter day hikes (less than 2 hours) or if covering less strenuous terrain, you can scale it down to 21-25 calories per pound of body weight, per day.
Instead of eating just three meals per day as you might at home, aim to eat throughout the day and consume 30-60 grams of carbohydrates per hour (source) to keep your energy high and prevent hitting the wall.
Again, these are just rough estimations. Everyone’s body burns calories at different rates. So if you are preparing for a longer backpacking trip, you will absolutely want to do a few weekend shakedown trips to get a sense of what your appetite will be like.
Vegan Backpacking Breakfasts
Whether it’s adding boiling water to hot breakfast cereal or cold water to make granola with a milk substitute, the convenience of a “just add water” meal is hard to deny out on the trail. Or you can forgo the water altogether and opt for a no-cook bar. Whatever your preference, there are a lot of great vegan breakfast options to explore.
Backpacker’s Pantry
- Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal (123 calories/oz)
Farm to Summit
- Golden Oats (115 calories/oz)
Heather’s Choice
- Blueberry Cinnamon Breakfast (116 calories/oz)
- Apple Pie Breakfast (116 calories/oz)
- Banana Buckwheat Breakfast (132 calories/oz)
Trail Butter
- NW Triple Berry Almond Butter Granola (128 calories/oz)
Trailtopia
- Mango Oatmeal (104 calories/oz)
- Blueberry Oatmeal (104 calories/oz)
- Strawberry Oatmeal (104 calories/oz)
Peak Refuel
- Mountain Berry Granola (110 calories/oz)
Alt Route Meals
- Biscuits & Gravy (72 calories/oz)
- Southwest Hash Brown Scramble (60 calories/oz)
Outdoor Herbivore
- Blueberry Maple Crunch (126 cal/oz)
- Chia Oat Crunch (128 cal/oz)
- Apple Quinoa Oatmeal (123 cal/oz)
- Coconut Chia Peel (122 cal/oz)
- Sunrise Tofu Scramble (113 cal/oz)
- Toasted Sunburst Muesli (119 cal/oz)
- High Elevation Rice Cereal (95.8 cal/oz)
Quaker Oatmeal
Quaker Instant oatmeal is quick, easy, cheap, and totally customizable. Just add hot water. Pro Tip: Use the packet as your bowl. Just tear off the top, pour the water in, and stir. The bag will get hot, but won’t leak. Up the calories by adding coconut, or stirring in a packet of nut butter.
Laird InstaFuel Coffee + Creamer
If you are going to make yourself a cup of coffee in the morning, then you might as well add some calories to the mix with Laird Instant Coffee & Creamer.
VeganSmart All-in-One Shake
I have tried many different vegan shakes, and this one is by far my favorite. You can either drink this in the morning as a stand-alone shake or mix it up with some DIY or store-bought granola. It’s a great way to incorporate some extra protein into your morning meal.
ProBar Meals
A no-cook “breakfast” bar is a great grab-and-go option for anyone who wants to streamline their morning routine. It can also be nice for people who don’t wake up hungry and like to wait a little bit before eating. ProBar offers a large variety of flavor combinations–all of which are plant-based.
Vegan Breakfast Recipes
Here are some of the vegan breakfast recipes we have on our website:
Vegan lunches, snacks, and bars
When we’re backpacking, a very blurry line separates snacks from lunch. In fact, from the time we hit the trail in the morning until we set up camp at night, the entire experience is sort of an extended, movable feast. So in this section, we’ll cover all the vegan options for snacks and lunches.
Energy Bars
Our best advice when packing bars is to go for VARIETY. Don’t just load up on your favorite bar for a multi-day hike. Because after your trip, it won’t be your favorite anymore. Find a few you like and mix it up.
The following companies offer a vegan product line: GoMacro Bars, LÄRABAR, Dang Bars, Bearded Brothers, Aloha Bars, 88 Acres Seed Bar.
Powdered Hummus
Just mix cold water with some powdered hummus and drizzle with olive oil, and you’ve got a delicious hummus spread for lunch! Enjoy with sturdy crackers, pretzel sticks, or veggie sticks. Check out uBu Food’s entirely vegan line of powdered hummus, with flavors like Chipotle, Cilantro Lime, Thai Basil, Everything Bagel, and Jalapeno & Roasted Corn. Or, make your own dehydrated hummus (it’s super easy!).
Quinn Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels
We are absolute fiends for peanut butter filled pretzels. What mad hatter came up with the crazy idea, we don’t know. But they’re amazing. Quinn has a variety of flavors, many of which are vegan, worth checking out.
Love Corn
Speaking of something crunchy, Love Corn is an entirely vegan line of crunchy corn. Some of their flavors include sea salt, smoked BBQ, salt & vinegar, and habanero chili. Obviously, these are great by the handful, but they can also be added to any freeze-dried or dehydrated meal to give them a little crispy, crunchy texture.
Vegan Jerky
Just a few years ago, “jerky” was an exclusively meat-based category, but today, there are many plant-based vegan options. A few of our favorite brands are Primal Spirit Food and Louisville Vegan Jerky Co.
Oloves
We absolutely love olives when backpacking. Not only are they loaded with calories, but they offer a momentary burst of savory refinement that is hard to compare. Instant morale booster. We are big fans of Oloves packable olives. Enjoy them on their own or with the above-mentioned hummus and chips spread.
Trail Mix, Nuts, And Dried Fruit
Packing an assortment of trail mixes, nuts, and dried fruits is a great way to have some calorie boosts on hand to eat while hiking. If you have a dehydrator, check out these tutorials to make your own apple chips, dried pineapple, dried bananas, and dried kiwi!
