What are your go to dehydrated meals?

Vesta curry is the only choice isn't it?

Hard to purchase I think, you'll need to go chow mein

They're, dehydrated, they're all hard when you purchase them

Joking aside OP, take a look at the Huel hot and tasty range

There's a fantastic amount of choice here, you can even filter as per dietary requirements!

https://ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/main-meals/

I've tried a fair few from different brands, they're all really good. Enjoy!

These noodles are blummin lovely

My current preference is for the Firepot range. They do two sizes too, which can be useful. Mainly I try to eat at pubs etc but it's good to have one or two meals as a standby in those instances too.

Packet couscous (various flavours about) and add tinned fish, corned beef, spam or chopped up Chorizo for extra protein; minimal volume, cheap and easy to find in shops and non-perishable so ideal when transported in a bike bag during summer.

Most importantly it doesn't actually require any real cooking just some boiling water poured over, so just heat some extra when you're making a brew throw it all in a bowl and five minutes later you've got a meal.

Always thought the summit to eat range was acceptable.

I have r=eaten a few of them  OK but not as good as real food.  firepot were the best.  None I have had had enough calories for me

I would tend to go with pasta or rice with a small packet of sauce - pasta, pesto onion and tuna is a staple  A wee bit heavier but much nicer IMO and lots more calories.

I've bike packed a bit and my first choice is always, always to go to a pub or cafe/restaurant. I find most dehydrated food are just about tolerable.

If your stuck in the middle of nowhere or you want to keep something as an emergency meal then Huel hot foods are bearable. Quite honestly there's not much in it with packet foods so maybe go with the ones you've tried out first at home and are cheap. Not always the ones designed for camping.

I find the most common bar food to be "nuke and fry" and as such OK for a day or two but after that the amount of fat palls.  Of course if you can get to a place with good food its a bit different.  Also one night out or 5 makes a differnce

Firepot stuff is a little pricey but totally worth the extra compared to some other brands I’ve tried… posh pork and beans is lovely after a long ride

Vesta curry is the only choice isn’t it?

I used to take those camping when I was a Scout 😀

Cheers for the suggestions, I've got some of those Soba meals, they're good 🙂

It's 3 nights and the first 2 I think I'll most likely be in the middle of nowhere, or at least prepared to be.

Super noodles for me when bike packing if I plan to stop .

If camping by bike I just make regular meals with ingredients

If not stopping I carry babybels , peperami , fruit gums , chewy sweets usually of the swizells variety - sweets not individually wrapped I can eat on the move

If its only a few nights then noodles, cous cous, tinned fish etc, stuff that only needs boiling water. If its a longer trip then I take a proper stove and make proper meals.

I’ve bike packed a bit and my first choice is always, always to go to a pub or cafe/restaurant.

I prefer to have lunch in a cafe and take dinner stuff. Generally cheaper, gives a bit of variety and means you can camp away from civilisation. Im not a fan of having a big meal then riding on.

Previously tried various combos of pasta, tuna, cured meats, mugshots, Indo Mie, and the like, prefer to take the cost hit and now stick to decent dehydrated meals.

+1 for Summit to Eat, they have gluten free meals which are also ok. Good mix of calories/weight/flavour and ease of prep after a long day.

That said, I've not tried any other brands of decent dehydrated meal but imagine they are much of a muchness.

I try to bulk buy when there are discounts as they can live in a cupboard for a few years...

Don't eat the gel sachet!

Double post

For freezedried stuff LYO meals have been fantastic on backcountry hikes, they do taste like real food.
They are quite expensive and for shorter trips where weight isn’t issue I’ll take some pasta and add some protein and sauce.

Am I a ludditte for preferring boil in the bag? 😂

Menu One, 24 hour ration pack ftw.

Firepot. Read into them and it'll all make sense..

https://basecampfood.com/

This place sells lots of the different brands. I like Firepot too, but they’re getting crazy expensive now.

One of the reasons I like Firepot is that they actually listened to a bit of criticism when first launched. Although the meals were tasty enough, they only had a line on the pack to tell you what amount of hot water was required. I emailed them with the suggestion that they actually include the volume of water required (in ml) on the pack too, so as to prevent either heating too much, or too little water. The second tranche of packs had this information included. It's just a little thing but indicates that they were open to ideas.

FWIW I also love their Orzo Pasta Bolognese. It has a real peppery taste, elevating it above the blandness of many other dehydrated meals.

I make my own breakfasts though. ..

Porridge oats - 60g / 226 kcal
Chopped nuts - 20g / 131 kcal
Dried fruit - 40g / 120 kcal
Milk powder - 15g / 50 kcal

Totals 135g / 527 kcal

Whizz it all up in a food processor, to reduce rehydration time, before putting into a pour'n'store bag. Add boiling water when required, stir, and pop the bag into a bubble-foil cosy for 10 minutes.

Another +1 for Firepot.

Basecamp foods as suggested earlier are often less expensive for them than other places.  Also earlier in the year Go Outdoors was doing buy-one, 2nd half price. Which made it more tolerable (and they have a shelf life of several years - I've a few in a box and they are Best Before mid 2026.

As a little trick for not knowing whether to buy the regular or XL version, I got a few of the half-size 'sample' packs.  I've packed a couple of those on multi day trips in case I'm still Starvin' Marvin after one regular size (so as not to need to have  2nd regular- that would be gluttony !

Best camp meal I ever made was a chicken and chorizo curry with rice.

Bought a rice bag, precooked chicken breast, chorizo sausage and curry sauce sachet. Was tremendous. Had to be eaten on the same day though and wasn't that light. A bag of spinach would have been a worthy addition.

Am i the only one who remembers Beanfeast meals, made by Batchelors? Ignoring the onetime GM content, they were actually quite reasonably tasty at the time. Maybe

I used to use beanfeast - quite palatable

also Sosmix burger mix was good - also no longer available

Yeah, we used Beanfeast when we were backpacking many moons ago. It was OK actually.

LYO*, Firepot and Real Turmat are all pretty decent in my experience. They're expensive, but cheaper than eating out and if you're doing several nights allows a bit of variety. I spent many years having couscous & whatever packable protein and now I can't really face it any more.

*Most trips I'll have a pouch of their 'Mexican Dish'. Not because I like it any more than their other stuff, but because it makes me laugh every time. 'What's your fave Mexican meal?', 'Oh I live a good authentic bit of dish, me'