A food dehydrator is one of the best investments I’ve ever made, significantly enhancing my wild camping and backpacking adventures with tent-side deliciousness. Homemade dehydrated backpacking meals offer numerous benefits:
- They are much cheaper and infinitely tastier than commercially produced dehydrated or freeze-dried backpacking meals.
- You can create meals that you know you like, tailored to your taste and nutritional needs.
- Additionally, you avoid the excessive packaging of store-bought options, making your backpacking trips more eco-friendly.
Making homemade dehydrated backpacking meals is pretty easy. If you follow a few basic principals, you’ll find that many foods you enjoy are adaptable to being dehydrated. This guide will show you how to get started and will aim to cover all your burning questions and topics including…
- What you’ll need
- How does dehydrating food work?
- What types of meals can I dehydrate?
- What about dehydrating individual ingredients?
- What doesn’t work well in the dehydrator?
- How to dehydrate a prepared meal
- How long does it take to dehydrate a meal?
- How do I know when my meal is finished dehydrating?
- How do I portion my dehydrated meals?
- How do I rehydrate my meals on the trail?
- How long do dehydrated meals last?
- How can I make my dehydrated meals more interesting?
- Favourite dehydrated meal recipes
Ok let’s go!
What you’ll need
A food dehydrator – obviously!
Obviously you’ll need a food dehydrator, and there are a lot to choose from. You’ll need the kind with trays and nonstick sheets (which you may need to purchase separately). Dehydrators typically come with mesh sheets as standard, for dehydrating pieces of fruits and vegetables. The non-stick sheets are necessary to dehydrate anything pureed or with a high liquid content (like backpacking meals!).
The Excalibur brand of dehydrator are well known and very reliable – I have their 9-tray version and it’s lasted me for years. I can also vouch for the BioChef brand of food dehydrator which are slightly less expensive but in my experience perform just as well as the Excalibur. I had a large BioChef dehydrator when I was making dehydrated backpacking meals for sale – it’s huge and probably overkill for most home users, but if you have lots of adventures coming up, you may find it suits your needs!
Both of these options are super simple to use – prep your food, load onto the trays, then turn it on to the appropriate temperature.
What temperature should you choose? That depends on what you’re cooking (more on this below). The great thing about these dehydrators is that they have a guide to setting the temperature right next to the dial which takes out all the guesswork. All you have to do is turn the dial to the correct temperature and off you go.
The only difference between the two is that the BioChef has a timer which I very rarely use.
You’ll also notice you can do more with a dehydrator than dehydrate – you can also use it to create controlled temperature environments for raising bread and making yoghurt (yes I use these features frequently!).
Storage for your dehydrated food
In addition to a dehydrator, you’ll also need something to store your food in. Simple baggies can work for short term storage. To store longer, you’ll want to keep your dehydrated food in something air tight. A basic vacuum sealer is handy as you can store your food in portions ready for your next adventure. You can get biodegradable food bags too (mine come from Jamo Solutions).
You might also consider investing in some silica gel moisture absorbant packs for extra moisture resistence. They weigh just 2g per pack. Add them to your pouch of dehydrated food, just remember to take it out before you rehydrate your meal on the trail!
The key here is avoiding moisture – the enemy of dehydrated food! Why is that? Read on…
How does dehydrating food work?
A quick primer on the principals of food dehydration will help you prepare your homemade backpacking meals in the best way possible to ensure safe storage, portability, and of course, deliciousness.
As the name suggests, dehydration is the process of removing water from food. This not only makes the food lighter, it also inhibits the growth of bacteria, yeasts, and molds, thus preserving the food. The primary goal is to reduce the water content to a level where microbial growth cannot occur, typically around 10-20% moisture content. This enables you to make homemade backpacking meals that will store well and also be super lightweight in your pack.
Mechanisms of Dehydration
- Heat: Dehydration involves applying heat to food, which causes the water in the food to evaporate. It’s possible to dehydrate food using an oven, or even the sun, but a food dehydrator is best for maintaining consistent low temperature, as well as…
- Air: Continuous airflow is crucial in dehydration as it carries the moisture away from the food’s surface. Proper airflow ensures even drying and prevents the growth of mold.
- Surface Area: The more surface area exposed to heat and air, the faster the dehydration process. This is why food is often sliced thinly or chopped into small pieces before dehydrating. More on food prep below.
Factors Affecting Dehydration
Temperature
You might be tempted to crank up the heat on your dehydrator to speed up the process. The problem here is that higher temperatures can also cause the food to cook rather than just dry. Most foods are dehydrated at temperatures between 95°F and 160°F (35°C to 71°C), depending on the type of food. Here are some basic guidelines?