Cold-Soak Lunches
Let’s be honest, there’s no way we’re breaking out our stove and cooking lunch. Thankfully, there are a lot of great “cold-soak” lunches, and many of them are vegan! Just add cold water and let stand for 15 minutes.
Farm to Summit: Thai Carrot Slaw
Good to Go: Carrot-Ginger Power Bowl, Cucumber Chaat Salad
Outdoor Herbivore: Pacific Crest Vinaigrette, Lazy Lentil Salad, Lemony Herb Quinoa Salad
DIY: Cold-Soak Pasta Salad
Vegan Backpacking Snack/Lunch Recipes
- Dehydrated Roasted Pepper Hummus
- Tie-Dye Mango Strawberry Fruit Leathers
- Chili-Spiced Fruit Leathers
- Tropical Fruit Leathers
- Peanut Butter and Jelly Bars
- Chewy Granola Bars
Vegan backpacking dinners
Dinner: the meal we’ve all been waiting for! After a long day on the trail, we can’t help but develop great expectations for dinner. Which is why it’s so important to find a meal that will end your day on a happy and satisfying note.
Backpacker’s Pantry
- Pad Thai (112 calories/oz)
- Cuban Coconut Black Beans & Rice (103 calories/oz)
- Chana Masala (108 calories/oz)
- Three Amigos Vegetable Stew (105 calories/oz)
- Three Sisters Southwestern Quinoa & Beans (100 calories/oz)
Farm to Summit
- Wild Mushroom Pot Pie (118 calories/oz)
- Three Bean Chili & Cornbread (143 calories/oz)
- Thai Red Curry (120 calories/oz)
- Harvest Green Curry (104 calories/oz)
- Puebloan Beans & Rice (129 calories/oz)
Poe & Co
- Coconut Chickpea Stew (110 calories/oz)
- Black Garlic Ramen Bowl (82 calories/oz)
- Sweet Potato Quinoa Skillet (68 calories/oz)
Go-to Go
- Kale & White Bean Stew (108 calories/oz)
- Mexican Quinoa Bowl (103 calories/oz)
- Classic Marinara with Penne (120 calories/oz)
- Korean Bibimbap (109 calories/oz)
Nomad Nutrition
- Irish Shepherd’s Pie (227 calories/oz)
- Ukrainian Borscht (148 calories/oz)
- Kathmandu Curry (176 calories/oz)
- Indian Red Lentil Stew (193 calories/oz)
- Caribbean Curry (148 calories/oz)
- Canadian Barley Soup ( calories/oz)
- Hungarian Goulash (170 calories/oz)
Peak ReFuel
- Three Bean Chili Mac (125 calories/oz)
- Butternut Dal Bhat (148 calories/oz)
Backpacking Recipes
Here are some of our favorite vegan backpacking dinner recipe we’ve developed over the years:
- Red Lentil Chili
- Sweet Potato Stew
- Tortilla Soup
- Minestrone Soup
- Quinoa Chili
- Red Lentil Marinara (omit cheese)
Backpacking Desserts
Not only are backpacking desserts an absolute treat, but they can help you meet your caloric needs for the day (without having to resort to just having more dinner).
Packaroons
These macaroons boast 170 calories per ounce, so they definitely pull their weight (pun intended) in your pack. They come in a few flavors including Amaretto, Blueberry Almond, and Sweet Coconut, all of which are vegan.
Unreal Candy Bar
It’s not every day that you can eat an entire candy bar by yourself 1000% guilt free… here’s your chance 🙂 These Unreal chocolate coconut bars would be a great dessert or even a mid-afternoon pick-me-up on a particularly strenuous day.
Treehouse Coconut Drinking Chocolate
If you don’t necessarily want to eat dessert, consider drinking it! This drinking chocolate (see: hot chocolate) is an absolutely lovely way to wind down at camp. While Treehouse’s makes other flavors that do contain milk, this coconut chocolate blend is hands down their best product and it’s 100% vegan.
Candy
The snack we didn’t pack for the JMT, but we wish we did. Candy! We’re not candy people normally, but the calorie and mid-day sugar boost would have been awesome. A few vegan-friendly candies to consider: Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks.
Condiments and extras
These are some of our favorite extras to add either calories or flavor to our meals.
- Almond Protein Powder
- Pea Protein Powder
- TVP
- Nutritional Yeast
- Coconut Milk Powder
- Olive Oil Packets
- Sriracha Packets
- Soy Sauce Packets
- Various hot sauce packets
- True Lemon & True Lime flavor packets
Favorite Backpacking Cooking Gear
We have a whole post dedicated to our backpacking cooking gear picks, but here are some of the basics:
JetBoil MiniMo or Jetboil Flash
We are really impressed with the performance of the Jetboil integrated cook systems. The Jetboil MiniMo is a great option if you plan to eat out of the pot and need simmer control. The Jetboil Flash is great if all you need is boiling water, pronto.
MSR Pocket Rocket Deluxe & 1.3 L Ceramic Pot
If we’re planning on rehydrating our own meals on trail and need the ability to simmer, then we go with the Soto Windmaster canister stove paired with a MSR 1.3 L Ceramic Pot.
Check out our in-depth post about the best backpacking stoves on the market.
Backpacking Mug: GSI Infinity Mug
Weighing only 3.5 oz, this is our go-to mug for backpacking trips. It has enough insulation to keep our coffee warm in the morning and costs a fraction of the price of a double-walled titanium mug.
Looking for more backpacking resources? Check out the index of all our vegan backpacking recipes, our ultimate guide to dehydrating food for backpacking, this complete backpacking checklist, and our favorite backpacking cooking gear!
This post was first published June 25, 2017, and last updated June 19, 2024, with up-to-date information.
