The Lustful Vegan

Wow, it’s been a quiet few weeks. It’s my own fault really — I managed to bruise the tendons in my wrist while canoe camping, and it’s only just getting solid enough to type with. Trust me — bruised tendons are a pain in more than just the hand.

Hopefully it’ll recover quickly, because with any luck August will be all about camping. I have tentative plans for no less than three trips of varying lengths, including a solo trip in just a couple weeks time. In anticipation I’ve started looking at lightweight vegan camp foods — the kind of thing you can carry for a week without throwing out your back, and still find tasty and filling after a long day.

There are lots of backpacker meals on the market, but not all that many good vegan ones. They also tend to be pricey. Last year I invested in a Harmony House Backpacker Kit, which is basically a collection of dried beans and vegetables. These proved useful for an extended multi-person trip — we could pretend we had a fridge full of veggies at our disposal, reduced to a dozen or so little packages of the dried stuff. For solo tripping, though, where I’m carrying everything myself, I decided this wasn’t the way to go. Premade meals are more efficient — I only want to carry what I need.

So back to those prepackaged meals. A couple years ago I tried some Mary Janes Farm meals for bike camping trips. They were decent, with the exception of their instant salsa, which was exceptional. (Sadly they seem to no longer seem to sell this.) The serving sizes are not huge, but you can buy individual servings (which is great for solo trippers). The pasta dishes they offer are veg but not vegan, but the couscous dishes are a major score — all are vegan except the Northwest Garden Couscous. Similarly we can satisfy ourselves with all their ‘ethnic ‘dishes (those seem everyday to me!) except the polenta, which puts falafel and hummus and suchlike on the menu. That’s by no means all, there are soups and rice dishes and more too. Compared to other instant meal manufacturers, MJF offers quite a lot of vegan options.

This week I discovered that Harvest Foodworks also offers quite a few vegan entrees — over a half dozen, with additional variations on things like their veggie burgers. (Though why on earth do they list beef burgers on their vegetarian entree page?!) Whether you can find them in a local store is another question. Mine only had one, the Cajun Beans & Rice. A taste test surprised me. I’m used to bland meals, but these were quite tasty (if a bit salty). It was good straight out of the pan, and downright satisfying after stirring in a small packet of hot sauce scavenged from a local fast food restaurant. My only complaint is that the smallest packages contain enough for two very hearty servings, which means solo trippers will need to carefully measure and split the contents to create individual servings. Also, even after allowing the full recommended cooking and sitting time, the rice and beans were more stew-like than I’d expected. They made a yummy stew, but didn’t soak up all the extra moisture for a good hour or more (the leftovers were perfect in the morning). All told I’d certainly give them another try, especially their more unique offerings like insta-bannock, as well as powdered shortening and apple sauce. (Nifty!)

Not all the options out there are good though. Scavenging for options last fall, I found Hothuck’s Bombay Curry. Admittedly it’s meant to be ‘enhanced’ by adding some veggies or rice, but it was still a huge disappointment — tasteless, with an unpleasant texture. I actually threw mine out.

So what am I planning to pack for upcoming trips? Probably none of the above, because last night I found an even better resource — Bulk Barn. This is a Canadian chain, concentrated mostly in Ontario and along the east coast. I’m sure there are equivalents elsewhere though. Basically it’s a bulk food store, with bins and bins of baking supplies and dried fruit and nuts and beans and the like. I gave myself five minutes there last night, and walked out with pea soup, thai soup, chili, tabbouleh, and mixed grain mix. All vegan, all of the just-add-water variety. For around $10 I emerged with around 10 individual servings — definitely the cheapest option. They may not be as well-rounded nutritionally as dedicated backpacker meals, but I suspect they’ll do very well indeed after adding some dried veggies and seasonings, and maybe instant rice or quinoa. Certainly the pea soup was tasty and filling. I just combined 1/2 cup of the mix with 3T quinoa flakes, 1/2T dried chives, 1T fake bacon bits, and 1/4 tsp smoked paprika.

Camp mix: Instant pea soup

Also on the list of things to try and come up with in the next couple weeks: Instant salsa, instant congee, good granola bars, and tasty ‘energy balls’ (a yummy raw treat). Life won’t be dull.