Backcountry Vegan - Prep for 4 Week Road Trip

In just 4 weeks, I hop on my motorcycle to begin a four week road trip that has three legs - going from Oakland to Southern California by motorcycle, then by moving van to NE Ohio and then return to California on motorcycle via Memphis, New Orleans, Austin, West Texas, the Grand Canyon, the Eastern Sierras and Tioga Pass.

Since this isn't quite the same as a backpacking or camping trip - I'll have plenty of opportunity to seek out local natural grocery stores & farm stands, plus I'll be staying with family and friends at least half of the nights on the road.

Clearly, bringing everything for 4 weeks would be impractical and unnecessary.  So, then what do I need to bring? Here are the limitations & opportunities I identified:

• Space Limitations:  while I can carry more stuff in my bicycle panniers, and in the stuff sacks that I will attach to the luggage rack.  I'd rather bring tools & a spare tube than a gallon bag of bulky dried apples.
• Weight Limitations: are not the same as backpacking but still a consideration.  I can pack liquids in stainless steel bottles that will be safer from crushing & heat than plastic that I took on the trail in April.
•  Spoilage: same sort of issues as backpacking, but I will be traveling in much greater heat than Kauai in April.  Temperatures across the Midwest & South are pretty insane right now (yes, I will be doing some parts of Texas in the dark/pre-dawn). That means no matter how tempting those farmstand peaches - just buy enough to eat by the end of the next rest stop or that evening because they will not travel.

Preliminary Preparations:

• Coffee cone & filters, assam tea, mesh strainer & chai spices - it's always nicer to make your own hot beverages at camp in the moring.
• Pasta, couscous & quinoa - enough for several meals, easily replenished at the bulk section of a natural grocery store.
• Oatmeal, dried fruit (blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, raisins, cantaloupe, persimmons) & granulated maple sugar -  yes, it will be much easier to make oatmeal than to wait around for quinoa for breakfast.
• Dried veggies (squash, onions, peppers, tomatoes, porcini & shitake mushrooms, carrots, turnip, beet) - about 1 gallon bag of the dried veggies & fruit in their own wax paper bags.
• Road's End Organics gravy packets
• Fresh garlic
• Olive oil & Meyer lemon zest

Meals that I anticipate making for myself will include pretty easy stuff like:

• pasta & marinara: a small can of sauce along with my dried veggies & pasta makes a pretty good meal!
• mushroom & veggie gravy on mashed potatoes - maybe with seitan sausage or chunks from the store means I can have seitan for breakfast the next morning, too!
• veggie soup with udon noodles or pasta & bread
• roasted or veggies from local farm stand, cooked with my spices & olive oil - great sandwich fixings for lunch the next day
• "Special of the Day" - you never know what you'll find in local groceries and it is summer - I might end up with the sweetest corn, or giant peaches that I can grill over the fire at the campsite. 

Recommendations? If you know of any good recipes, restaurants or natural grocery stores along my route - leave me a comment here.  I'm especially interested in veg-friendly restaurant recommendations for the east side of Cleveland, Ohio; Nashville & Memphis, TN; New Orleans, LA; Austin & Lubbock, TX. 

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal: A Quinoa-nundrum on Grains

Ah, quinoa - the mother of grains - packed with nutrition & protein and very few calories.  However, I discovered that cooking black quinoa (which I selected for sheer novelty) - took way too long to cook on the trail.  My meals with quinoa included:

• quinoa with granulated maple sugar, raspberries & blueberries for breakfast
• quinoa with vegetable broth, onions, zucchini, carrots & peppers

The basic recipe is 1 c quinoa + 1.5 c water - 12 minutes for white and 15 minutes for black.  It didn't work - after 20 minutes, the quinoa was still quite hard.  Nothing attributable to elevation - sea level for both home and travel cooking attempts.

For my subseqent attempts to cook quinoa on the trail, I soaked the quinoa til it sprouted - and then put it in a pot with enough water, covered it and simmered - it took the better part of 40 minutes before I moved to someone's campfire. 

I cooked quinoa 3 times on the trail and each time was the same result.  I think I may try to dehydrate cooked quinoa to see if that works better on the trail.

Oatmeal is definitely going in my pack next time! 

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Sweet Potato Pancakes

Before I went on this trip, I strongly resisted the idea of traditional convenience breakfasts - like oatmeal - and was fantasizing about tasty & colorful brunchy delights.