- Fruits: 135°F to 140°F (57°C to 60°C)
- Vegetables: 125°F to 135°F (52°C to 57°C)
- Meat (jerky): 145°F to 160°F (63°C to 71°C)
Humidity
Low humidity is essential for efficient dehydration. High humidity can slow down the process and increase the risk of spoilage.
Airflow
Adequate airflow ensures that moisture is continuously removed from the food’s surface. Dehydrators are designed to provide consistent airflow around the food.
Thickness and Size of Food
Thinner slices and smaller pieces dry faster than thick, large chunks. Uniformity in size ensures even drying, thought it’s not absolutely essential.
Basic Principals of Making Homemade Dehydrated Backpacking Meals
What Type of Meals can I dehydrate?
You can dehydrate both individual ingredients and fully prepared dishes depending on your culinary goals. More often than not, I tend to dehydrate pre-prepared dishes. That is, I cook the complete meal, dehydrate it, package it. Then all I have to do on the trail is add boiling water. Done!
Many dishes are amenable to dehydration, especially…
- Dishes that involve small pieces, such as rice, lentils, and finely chopped vegetables
- Dishes that are relatively low fat
- Your favourite recipes! Many dishes you cook at home will be adaptable to dehydrating with a few tweaks. Try to keep the fat content reasonably low and dice your ingredients into small pieces and you should be good to go!
Counterclockwise from top left: Veggie chilli, tarka dhal, jambalaya, dal with rice, veggie cassoulet, rice biryani with toasted cashews.
Examples of dishes that dehydrate well:
- Lentil dishes such as soups and dals
- Rice and grain-based dishes like paella, rice & beans, etc
- Chillies, with or without meat
- Minced meat dishes, especially minced beef or venison (e.g. bolognese, chilli con carne)
- Veggie-based stews, e.g. ratatouille, chickpea tagine, vegetarian cassoulet
My general preference while backpacking and wild camping is for dishes that are vegetarian, involving lots of vegetables, pulses, and grains, plus plenty of spice. But that’s just my personal preference. If you love meat, then go for it! Just go for lower fat cuts and ideally meat that has been minced or shredded.
What about Dehydrating individual ingredients?
You can of course dehydrate fruit and vegetables on their own to amp up other dishes. Here are a few things I like to have around:
- Mushrooms. It can be handy to have a load of dehydrated mushrooms around to add to things like soups and stews (see my recipe for Miso Soba Noodles with dried shitake mushrooms).
- Chillies. I love keeping some dried chillies to add around for extra kick to any meal.
- Greens. Especially kale. Great for adding a nutrient boost to all sorts of things. Or how about backpacking kale chips as a trail snack? Yum!
- Strawberries. Sliced strawberries go well with any cereal, oatmeal, or porridge. Note: I found other berries, e.g. raspberries and blackberries, don’t dehydrate so well; they’re very delicate and just fall apart, but strawberries dehydrate brilliantly! I know people also frequently dehydrate banana but I find them too sickly sweet.
What doesn’t dehydrate well?
- High fat foods don’t tend to dehydrate well as the higher fat content increases the risk of rancidity. You can still do it, but I wouldn’t store it for more than a week.
- I’ve also struggled with dehydrating cooked chicken and tofu; they don’t rehydrate easily and just end up chewy. (Though I hear if you freeze tofu first before dehydrating, that helps.)
- Foods with a high water content also don’t dehydrate well – lettuce, cucumber, watermelon – I can’t even imagine how nasty they would be after rehydrating! Dehydrated avocado? No thanks.
- Large chunky pieces of food in general, be it meat or vegetables, should be avoided as they can take so long to dehydrate that they go moldy before they’ve even had a chance.
How do I Dehydrate a Pre-prepared meal?
It’s pretty simple. Once you’ve cooked your meal, let it cool, then spread it out onto your dehydrator trays lined with silicone sheets. Spread the food out as thinly as possible so that it dehydrates efficiently. Load up your dehydrator, turn the dial to the correct temperature, and off you go.
How long will it take to dehydrate the food?
This totally depends on the moisture content of what you’re cooking. Soups and stews have a lot of water so can take a while to dehydrate. Again, a reminder: lay the food out on the dehydrator as thinly as possible. (I could have done better with that in the picture above, but it worked out in the end!). Here’s a few basic guidelines:
- Cooked lentils: 6-8 hours
- Cooked rice: 5-7 hours
- Tomatoes: 10-18 hours
- Carrots: 6-10 hours
- Peppers: 8-12 hours
- Strawberries: 6-10 hours
If you’re dehydrating a medley of ingredients in a pre-prepared meal, then the ingredients with the highest moisture content will dictate how long it will take to rehydrate. Hence, when I’m dehydrating a tomato-based stew like bolognese or chilli, it can take well over 15 hours to dehydrate completely. Here’s some good news: you can’t over-dehydrate your food, so I tend to keep the dehydrator going for about 24 hours just to ensure things dehydrate completely.
