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Vegan/Gluten Free Expedition Meal Planning
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Dear all, I tried searching MountainProject for vegan expedition meals. The few suggestions that do show up between dozens of flame posts seem more geared for rock climbers who are at sea level and have access to canned goods or high water weight without having to consider hauling it. My friends and I are headed up Denali in May on an unguided West Buttress trip. For those not familiar, calorie goals are 4000+ per day. Our game plan is to do group dinners most nights for the camaraderie and simplicity. Most of us are garbage disposals, but one is vegan and gluten free. We like her and want to try to accommodate her, at least for some of the group meals. Please, skipping the ethics and the concerns about sanity and fitness on both sides, does anyone have good vegan/GF mountaineering dinner recipes? I'm picturing something we can pre-mix in a ziploc bag and dump into a 5L pot with added water. Minimal water weight, quick cook times, appealing at altitude, tons of calories. If you've done the homework and worked out a rough number of calories too, that'd be great to have. Over the next few months I'll be experimenting and trying to bump this thread with good suggestions. Expect a lot of miso and TVP. Thanks! |
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Look up a recipe for madras lentils by tasty bites. It’s easy to make a version that doesn’t contain butter or cream (their original version was vegan) and pour that over jasmine rice. Both can be packed dehydrated pretty easily. The main thing that will be tough up there is making sure she gets all of her essential amino acids. Easy down here cuz you just eat ungodly amounts of food of variety and you’re there. If she’s a vegan strictly for health reasons, I’d try to talk her into a whey protein shake every day. Doesn’t have the cholesterol or saturated fat that most switch to vegan to avoid, but will get you complete protein. |
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I did all of our menu planning when we did the west buttress in 2012. I once was a vegan and a raw foodie though did not subscribe to those ethics when we did the climb. Quick ideas: instant beans, rice, dried salsa, corn tortillas, cheese and flour tortillas for the less picky eaters. Thai noodles are a super quick/easy dinner. Thai noodle packets are quick, cheap, and easy ~340 cal/serving *2-3. Curried chickpeas and rice, etc, etc. There are so many awesome rice/bean combos that for group meals it makes it easy. I have a spread sheet with all of our menu items that I would be happy to share with a calorie/carb/fat/protein break down. For each item/meal. EX: lentil burritos 3 serving - 2 burrito ea 956 cal 11 fat 93 carb15 protein //2c lentil + 1/2 c dry veg///1T garlic+ 1t cayenne//6 tortillas + 2C instant rice/////soak lentils & veg @ lunch, boil 10 min Hope this helps! |
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Red lentils and a variety of curry powders work really well for me. Unlike most beans and lentils, red lentils cook really fast (10 mins max). They also pack a whole lot of proteins. Instant brown rice and dehydrated mushrooms will help you balance the amino acids profile. You could also play with besan flour, which will cook faster than whole chickpeas and also pack a lot of proteins. |
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Except those beans are going to poop out like crazy at the higher altitude. To add calories to everything I take a flask of olive oil and a bag of some type of vegetable protein powder. Also plan your own protein for capitulation. Last vegan my friend guided ate 5 full chicken breasts on day 3. True, not an exaggeration. |
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It's heavy but coconut oil adds a ton of calories, good flavor, and fats to keep you warm. We hauled on an expedition and dumped it in everything from oatmeal to dehydrated meals. |
chris_vultaggio wrote: Do you think my username is fictitious? Too much fat at too high of elevation can be really hard on your baselayers if you know what I mean. For vegan, what about a protein/meal powder. Huel comes to mind. Could probably live off it indefinitely. I don't know what it tastes like. |
highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote: I did fine at 20k in Nepal with copious amounts - every system is different. |
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HAFE is a real thing. For those alluding to diarrhea though, I’ve found that the opposite is the case for me at high altitude. Backpackers Pantry has a ton of vegan options. You can buy a few #10 cans, or just take inspiration from them. |
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I have a spreadsheet from a "gluten-free," vegetarian (NOT vegan), 8 week expedition I'd be happy to share, including calories, vitamins, and minerals, etc. I put "gluten-free" in quotes because I mean "contains no gluten ingredients"--your friend may require stricter restrictions to avoid contamination. The staples were quinoa (much better nutritionally than rice), bean-based soups from, e.g., Mary Jane's Farm, cheese (I know some have trouble with fat at altitude, but I need it), and Mary's Gone Crackers Superseed Classic crackers (bulky but worth it--they're dry so some fatty supplement like cheese is needed), supplemented with chewable multivitamins. Also BP Kathmandu Curry with cheese added. Desserts include Mi-del gluten-free ginger snaps with nutella---mmmm, and snacks include Tripp's Farm primal bars. I include brand names because I spent a lot of time looking for good stuff, and some of this you can't find easily without knowing the brand name. There are two keys to cooking quinoa/bean-based meals on expedition: try to get a partially pre-cooked then dried quinoa. (Outdoor Herbivore was the only source I found last summer) Also, make a pot cozy for your pot (as explained at, e.g., http://blackwoodspress.com/blog/6582/ultralight-backpacking-pot-cozy/): bring everything to a boil for about a minute and then put it in the pot cozy to sit while you do other camp chores. Bring it to a boil again at some point to keep it hot. It hydrates while it's sitting in the cozy, so you really save on fuel weight. This food/strategy has worked well for me up to 10,000ft. I haven't done high-altitude mountaineering since going gluten-free, and I'm very hard-pressed to think of appetizing faster-cook gluten-free options for the cold of Denali 17.000ft. Potato flakes are fast and gf as is gluten-free instant oatmeal. Good luck and have fun! |