I steamed sliced & peeled sweet potato, pressed it through the ricer and dehydrated the sweet potatoes.  The dried cooked sweet potato seemed to pull a lot of moisture from the air, so I re-dehydrated and then powdered the sweet potato in my Breville blender.

My idea was to use the powdered dried sweet potato to make a thick paste, sautee it on both sides to make it brown - and have little latkes.  I had some granulated maple sugar to sprinkle on top of it - sounds perfectly delicious, right?

Since I did not test this recipe out before going on the trail, it could stand a little refining.  I used too much water and my patties did not brown as well as I had hoped and were a little squishier - but still quite delicious.

Next time - using less water or perhaps shredded dried sweet potatoes (instead of steam blanched/dried/powdered) - I will try sprinkling the maple sugar on the patties before flipping them to help along the browning/caramelization process.  I'm also considering shredding/grating raw sweet potatoes, dehydrating and then frying them up rehydrated - they should cook up pretty well so it may well be time to test that recipe before my next trip!

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Vegetable Udon Noodle Soup

There can honestly be no backcountry camping meal that is easier to make - one pot is all you need, and a little restraint else you risk exceeding the capacity of your pot!

Less recipe and more about process - especially carrying a variety of ingredients that can be used in multiple dishes. 

Ingredients:

• vegetable boullion
• dehydrated vegetables
• dried wakame and/or hijiki
• udon noodles
• optional: kuro goma (spiced toasted black sesame seeds that add a little flavor and crunch to any soup)
• optional: chili flakes

Instructions:

1. Soak about 1/2 to 3/4 c dried veggies such as carrots, zucchini, peppers, onions and shitake mushrooms (I like to carry these whole and break them up before I dehydrate them) in your wide mouth Nalgene bottle - I like to do this as I am leaving my breakfast or lunch stop so they are soaked for my next meal!
2. Simmer 2 c water in a pot to dissolve your bouillion.  Bring pot to a boil.
3. Add udon noodles - you may need to break them in half or manage them manually til the noodles soften enough to fit in your pan.   
4. Bring water to a boil, add veggies & soaking water.
5. Bring water to a simmer, check veggies & udon noodles for tenderness.  Remove from fire.
6. Add wakame, stir til softened.
7. Enjoy with gusto & share with your campmates! 

Dried seaweed is the key to the savory flavor this soup carries - and dried wakame or hijiki weighs less than nothing!

Don't forget - unless you brought a small mesh strainer or use a bandana to strain the soaked wakame, it's already salty so do NOT add more salt to your soup until you have tasted it.  In addition to providing sodium, most dried seaweeds also provide Omega-3 fatty acids, magnesium and calcium -- all good nutrients to replace after exerting yourself on the trail!

Backcountry Vegan Camp Meal - Mushroom & Veggie Gravy & Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes with rich mushroom gravy is one of my favorite comfort meals at home - taking it on the trail is really a no brainer.  While instant potato flakes don't taste nearly as good as freshly steamed and riced Yukon gold potatoes - they weigh next to nothing, are very quick to prepare and very satisfying when covered with a rich sauce made by soaking some dried mushrooms (which also weigh next to nothing!) and the nutritional value is improved with the addition of other dried veggies in your pack.

This is less a recipe, per se, than process as ingredients will vary with your preference & preparation!

Ingredients:

• potato flakes (I buy these in bulk at Rainbow Grocery)
• dehydrated zucchini, porcini, cherry tomatoes, carrots & onions
• dried herbs to taste - thyme, rosemary, etc
• brown gravy or mushroom gravy - store bought packet is ok, or you can bring corn or potato starch
• fresh garlic made it into your pack? fresh herbs along the trail? 

Instructions:

1. Put about 1/2 cup of dried vegetables into a widemouth plastic quart bottle with 2 cups of water at least an hour before you get to your final destination for your meal.
2. Once you arrive at your destination, boil water and prepare the mashed potatoes, set aside.  Make sure that you don't make TOO many mashers if you are eating solo, you can just pour the gravy right into the same pan they were mixed.
3. If you have any fresh veggies - sautee those first and leave in the pan.
4. Strain the water from the pre-soaked veggies into the pan to heat up along with any dried herbs.
5. Bring to a simmer, whisk in the prepared gravy packet or starch with a fork to get the lumps out.
6. Add veggies and cook low til gravy thickens up.  Pour veggie gravy over top of mashed potatoes and eat with great relish and satisfaction, knowing that your other meals will be just as delicious and easy. 