How do I know when my backpacking meal is finished dehydrating?
It’s easy to tell because the food will be crispy. A fully dehydrated meal will be like one big brittle cracker that you can crumble up and pack, ready for your next adventure.
Top tip: if you’ve dehydrated something pureed like a lentil soup, you can blitz up the dehydrated result in a food processor which will make the food smaller to pack and faster to rehydrate.
How do I portion my dehydrated food into individual meals?
Much of this will depend on your calorie needs. I’m a small female so tend aim for food portions that are about 500 Calories each. I do this as follows.
- I calculate how many calories are in the total recipe (I like this calorie calculator for recipes)
- Based on that number I decide how many portions it makes (so if there are 2000 calories in the total and I want to create meal packets of 500 Calories each, I know that the recipe makes 4 portions).
- I dehydrate the food.
- I weight out the total weight of the dehydrated food.
- I divide that by the portions I calculated in step (2).
- I weight out each portion into individual bags.
How do I rehydrate my backpacking meal on the trail?
This step is pretty easy, which is what you want! Some meals can be rehydrated simply by pouring boiling water over it and leaving it to sit for 5-15 minutes. (Powdered soups will rehydrate almost instantly.) Here’s how I go about it…
- I get my campstove set up with a good pot.
- I pour my dehydrated meal into the pot and add just enough water to cover.
- I bring the water to the boil, then turn off the heat and cover.
- After about 5 minutes I do a taste test. Are there still crunchy bits? Does it need more water? If so, I add a bit more water and reboil, then wait again for a few minutes. Usually by that point it’s good to go!
Tip: if you’re looking for ultimate convenience, go for pureed soups. Blitz the dehydrated soup into a powder ahead of your trip as described above. You can add this to a mug or boil, pour over boiling water, and stir. The soup should be ready almost instantly.
How long will dehydrated food last?
The shelf life of dehydrated food depends on several factors, including the type of food, how well it’s dehydrated, the storage conditions, and the packaging used. Most dehydrated fruits and vegetables if stored properly have a shelf life of 6-12 months. I try not to store my food longer than three months. This is not only for food safety reasons, but I do find the food can go “stale” if stored for long periods. It’s also nice to use up the dehydrated food larder to make space for more experiments!
This guy apparently had one of my dehydrated backpacking meals over two years after it was made and it was still good:
Next Level Homemade Dehydrated Backpacking Meals
I often use my dehydrated as a starting point for a more elaborate meal. For example, dehydrated chilli or refried black beans can form the basis of delicious tent tacos – just add tortillas and your favourite fixings:
Even a few simple garnishes can elevate a dehydrated meal to something gourmet. Here are some of my favourite garnishes to pack:
- Homemade garlic butter croutons / breadcrumbs
- Toasted nuts and seeds
- Fresh herbs, especially parsley which travels well
- Lemon or lime
- Ginger panko breadcrumbs
- Fresh or pickled chillies
- Hot sauce
- Cheese, especially Parmesan
- Crackers or tortilla chips to crumble on top
There are some decent dehydrated food brands out there, but I confess I find them all a bit sad. They tend to be very gloopy and are designed to be eaten straight out of the bag. The idea of finishing a big day out with some gloop that I eat out of a plastic bag just sounds really sad to me. Whereas a great meal can be its own reward and lift the spirits on particularly challenging days.
Favourite Recipes for Dehydrated Backpacking Meals
These are some recipes I particularly enjoy, both mine and from others are the web. They are not all specific to the dehydrator, so follow the tips above to transform them into a dehydrated backpacking meal ready for your next adventure!
- Black Bean and Sweet Potato Chilli – there are many veggie chillies out there but this is my favourite
- Red Lentil Dal – a classic; add chapati or some basmati rice for a complete meal
- Butternut Squash Soup with Ras el Hanout – rehydrates instantly with boiling water
- Carrot and Cumin Soup – another convenient and tasty soup that rehydrates instantly
- Refried Black Beans – for tent tacos as described above
- Veggie Jambalaya – I usually add extra peppers!
- Ottolenghi’s Veggie Paella – so so good; cut the veggies a bit smaller than the recipe specifies
- Mushroom and Lentil Bolognaise – you can dehydrate the cooked pasta, too – orzo is a great pasta for portability, and dehydrating cooked pasta makes it cook super fast on the trail
Not yet ready for homemade dehydrated meals?
Check out my other post on wild camping food / what to eat on a wild camping trip which has loads of ideas that don’t require a food dehydrator!
Assynt Explore From Inchnadamph: Ben More Assynt South Top & Glen Oykel
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