Vegan hikers out there?

null You got that right!

Tasty Bite. The Mushroom Masala and the Kashmir Spinach are my favorite. I just got in 6 boxes of Tasty Bites for next years backpacking trips.

I generally use instant rice, pour water onto the rice in a freezer bag, empty the tasty bite into the freezer bag, wrap the freezer bag in a towel, wait 5 or so minutes and eat. Yea, kinda heavy but makes a damn fine meal. On a 5 day trip, one or two of the first days will be Tasty Bites and I keep Tasty Bites in the car at the trail head; sometimes it's a long drive to town. I am not vegan.

Here is a list of recipes: www.trailcooking.com/vegetarian-friendly/

I'm not vegan at all but a lot of my trail meals are. Not a big fan of freeze-dried meats, powdered dairy, etc. Where I "cheat" is in using meat or seafood-based stocks / bouillon. Note that authentic udon soup is made with "dashi", which is a stock made from dried fish and seaweed. A lot of Japanese dishes that are advertised as "vegan" use dashi, e.g. the dipping sauce for tempura, miso soup, udon, soba; technically not vegan.

I like pasta/noodle dishes of all kinds, especially soupy ones. Japanese noodle soups like udon are great - warm, comforting, hydrating and salty. Pastas with home-dried pommodoro (tomatoes, garlic, basil). On short trips (when food-weight isn't a big issue), I'll take pesto.

I also think Indian dishes work really well. I really like the packets of sauce pastes made by "Taste of India"; you can add a little to just about any blah dehydrated lentil or chickpea meal and it does wonders. You can supplement with other freeze-dried vegetables. Minute Rice makes a boil-in-a-bag jasmine rice that tastes much, much better than instant rices though it does take longer to cook. I cook the rice first and then use the boiling water to hydrate the rest of my meal.

Another soup that I really like is any sort of black bean-based tortilla soup. I buy a cheap cup-of-soup type black-bean soup mix from the grocery store (provides the dried beans and spices and a ton of salt), and add whatever freeze-dried vegetables I have on hand. If you buy dried vegetables, you always end up with a handful of broken almost-powder pieces at the bottom -- that's perfect for this. I usually toss in a handful of fresh cilantro and minced stale corn tortillas. If you have any individual packets of salsa, perfect.