Buen provecho!

Backcountry Vegan: 5 Truths About Eating on the Trail

1. No matter how good the  intentions, complicated recipes or advanced prep mean carrying around ingredients that the traveler may not feel like using because of time, light, energy, fuel or space restrictions. Good planning results in not just good nutrition but also satisfaction and a light or nonexistent store of provisions upon the return home.
2. Regardless of how enticing a recipe for chocolate cherry almond bark sounds - chocolate always melts if traveling anywhere warm.  Is it worth it?  Life is too short to eat broken chocolate - bring calorie rich treats that are appropriate to the environmental conditions of the trip.
3. Making homemade trail mix and granola always sounds like a good idea - but buying it is so convenient and such a good excuse to investigate local organic groceries along the way to the start of the trail or on the rod.
4. Despite best intentions - who doesn't end up picking up packaged snacks & treats to take along? It just happens - whether it's Lara bars, Nutter Butters, Primal seitan strips, or Sharkies - there are certain convenience foods that are easier bought than made.
5. Camping often means meeting people & sharing meals or using locally available or foraged ingredients -- provisions should allow for flexibility and scalability (up/down).

Backcountry Vegan - Tools & Gear

You do not need to have a commercial kitchen - but it does help to at the least have a good knife and a good dehydrator.

Prep tools:

• Kansui Dojo Chef's knife - I swear by this knife! It's quite affordable and it holds an excellent edge for a long time - it's a great all purpose vegetable/fruit knife.  Go get one!
• Breville 800BLXL Blender - this blender has been one of my favorite acquisitions.  I see all kinds of love lavished on the Vitamix - but so far, this blender has met all my needs.
• Cuisinart 9 cup Food Processor - bought used on E-bay, it has character but may need to be replaced in a few years.
• Williams-Sonoma Professional Multi-chopper - my friend Matt first introduced me to this gadget - then he got me one for my birthday last year.  It has been very helpful at cutting up large quantities of fruit or veg in uniform pieces - great for tagines and for dehydrating.
• Excalibur 9 Tray Food Dehydrator - after building a monster of a solar dehydrator - I finally threw in the towel and got the Excalibur.  I haven't looked back - it works like a dream and doesn't consume much power.  The solar dehydrator is good for storing persimmons to ripen and for drying off chanterelles after I clean them.

I cannot overstress indispensability of a good dehydrator!  This will make all the difference in your prep for trail food - you'll find yourself buying entire flats of strawberries and graciously accepting over-the-fence donations of leggy zucchini from your neighbors.  It costs much less to dehydrate your own veggies than to purchase packets of dried or "freeze dried" anything.

Cookset for the Trail

• REI Campware Mess Kit - two pans (one can be a lid), cup and bowl
• spice wheel filled with salt, black pepper, chili flakes, herbs aux provence, dill, curry, etc.
• To-Go Ware utensil set
• Nalgene widemouth bottle
• stainless steel bottle
• Camelbak
• Katadyn water filtration sport bottle
• half of a sponge with green scrubby on one side
• Drip Coffee filter holder - collapsible silicone gadget from REI & filters
• Dr Bronner's Peppermint liquid soap (4 oz refillable bottle for cleaning dishes & myself)
• MSR Pocket Rocket stove

Although I didn't have a problem carrying the Pocket Rocket on most flights, one TSA employee decided to make a case of it - emptying my ENTIRE backpack and threatening to confiscate the stove which is clearly permitted based on TSA's own guidelines (he sounded really disappointed when his manager told him on the phone that it was permitted).

I'm curious to experiment with alcohol burning stoves made with pepsi cans - they weigh a lot less than carrying MSR fuel and it's pretty easy to make one in case it gets confiscated in travel, and it burns a lot hotter/cheaper fuel.

Of all the gear I brought on the trail - the most dearly missed was a larger wooden spoon or spatula, even some bamboo tongs would have been nice.  I didn't use the knife very much - possibly could have skipped that acquisition.

Backcountry Vegan - Menu Planning, Food Prep & Packing

Prep vs Packet:
For my first backpacking trip to Kauai, I had a hiking partner - and the two of us decided that for efficiency's sake, we wanted to use some prepared camp meals. I ordered a dozen or so vegan meals in biodegradable/burnable packets from Mary Jane's Outpost - but we got rained out so the meal packets returned home with me. Last summer, I decided to use up the meals on my 2 week long trip to Portland & back. Unlike the usual car camping trips, I wanted to bring stuff that would be relatively easy to put together.

