This isn’t an ordinary food blog or recipe website. It’s a treasure trove of lightweight, delicious camping meals, as well as cooking tips, ingredients and equipment for overnight hikers.
Is this website for you?
Here’s a quick quiz to help you figure out if you’ve come to the right place:
- Are you a hiker? Do you go on multi-day adventures, carrying your food and camping along the way?
- Are you looking for lightweight walking meals, so you can enjoy the scenery without feeling crushed by your heavy pack?
- Are you a bit of a foodie? Do you seek out delicious meals and interesting ingredients, rather than just thinking of food as fuel?
- Do you like cooking? Do you make meals like pasta, soups and risotto at home? Would you like to cook on the trail, without having to prepare and dehydrate your food beforehand?
If your answer was mostly ‘yes’, then the hiking meals on this website are for you. We hope you find some great new camping recipes – and if you’d like to share your own favourite backcountry dishes, please get in touch with us!
How’s your camp kitchen gear?
If you’re a seasoned bushwalker, you probably have a camping stove and outdoor kitchenware. But if you haven’t done much cooking in the wilderness, you might want to check out our essential camp kitchen equipment guide.
Start with some simple recipes
We have discovered some pretty obscure lightweight ingredients over the years. Some of the recipes on this website will see you hunting online for powdered tomato or lemon, or searching for yuba and dried shiitake mushrooms in your local Asian supermarket.
But you should probably just start simple. Do a search for quick and easy recipes, or meals that only require simple shopping. Here are some of our favourites:
Specialised searches
We have tried to tag the recipes based on things we think walkers are looking for. You can search for recipes based on these tags:
- #compact – don’t take up much space in your backpack
- #minimal-fuel – won’t guzzle your precious reserves of camping stove fuel
- #minimal-water – good if your campsite doesn’t have water
- #minimal-weight – ultralight hikers, these recipes are for you
- #non-perishable – useful for multi-day treks, or walking in hot weather
- #one-pot-meal – for hikers who, umm, only have one cooking pot
- #quick-and-easy – for situations when you’ve been walking for 12 hours in the rain, have just put up your tent in the dark, and really don’t have the energy to spend 30 minutes patiently stirring a risotto.
More tips and tricks
Here are a few more suggestions to help you get the most out of Tasty Hikes:
- At the start of each recipe, we have recorded the total weight and volume of dry ingredients, to help you plan your walk.
- We have also noted the amount of water and fuel we used in cooking each recipe. This should help you figure out how much you will need for your own trip – but please read the notes about fuel for more details.
- In each recipe, you can use the “Yield” link to adjust the recipe based on the number of people in your walking group. This will give you the exact weights and volumes of ingredients you need, to avoid carrying too much – or too little.
- In our experience, the ingredients used in Tasty Hikes will generally keep well in a backpack for several days or more. However, you should always use your own judgement as to whether a recipe is suitable for your walk, particularly if it involves perishable ingredients.
