Lightweight Backpacking Meal Ideas

Here are some lightweight backpacking meal ideas for your next trip. All of these foods are lightweight as well as relatively easy to make and inexpensive. Remember to bring along other food and / or spices to add flavor to suit your taste. However, in my experience even the blandest foods taste great after a long hike.

Freeze Dried Food

Freeze dried food made with backpackers in mind is a great choice for a lightweight meal. Some of the packages are a little bulky but all of them are light. Freeze dried food has improved greatly in the last decade or so. One concern is that freeze dried food is more expensive than other choices but is not too expensive when purchased in bulk.

Rice

Instant rice is a standard backpacking food. Light, easy to carry, easy to cook, and dirt cheap, rice is everything that a backpacking food should be. Bring along some vegetables or meat to add some flavor and you are set with a lightweight backpacking meal.

Noodles / Pasta

Noodles and pasta are both lightweight and inexpensive food. Noodles and pasta are more prone to damage than the other foods listed in this article, but regardless of how they look both are great food for the trail. Bring along some gravy mix as an easy way to add some flavor to the noodles and it can be eaten over pasta as well.

Instant Potatoes

Instant mashed potatoes are a food that many dislike, but they are great for backpacking. Either eaten alone or with meat or vegetables mixed in, instant potatoes are a versatile and useful backpacking food. Leftovers can be fried into potato cakes and carried along as trail food.

Soup Mixes

Soup mixes are a way to make large meals quickly. A pouch of soup mix generally makes a surprisingly large amount of food. Bring along some crackers to make the meal filling. Oyster crackers do better along the trail than many other types of crackers. Hang them outside of the pack to avoid smashing them and they should be fine.

No Weight Food!

One of my favorite backpacking meals requires carrying no weight at all. Depending on legality and season, a backpacker can catch fish, hunt game, gather nuts and berries, or otherwise come up with food along the trail. This isn't for everyone but it may be an option.

These are just a few of the many possible lightweight backpacking meal ideas. Browse around your local grocery store and you might be surprised at the number of foods that you can find.