My Year of Lentils: A Survey of Packaged Vegetarian and Vegan Backpacking Meals (Gear Guide)

Wow. Food for the Sole’s slaw/salads sound great and come in at a very high cal/ounce. I’m glad to hear about these.

This was very good!!! Thanks for taking the time to do this write up!!

Nice Job and a Big Thanks.

I’m happy people are digging this gear guide. It was fun to test all these meals and see how far we’ve come from chili mac.

I should note that during the course of my test Outdoor Herbivore changed its packaging and it no longer looks the same. Just FYI.

Is there’s something wrong with the affiliate link system, is it some new UL backpacking product or technique, or is it just a fool’s day joke? Now the article reads (and it’s not the only occurrence):

The rest of the companies I found by conducting a survey on the Backpacking Light forums and generic viagra gold usa online asking members to recommend brands they thought had the best vegetarian or vegan options.

I am glad to see more non-flesh alternatives available, and reviewed …thanks!

I don’t know why, but all the “just add boiling water” meals give me horrendous gas, and usually I end-up having to empty myself (#2) several times the next day. Very unpleasant, simply not doable for me, sadly. I wonder if anyone else has had this problem and whether they found a solution?

Until then, it’s Amy’s Mac and cheese….!

Paul S

Some of the purchased meals are insanely heavy on the salt. If your diet is usually lower sodium it can have that effect on some people.

Paul S.

Use Beano for the Gas.  It is ‘My Year of Lentils’

Paul S.

This reminds me of the time I found a package of Textured Vegetable Protein in a hiker box and added it to everything I ate for a week. It…wasn’t a good result.

<p style=”text-align: right;”>Great job Andrew providing us with high quality and tasty plant based meal and snack options!</p>
Thank you for all of the very useful and detailed information on those options. I will definitely use this guide to order backcountry food.

Mark Fradkin

Food For Sole is a solid brand to try for those who haven’t.

Thanks Andrew. This piece was on target for us. Vegetarian with a hard focus on flavor and spice.

Hey Andrew/Sarah (or anyone else that he tried them). Any thoughts on how compact Food for the Sole’s slaws are? I’m guessing they would compress down well if repackaged into a ziplock baggie in a bear can. Any thoughts?

I had to check and see if this was published on April 1. How is it possible to have figures like 207 calories per ounce…for the Thai Peanut Curry? Even 100% peanuts are only around 160 calories per ounce.

The first ingredient is coconut milk, which is close to pure fat.

The package says 420 cal from fat, and says it has 47g of fat. If we take their word for the latter**, it leaves 61g for carbs and protein. At 4 cal per gram that adds up to 244 calories. Total 664 calories. Not 790g.

**Not sure we should take their word for it, since their total of fat, carbs and protein adds up to 140g, not 108g!!

Re the Thai Curry, and one presumes their other meals, Pinnacle Foods seem to have taken their inflated ingredient weights and multiplied that out to get an incorrect calorie count (or an incorrect net weight)

47g of fat at 9 cal/gm = 423

68g carb at 4 cal/gm = 272

25g protein at 4 cal/gm = 100

Total calories = 795 . Pretty much the figure they claim.

So either they have grossly understated the weight or overstated the calories.

Andrew: Thanks for doing all the research for us vegetarians! Definitely ‘food for thought’!

Matthew K, I found the packages to be flat. so in theory you can roll them up, or put them on the wall of a bear can :-) Ans it’s not like you can destroy it too much ;-)

Thanks, Sarah!

Andrew, thank you so much for writing a concise expose on your veg food experiences! Especially focusing on flavors, as I knew right where you were coming from. Having lived in TX for years my taste buds are hones for southwestern flavors. Now I know exactly which meals to get for my spicy food fix. And I’m an omnivore!