I like to eat well when I go hiking. Simple, tasty, nutritious and filling food. I’ve scoured the aisles of supermarkets and speciality grocers looking for dried food or light weight options to make dinners a bit more interesting than cheesy peas or 2 minute noodles.
The range of commercial dehydrated meals are improving, but I prefer to rely on these for occasional meals. Plus, things get fairly pricey if you cater with commercial options for a family hike, and may not be to the tastes of little fussy eaters.
With that in mind, this year I bought a food dehydrator to play with as I planned a hiking trip to Tasmania. I’m a big fan of the circular economy, so had a look on gumtree and marketplace and was able to score a second hand dehydrator on the cheap. Otherwise, you can pick up cheap models starting from around $100.
I had lots of fun playing with my new toy, dehydrating fruit and vegetables, meat, tofu, sauces, home made roll ups and even angel cake. A really great resource is www.backpackingchef.com. This site has a wealth of useful info, tips and recipe ideas for dehydrating your own food. I had it constantly open in my browser in the lead up to our trip.
We had a lot of fun with our menu plan, creating three course meals and mixing up our breakfast and snack options. Our Overland Track menu is below for some inspiration. I’ve continued to use the dehydrator to keep snacks such as dried fruit on hand for impromptu walks. The kids are fans of the home made roll ups for school lunches – raspberry and pear has been a great flavour combo.
Favourite snack: banana – they taste so much better than those sugary banana chips.
Best main: mince – a big batch of spag bol mince (with hidden veggies) is so versatile and can be eaten with pasta, in burritos, shepherds pie or with spices and rice. The trick is to cook it with breadcrumbs, which helps it rehydrate and avoid the feeling of eating gravel.
Biggest failure: Thankfully no food spoilage! The main failure has been oranges, as they are so juicy that it can take way too long to dehydrate. Lemons and limes work better, and are great for adding extra flavour curries or for hot drinks.
Overland track menu
Breakfasts: Alternated between porridge with dried fruit and muesli.
Lunches: Days 1-2: Crackers with dip, cheese and fresh vegies.
Days 3-4: wraps with salami & cheese.
Days 5-7: wraps with tuna/ tinned chicken, long life cheese and dehydrated grated carrot.
Snacks: Variety is the key! Scroggin, dried fruit roll ups, biscuits, muesli bars, yoghurt snacks.
Entrée: Cup soup – I really like to have a warm cup of soup on arrival to camp to warm up and replace fluids.
Dinner #1: Burritos. Dessert #1: Apple crumple (dehydrated apple, granola, mixed spices and honey.)
Dinner #2: Tofu laksa. Dessert #2: Banana and nut rice pudding.
Dinner #3: Mac & cheese (with tuna for me, but not Mr 9). Dessert #3: Choc orange pudding (instant pudding, drinking choc, dehydrated orange and dark choc/orange chunks)
Dinner #4: Butter tofu with rice. Dessert #4: Fruit cobbler (dried fruit, dehydrated angel cake and honey)
Dinner #5: Spag bol. Dessert #5: Apple crumble.
Dinner #6: Spicy noodles and veg. Dessert #6: Fruit cobbler.
Have a dehydrator tip or awesome hiking recipe to share? Drop me a comment below.