Mary Jane's Outpost has some good options - and lots of vegan stuff. The packets I brought along included: brownies, griddle cakes, ginger sesame pasta, corn ad,  corn salsa, falafel, and lebanese peanut bulghar. The main problem with some of her offerings is that they contain dairy and beans - two foods to which I am allergic. The brownies were the one item that most impressed me but the rehydrated pasta didn't have the right mouth-feel. For the most part, none of these items were all that difficult for me to put together on my own.  Falafel mixes can be had anywhere (and I can't eat a lot of that anyway due to the garbanzo flour). Couscous and mushrooms? Just why bother with all the packets?

For this trip, I decided to focus on using fresh, seasonal ingredients that I could dehydrate and which would be satisfying when rehydrated. The most helpful cookbook was the one that talked the most about the processes involved in dehydrating food and how to use it. My food supplies and meals had to conform to these principals:

• Whole foods - similar to how I cook at home.  I wanted to avoid pre-packaged processed foods with long lists of ingredients entirely.  I don't eat like that at home - and don't want to eat like that on the trail.
• Prep & pack foods that dehydrate well and weigh little, avoid bringing too many liquid condiments (dressings, vinegar, etc).
• Avoid over-relying on processed starches like pasta, couscous and bread.  Couscous and pasta are filling and a great source of carbs - but vegetables are key to other nutrients and allow the body to build protein needed by active people! Quinoa was to be my main carb/protein base food, along with whole wheat udon noodles and rice noodles.
• Avoid foods that take too long to cook and thus require more fuel, like rice.
• Flavor foods generously with dried herbs & spices.
• Include foods that replace salts/magnesium lost to sweat while hiking and exercising outdoors - dried seaweeds are great for this purpose.
• Foods should be packaged so they can be used in multiple recipes - dried zucchini, carrots, mushrooms & onions all work pretty well in many different recipes.  My magic number was 3 - I would just come up with ideas for different dishes and food combinations for each food, but did not establish this as a hard and fast requirement.

Building in Flexibility:
Most backcountry cookbooks don't take into consideration scalability and the incorporation of locally sourced or volunteered ingredients. In any kind of camping situation - well, let's face it - humans are social animals.  We like to congregate in the dark over fire and share food together.

No matter where you go, someone's going to suggest sharing food or even a camping potluck. It's not just a matter of throwing all your extra food in a pot and hoping it comes out right (even if folks say it does, doesn't make it true).

And you might find some amazing local contribution like key limes or Mexican oregano or a mango.  Flexibility and creativity are essential to fun and delicious backcountry cooking.

I had some ideas for favorite camping meals and new stuff that might be fun to try - and the book I liked most gave me a few ideas for experimentation. I would probably have tested a few things out before going on the trail, but there were no disasters and I ended up making some pretty awesome food, and was able to share with folks several times with ingredients that weren't terribly expensive but which provided excellent results.

Supply List:
In no particular order - here is a list of the food that I prepared and brought with me - in the backpack - as the bases for meals on the trail.

Fruits & vegetables:  hey, I'm a vegetarian! this makes up the bulk of my diet at home, so why not on the trail? I don't eat out of packages at home - so why eat packaged food on the trail?

• Persimmons - 1lb home dehydrated slices
• Apples - 1/2 lb home dehydrated/cored slices
• Strawberries - thinly sliced & home dehydrated (2 pints fresh)
• Apples - sliced & home dehydrated (what I had left from last fall - about 4 cups dried but lotso air!)
• Blueberries - home dehydrated whole (1/2 pint fresh)
• Raspberries - home dehydrated whole (1/2 pint fresh)
• Mushrooms - dried porcini & shitake mushrooms from Mountain Rose Herbs - dried mushrooms are indispensable!
• Onion - 1 red, 1/4" dice
• Onion - 1 yellow, 1/4" dice - both kinds of onions turned out very well rehydrated and in all dishes.
• Carrots - 4 large, 1/4" dice - the carrots got so very tiny! I may just try slices or bigger chunks.  They worked out great.
• Zucchini - 4-5 courgettes, 1/4" dice -they looked like shrinky dinks and got way smaller than I expected! These could be added soup, gravy, sauteed with other vegetables. They rehydrated really nicely and were very delicious.
• Sweet potatoes - 3 bigger than a handful each.  These were sliced, steamed and mashed in the ricer before being dehydrated.  Sweet potatoes reabsorb moisture from the air pretty quickly, so I had to run them through the dehydrator a second time and then powdered the mashed dried sweet potato in my Breville blender.  I got a very fine powder which imagined would be used in at least three preparations:
• blending into regular flaked potatoes for mashed potatoes
• rehydrated thickly and sauteed as sweet potato pancakes/latkes
• mixed in with peanut butter and veggies for a soup
• Red bell pepper - 2 large, 1/4" dice & dehydrated (also super shrinky dink!) Bell peppers rehydrate nicely and add great flavor to anything. 