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Bob's Red Mill has a vegan instant potato option that's not bad, add some olive oil or other fat to increase the kcal. For protein I really like Vega products, Costco carries (most locations I've been to) the Protein and Greens mix which is pretty tasty and high quality. Many health foot stores sell bulk split pea soup mix that's often vegan and gf. Another good option for backcountry vegans is TVP, check out some of the vegan sloppy joe recipes. I have found tomato paste in a tube that's lightweight enough, plus dried TVP and whatever else you want to add to some sloppies. Instant steel cut oats are a favorite of mine in the BC. There are ton of vegan GF pasta options on the market now. Many are pretty fast to cook even, along the lines of couscous as far as time on the burner goes. Chickpea based, rice based, etc. |
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http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web17c/ms-good-to-go-backcountry-meals Alpinist covered a brand that makes a lot of vegan meals, Good to Go. This may be your only shot. Backpacker's Pantry is way too salty and will get old after a week or two. I would consider reading this site: http://www.backpackingchef.com/ for ideas for making your own. Having a group meal with Vegan/GF only options is going to make all the non-vegans in your group miserable on the West Buttress. Don't forget something to flavor the melted snow you'll be consuming for a month. That goes a long way in helping your appetite. |
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I've done 5-day trips with a 4-5k daily calorie intake. The big secret is getting a $20 dehydrator online. Big picture planning: I do 2 big meals (at 1.5k each): one in the morning (usually 5am) and one at night (usually 5 pm). The remaining calories come from snacks (2 snack breaks, 500 calories each). I think the common approach is 1-2lb of food per day, so if you're under that, it's all good. In the winter you can carry more since you'd probably be melting snow anyways. Meal planning: - Nuts and dried fruit are the lowest weight/highest calorie option. One pound is about 4k calories. I eat about 1k calories of this for breakfast. Dried fruit is good for instant energy. Nuts are good for fat/warmth. Brazil nuts are high in calories. This should be the bulk of your weight. - Oatmeal. I do about 500 calories of this every morning. It's light. Tastes good with nuts and dried fruit. Just add boiling water. I've also done trips with about 4 lbs of oatmeal, where I eat just under a lb a day. - Chocolate/cookies/bars/powders. Not the healthiest options, but oreos are vegan, and so are (some) pop-tarts. They also don't freeze. So there's that! Good snack food, cause you'll be sick and tired of nuts and fruits. High-calorie energy and protein bars are good. I also take dried sports powders to add 1-2 hundred calories here and there to my water. - Dehydrated meals. These are 1.5k calories of carb+vegetable protein. Usually ...for nights. Sometimes, as snacks. I do about 1k calories in straight up carbs (rice, noodles, quinoa), and 500 calories in beans (black, red, fava, edamame, lentils). Forget tofu, it's not the best for dehydrating. Spice accordingly. NOTE: You will need a lot of minerals if you've been hiking for a long time. Your salt needs after a 12 hour climb/hike are way different than your regular daily needs. So if you test your meals under non-hiking conditions, and measure spices based on taste, you'll end up under-salting and under-spicing everything. Instead, you should definitely go overboard on spices and salt on at least one of your meals. Either the nuts, or the dehydrated dinners. Oversalting both can make you retain too much water (you'll be colder, your fingers and face will be swollen, etc), so there's definitely some trial and error here. |
chris_vultaggio wrote: I did fine up to 22k in Peru too. Not sure at what altitude it starts giving problems. Probably more of a concern in the Himalaya where you would be over 20k for a long time. |
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For the JMT and other Sierra multi-day adventures, some of my meals were based on the dehydrated lentil soup and black bean soup available in the bulk bins at my local health food store. You need to add lots of salt and seasoning, along with dehydrated or freeze dried veggies to make it taste good (you can buy Just Veggies brand or Backpacking Chef or dehydrate yourself). You can pre-package each meal in ziplocks and rehydrate and eat right from the ziplock, saving you washing a pot. I also made and then dehydrated a white bean/quinoa stew that was pretty good. Carnivores can add salami before eating, and vegans can add protein powder. A squirt of olive oil also helps. You can also get dehydrated coconut milk, which can form a nice base for a curry. I do it with ramen noodles, but you could find a rice-based noodle that rehydrates quick for the GF person. |
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Although geared towards backpacking, Another Fork in the Trail cookbook has tons of gluten free vegan ideas that you can pre mix or pre make then dehydrate. |
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i'm just gonna leave this here: http://time.com/4344556/mount-everest-death-climbing-vegan/ |
jleining wrote: Buying ice cream makes murders more likely too. Maybe we should just eat coconut milk ice cream instead. |
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Mary Jane's Outpost is a great option, but can get pricey. I think they sell in bulk online. |
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One of my favorite meals is curry rice made with Minute Rice, raisins, and cashews. Recipe: https://www.bearplate.com/vegan-backpacking-curry-rice/ |
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I've found that approaching meals from a "calorie per oz" standpoint works just as well as a vegan as it did before, with the weight being about the same. The fatty stuff doesn't need to be dry to be efficient right? peanut butter being a delicious example... Love adding olive oil to dehydrated meals. Also, fwiw steatorrhea is pretty unlikely when you are burning that many calories ;) |
