Hiking Meals: Simple Breakfasts, Lunches and Dinners

The best hiking meals are simple, quick, and built from a few dry staples you can mix and match: oats in the morning, tortilla wraps at lunch, and a hot one-pot dinner of couscous, instant potato or noodles with oil and a protein pouch. This guide gives you a set of reliable hiking meals with ingredients, approximate calories and protein, and the reasoning behind each choice.

Values are approximate, from typical labels and USDA FoodData Central reference data. Check your own products.

How big should each meal be?

If you're planning around 3,000 kcal a day, the trail meal planner splits it like this by default:

The meals below are designed around those targets, but you can scale any of them.

Hiking breakfasts

1. Peanut butter oats (hot or cold)

Add hot water for porridge, or cold water the night before for overnight oats.

2. Breakfast tortillas

Two large tortillas with 32 g peanut butter and 20 g honey: about 600 kcal. No water, no washing up. Good for early starts.

3. Granola with milk powder

80 g granola, 30 g milk powder and cold water: about 500 kcal. Add a scoop of protein powder for extra protein.

Hiking lunches

4. Cheese and salami wraps

Add a handful of nuts to reach the 600 kcal lunch target.

5. Tuna crackers

A 75 g tuna pouch, a mayonnaise sachet and 40 g crackers: about 400 kcal and 20+ g protein, depending on products.

6. Hummus wraps

Hummus powder mixed with water and a little olive oil, spread on tortillas with sun-dried tomatoes. It's a good vegetarian lunch that keeps well.

Hiking dinners

7. Couscous with tuna and olive oil

Pour on boiling water, cover and wait about five minutes. Add a handful of dried vegetables or fried onions for texture, and a second oil sachet to approach 650 kcal.

8. Cheesy mashed potato with salami

60 g instant potato flakes, 30 g grated hard cheese, 30 g salami chopped in, and an olive oil sachet: about 650 kcal. Rich, salty and very welcome on a cold evening.

9. Peanut noodles

A block of instant noodles (about 85 g) cooked with half its seasoning, then stirred with a 32 g peanut butter sachet and a soy sauce sachet: about 600 kcal.

10. Commercial dehydrated meal plus extras

Many commercial meals fall around 500 to 650 kcal per pouch. Adding olive oil, cheese or a protein pouch closes the gap to your dinner target.

Hiking meals for special diets

Vegetarian

Swap salami for extra cheese or smoked tofu (eat it early), and tuna for dehydrated beans, roasted chickpeas or a soy-based protein. Peanut butter, seeds and milk powder carry a lot of protein. Couscous with dehydrated refried beans, cheese and hot sauce makes a filling dinner.

Vegan

Use soy or pea milk powder, nut butters, seeds, hummus powder, dehydrated beans and textured vegetable protein (TVP), which rehydrates quickly in hot water. Olive oil and coconut oil keep calories high.

Gluten-free

Replace couscous and tortillas with instant rice, instant potato, rice noodles, corn tortillas and gluten-free oats. Check labels on seasonings and stock cubes.

Lower sugar

Lean on nuts, seeds, cheese and savoury dinners, and use unsweetened milk powder and plain oats with spices.

If you have a medical reason for a special diet, plan with your doctor or dietitian. These are just practical swaps.

A two-pot-free approach: freezer-bag cooking

Many hikers avoid washing up by "freezer-bag cooking":

1. Pre-mix dry ingredients at home in a heat-safe, food-grade freezer bag.
2. On the trail, boil water and pour it straight into the bag.
3. Seal it and wrap it in a jacket or an insulated pouch ("cozy") for 5 to 15 minutes.
4. Eat from the bag with a long-handled spoon.
5. Seal the empty bag and pack it out.

Only the pot used to boil water gets wet. Check that your bags are rated for hot food, and be careful handling hot liquid.

Building your own hiking meals

Use this simple formula to invent new trail dinners:

Pick one from each row, and test it at home. Most combinations land between 500 and 800 kcal. The calorie density checker shows how dense your creation is.

Making hiking meals more filling

• Add fat. One 15 ml oil sachet adds about 120 kcal and weighs about 14 g.
• Add protein. A tuna, salmon or chicken pouch, cheese or milk powder.
• Add texture. Crushed crackers, fried onions, nuts.
• Season boldly. Hot sauce, curry powder, garlic powder, chilli flakes.

Prep at home

1. Pre-mix dry ingredients for each meal in labelled zip bags. Write the water amount on the bag.
2. Test every meal at home, including water amounts and soak times.
3. Pack oil sachets separately so they don't leak.
4. Bag by day so each day's meals are together.

Hot vs cold hiking meals

If you're considering going stoveless, read no-cook backpacking meals.

Water for meals

Most rehydrated dinners need 250 to 400 ml of water, and oats around 200 to 250 ml. Count this in your water planning, especially on dry stretches. The water carry calculator handles drinking water. Add meal water on top.

A sample hiking day from these meals

Check the total weight with the food weight calculator, and design your trail mix with the trail mix builder.

Cleaning up after hiking meals

Wash pots and spoons at least 60 metres (about 200 feet) from lakes and streams, which is a commonly cited Leave No Trace distance, using a small amount of water and no soap or biodegradable soap only. Strain food bits out and pack them out with your rubbish. Scatter the grey water widely. Licking the pot clean first is an old hiker trick for good reason.

Hiking meals and morale

A good meal at the end of a hard day does more than refuel you. It lifts your mood, warms you up and marks the end of the day's effort. That's worth some weight. Many experienced hikers carry one "treat" item per day, like a favourite chocolate bar, a packet of real coffee or a small bag of crisps, even though it isn't the most efficient food. If a treat makes you more likely to eat well, it's earning its place.

Mistakes to avoid

1. Dinners that are too small. Many commercial meals are under 600 kcal. Add fat or protein.
2. Forgetting salt. Trail meals taste better with more seasoning than you'd use at home.
3. Untested soak times. Undercooked couscous or crunchy noodles are a let-down.
4. Same meal every day. Rotate at least two or three dinners.

Sources: nutrition values are approximate, from typical product labels and USDA FoodData Central reference entries.