Prepared foods: can't get away entirely without  without using some prepared foods!

• Potato flakes - about two cups store-bought instant organic potato flakes.  Let's face it - mashed potatoes are very satisfying - as mashed potatoes, soup or as soup thickener.  Who needs an excuse here?
• Vegan vegetable bouillion cubes - 2 packages of 8 cubes
• Seaweed: 1 package of wakame - provides sodium, magnesium & calcium
• Roasted black sesame seeds
• Udon noodles
• Rice stick noodles
• Quinoa, black (2 cups dried)
• Maple sugar, granulated (1/2 cup)
• Tofu - home dehydrated 8 oz 1/2" cubed tofu.  It did not rehydrate - not even after soaking for a billion years and being simmered in soup.  It was hard and inedible.  Time for more dried tofu experimentation.
• Lara bars & Bumble bars - 6-8 bars for eating on the plane or in transit or as emergency backup.
• Mixed raw cashews & almonds.

Packing & Storage:
One of the things that I didn't like about all the backcountry cookbooks I read was that they called for a lot of plastic bags.  A lot. Like - pre-measuring out and mixing a ton of things and keeping them separated in a lot of little bags.  Or bringing lots of little plastic condiment packets - or worse - small bottles with tons of liquid condiments. 

Instead, I wanted to just put like ingredients into larger bags - using mostly wax paper bags (compostable or burnable), which I rolled up, secured with rubber bands and put into 3 larger ziploc bags.  I like to use a variety of seasonings and despite any potential weight issue, I don't think I would travel without at least one spice wheel in my pack. 


Pre-Trail Shopping
Depending on how you travel, you may need to pick up a few items! Since I was flying to Kauai, I had to build a list of a few items that I couldn't bring in my carry-on:

• olive oil
• a small knife (which I didn't really need that much)
• coffee (I figured I should just buy local coffee since I would be in Hawaii)
• stove fuel
• 1 pint each of Frangelico & rum - transferred to 16 oz water bottles.  Hey, I was on vacation and a girl's got to be able to doctor her morning decaf coffee once in a while!
  

Backcountry Vegan - Backcountry & Camping Cookbook Reading List

My pre-trip reading list included these books, in no particular order:

• A Fork in the Trail
• Backpack Gourmet
• Freezer Bag Cooking
• Lightweight Backpacking and Camping
• Lip Smackin' Vegetarian Backpackin'
• Lip Smackin' Backpackin'
• Trail Food: Drying And Cooking Food for Backpackers And Paddlers
• Simple Foods for the Pack
• The Well Fed Backpacker 

Reviews coming soon!

Backcountry Vegan!

I've just returned from Maui & Kauai - I went backpacking on the Kalalau Trail.  After reading through a huge pile of backcountry & backpacking cookbooks - I came to the dismal realization that most of them really don't meet my needs or my style of cooking (or sharing!).  I am going to be refining my thoughts on backcountry cooking - focusing on using whole ingredients, prepping with a dehydrator, and cooking quantities based on need (little or very hungry, how many people are sharing?) and available ingredients and other resources.  It seems more of a process than a recipe.  I don't like the idea of schlepping a ton of plastic bags out to the wilderness, "cooking" in plastic bags or hoarding condiment packets.

In the next couple of weeks, I will put together a list of the food that I prepared in advance, what I bought locally, descriptions of some of the meals and what worked.  I'll also be discussing some other ideas I have for vegan, whole foods cooking - that is more like the way you cook at home.  None of this "spread peanut butter on a flour tortilla, roll up, eat" as a recipe -- I'll also write up reviews of the backcountry cookbooks that I read and point you to the single book out of more than half a dozen that I think is worth buying.  So - stay tuned!