Huel Freeze dried meals

I saw these. I’d like to try one or two of the 7-meal bags. I’d rebag into 450 calorie dinners and try it that way.  Calorific density (i.e. kcal/gram) and protein ratio (i.e. grams of protein per 100 kcal) are comparable or better than Good-to-go or Backpackers’ pantry freeze-dried.

The Huel cups are good and rehydrate a lot faster than the pouches. I found the chicken alfredo and Korean BBQ to be quite good. As the cups are pricier per meal than the pouches, I’d save them for quick at home meals and use the less expensive pouch meals for backpacking. Even though they take a bit longer to rehydrate in hot water than the cups, it’s not that much longer, and similar to other freeze dried meals. They also do well with cold-soaking. I’ll add about 4 ounces of water to the meal early on in the day and just top up to the total recommended amount at dinner time, and everything is soft and ready to eat right away. As the recommended two scoops is just a bit over 400 calories, I’ll add an appropriate fat or oil to up the calorie count, and maybe some ramen noodles, couscous, or other quick pasta or starch if I need a more substantial meal after particularly long or big effort days.

The Huel mixes worked out well on my recent trip. Tastier and simpler than freeze-dried meals.

On past trips, I used Good-to-Go and Backpacker’s Pantry meals. They both have different ideas about what’s a serving, so I always rebagged the mix and made it up to 450 kcal with a teaspoon of olive oil and various grains such as roasted pepitas, hemp meal, peanuts, etc. etc. I have a spreadsheet to do the calculation, inspired by the Gear Skeptic’s work. Alas, each meal has a different amount of water to add and a different hydration time.

Huel is simpler. Two scoops is always 400 kcal, 250ml of water and 5 minutes hydration. Flavor is comparable to Good-to-Go and way better Backpacker’s Pantry.

Simple to make up to 460 kcal with ½ tsp olive oil and 1 tbsp of roasted salted pepitas. As with the packaged meals, I add spices. I added 1 tsp paprika and ½ tsp chili seasoning to the Huel Mexican Chili and 1 tsp curry powder to the Huel Spicy Indian Curry.

To allow for absorption by the pepitas and spices, I did about 300ml water and found that the texture was better with 20 minutes hydration time. Altitude was 7400 feet. I hydrate in a pot, so I can fire up my stove and reheat for a few seconds to bring it up to eating temperature.

So it’s Huel all the way for me now.

Through a long story, I stumbled onto the Huel meal replacement shakes more than 10 years ago. One of my jobs involves a lot of travelling and late nights so was a healthier solution to get some food than the usual motorway service stations and fast food takeaways.

When they brought out the hot meals I have them a try on and off, but as they improved the flavours and variety I bought them more regularly, and I’ve been using them as my daily lunch in my day job for a good few years now.

(Though I still generally take actual freeze dried camping meals on outdoors trips, we seem to have much better flavours and variety here in the UK than you guys over in the US somehow)

Chicken & Mushroom is by far my favourite, closely followed by the Mac & Cheese. The Cajun pasta and chilli are also nice, and the tomato and basil is ok. They did have a really nice Carbonara but doesn’t seem to be on the website just now, wasn’t such a fan of the Thai green curry, and they’ve changed the Korma to “yellow coconut curry) so might give it a try, wasn’t a massive fan of the korma so this might be different.

kev