Gaurav Yadav

Vegan Backpacking

I recently hauled myself on a 20-day trek through the Slovakian and Polish mountains. My 65-L backpack tipped the airport scales at a whopping 18 kg. Jack got stuck with our shared tent, first aid kit, and other group gear, so it's safe to say most of my pack weight was, you guessed it, food.

I am going to talk a bit about food for vegans/veggies going backpacking here. This was my first time doing something like this, and so I am by no means an expert and have a bunch to learn. It is also worth noting that I am not a nutritionist, and everyone's bodies and specifically their guts are different. Most of the time you should always try to disagree with or inquire about advice you hear, even if it is 'common sense'. At least this way you're actively trying to make up your mind on things.

What I took

Breakfast

Let's start with breakfast. Every morning, I had a decent-sized flapjack - not just any flapjack, mind you, but my own homemade creation. Lots of sugar and fats to kick-start the day.

Breakfast is generally a challenging meal for me. I don't particularly enjoy it, but after hours on the trail, I'd wake up each morning with a sickening growl in my stomach. The flapjack was a good call in that regard: soft, tasty, and easy to get down. It was also convenient. I wake up most mornings with low energy, and cooking something takes effort and time when I'd much rather eat quickly, relax, and prepare to head off. Others would make morning porridge, but I dislike it quite a bit.

However, flapjacks weren't without issues. While dense and heavy, they didn't leave me full for long. We typically woke up at 6 AM, and I would eat a flapjack around then, so the quick onset of hunger was predictable. They also cause a significant glucose spike, followed by a crash a few hours later. I mitigated this somewhat by having coffee too, which helped keep me going, but it remained a concern.

Reflecting on this, I'm inclined to keep flapjacks in my breakfast rotation for future treks, but I'm also keen to diversify. For me, the ideal trail breakfast should offer sustained fullness, steady energy release, and healthy fats.

Lunch

Lunches on the trail were a delicate balancing act. My go-to trio - nuts, oat bars, and sweets - seemed like a hiker's dream but often left me wanting. The morning's flapjacks, while delicious, set the stage for a midday appetite that was hard to satisfy. Snacks would quiet the rumbling beast in my stomach, but only temporarily.

The idea of sitting down to cook a proper lunch was going to be impractical. Quick and easy was our mantra, but it came at a cost. In hindsight, I should've bought wraps and nut butter with me. Carbs, it turns out, sticks around in my body for a while. My pre-salted nuts, once thought to be a hydration faux pas, turned out to be electrolyte-replacing heroes. But even heroes can overstay their welcome. There's a limit to how many peanuts one can consume before contemplating a life without them.

For me, fullness trumps calories whilst out. When you're teetering on the edge of hangry, with miles to go and mountains to climb, feeling satisfied becomes paramount. A well-fed hiker is a happy hiker. Next time, I'll prioritise satiety over calorie counts - my feet, and my stomach, will thank me.

Dinner

Dinners had more variety. This is what I carried:

• 5 pouches of Firepot's Vegan Orzo Bolognese
• 3 TentCamp meals (2 Almond Jalfrezi and 1 Thai Green Curry)
• 5 of my own culinary creations

My homemade meals usually featured couscous or noodles, and definitely included TVP (textured vegetable protein) with some sort of seasoning, an assortment of nuts, and coconut flakes. Gourmet backpacking at its finest. These were all prepped before we left, neatly packed into ziplock bags – just add hot water and voila! TVP takes a little while to become edible so usually I would pour in water and close the ziplock bag and let it cook for 15 minutes.

If you're at Bristol uni, check out the Hungry Caterpillar Co-op, you can buy some cheap TVP from them. If not them, your local organic food store probably has it too.

The noodles were a highlight. I found Masala Maggi! An Indian classic, which once was found to contain lead and caused a big scandal. Alas, it was comfort food and far more delicious than I remembered, probably because all the hiking and sun exposure made food taste nicer in the evenings.

Pre-made Home Meals

The Firepot and TentCamp meals were poor. Most dehydrated meals won't be good, but the bolognese was frankly awful. The TentCamp meals were fine but tasted fairly bland. If I were doing this again, I'd stick to making all of my meals on my own. These pre-prepped meals cost me £5-6 each, and the return on value was bad. There's a chance other Firepot meals options out there are better, so maybe in hindsight, I shouldn't have bought five of the same ones.

Some lessons learnt

Weight

You want your rucksack to be as light as possible. You want to prioritise having dried foods. Things that you can easily cook with boiling water. This means no canned foods, no fresh produce, and definitely no glass jars. If you want something fresh, consider buying it during your trip.

Noodles, couscous, and TVP are your new best friends - light, compact, and calorie-dense.

I brought two jars of peanut butter and didn't touch them. At 300g each, that was a costly weight penalty to carry around unused. I am not a particularly big fan of PB, but peanuts are an efficient way of getting calories in so I thought I could hack it. Lesson learned.

Location

I packed as if Slovakia/Poland was a food desert, only to discover it's more of a vegan-friendly oasis. Who knew? From the surprisingly well-stocked Lidl in Terchová (complete with a dedicated vegan aisle, no less) to mountain huts in the Tatras and shops in Pieniny, Poland, food was far more accessible than I'd imagined.

Those pricey Firepot and TentCamp meals? They could have stayed at home while I saved cash and went local. Even if you're sceptical about vegan options in unfamiliar territory, big chain supermarkets often come through. A little homework goes a long way in lightening your pack and fattening your wallet.

Supplements

If you're vegan, then you also probably need some way of getting in B12, Iron and Omega-3. Deficiencies in these can be horrible, trust me. They are easy to offset of course, so consider carrying supplements with you even if it's a short trip. I didn't. I regret it.

See - Change my mind: Veganism entails trade-offs, and health is one of the axes

Timing your food intake

In my experience, my internal metabolic clock seems to adapt to my eating habits. I often feel hungry at the same time if I keep up eating at a certain point. This is of course easy to control when I'm waking up, but harder to do when there's more unpredictability with when I'm coming to hiking and knowing when I'll reach certain points and camps.

I've found it useful to try and time my food intake at specific intervals of the day. For instance, I like to have a bit of food just before the start of my hike. I also try to eat something near or at the top of a summit, and I make sure to have something to eat during a descent. These aren't hard and fast rules, but rather patterns I've noticed work well for me.

If I'm consistent with when I'm starting walks, and if my backpacking trip is long enough, I've learned to manage hunger pangs better. My body seems to adjust to the new routine over time, making energy management more predictable as the trip progresses. Of course, every hike is different, and I always try to listen to my body and adjust as needed.

Stashing Food

As someone who's neurodivergent, I find certain aspects of hiking uniquely challenging. One of these is the constant on-and-off with my heavy rucksack. It's not just the weight; the sensation of putting on a backpack against my sweaty, then cooling back is particularly uncomfortable.

To minimise this discomfort and make snacking more convenient, I use the front pockets of my rucksack to stash easily accessible food for lunch and quick snacks. This way, I can grab a bite without the ordeal of removing and replacing my pack. I'm even considering investing in a 1L waist belt solely for food storage.