So he is actually my neighbor now, and we are friends again- after 10 years and lots of life changes. He came to California ready to explore, and had never been to the Sierra, so we jumped at the opportunity to be there for his first experience. I was lucky enough to get us permits to Little Lakes Valley, which is beautiful and (usually) a very accessible hike that too many people are on for me to be interested. There was SOO much snow this time, though, that it kept a lot of the crowds away. Hiking across miles of sun cups (little cups in the snow everywhere that you either have to balance on the rim of or fall into, twisting an ankle) was tiring, but it was gorgeous. We explored the whole basin and camped next to one of the only unfrozen lakes.

We spent the night before the backcountry portion of the trip car camping as usual, and cooked up this quick and easy Italian Orzo Soup. It was a nice warming dish that was very easy to execute after a day of traveling and planning backpacking logistics. I highly recommend it by the campfire.

One little note: the logistics of both car camping and backpacking in the same trip are tricky, especially in bear country. We always think about being minimalist and lightweight with our backpacking food, but are luxurious with car camping food, thinking it doesn’t matter. Our cooler didn’t fit in the bear locker at the trail head this time, so we had to scramble to figure out how to store it all in a bin and bags to fit inside the lockers instead. It is very important not to leave food in the car, so plan accordingly.

Aside from veganizing it, there are a couple of other things I wanted to change about the recipe. First, in the original recipe, we called for canned or frozen corn. That still works fine, but with the abundance of corn in summer, I opted to use fresh. It’s worth the effort to grill it and then cut it off the cob for some smoky flavor. Second, this is a great recipe to make entirely on the campfire. Grill the veggies on the fire and then cook the soup in a dutch oven instead of on your camp stove (of course you still can just use your camp stove though!).

Instead of sour cream, I used cashew cream that I made ahead of time at home. This thickens the soup beautifully and makes it rich and satisfying. You can substitute 1 cup of vegan sour cream if you don’t want to make the cashew cream.

Food is usually tricky on our weekend trips. Different friends show up at different times throughout the weekend, so most expect to just cook for themselves. We have food all over the place, all the time. We still end up sharing a lot of it, so we finally thought to change the process last week. Everyone was responsible for one complete meal. Each meal was easy, and everyone only had to be responsible for one meal’s worth of prep and cleanup. And it was BYO plates and sporks. I was in charge of a camping dinner, which I was able to prepare almost completely at home, and just reheat in a dutch oven over the campfire. On a cold night under the stars, there’s nothing better than a hearty soup like this albondigas.

Soup is hard to impress. It usually tastes fine, but just that. At least my soup. So lucky for you, this is Wes’s. This soup is hearty, but ends with a burst of zippy freshness from lime and cilantro. Spicy chipotle keeps your belly warm long after your bowl has been inhaled. Crispy chips and melty meatballs help complete a truly perfect balance of flavor and texture. I really love this soup.

You can make this soup at camp, but I recommend preparing it at home sometime during the week, and finishing it off in a dutch oven the night you arrive. We like to make open-faced quesadillas to go with the soup. Go ahead and fry them cheese-side down. My method: lay the cheese in the pan first, then top it with a tortilla. Flip once the cheese is crispy. These aren’t as pretty as you’ll want them to be, but they are extremely tasty, and act as a sort of handheld crouton. This is a great recipe to share, so plan an adventure with your friends soon!

I’m one of those people. Instant ramen was probably the first thing I ever made for myself as a kid. The first iteration was dry, with the noodles all crumbled in the bag with the seasoning poured on top. I eventually graduated to the full soup version and even learned to doctor it up over the years.

This Cheese Mountain Ramen is a grown-up backpacking version of instant noodles influenced by the consumption of many bowls of delicious non-instant ramen. The base is what you would find in any instant noodle packet at the store, but we’ve added Sweet and Spicy Beef Jerky from Mountain America Jerky, peas and most importantly a mountain of Parmesan cheese.

It sounds strange, but it really works! The cheese adds another flavor profile to the soup and gets all melty and gooey with the noodles. Our friend and photographer Ryan (who took the beautiful photo of the dish) gave it two thumbs up and said he’d definitely eat it again.Good news is – these are things you might already be bringing for your backpacking trip, so it isn’t a big stretch to try this out.

To make it more palatable for those with delicate taste buds, ditch the seasoning packet and make your own. I’m still working on my magic seasoning potion but some ingredient suggestions include powdered miso, bouillon cubes and dried herbs. If you are adventurous – perhaps some Japanese Bonito Flakes?

If you aren’t yet convinced – start with our Not Your Average Ramen recipe and work your way up to this one. Your personal favorite doctored up ramen ideas are most welcome.

Thank you to Chuck at Mountain America Jerky for the free jerky samples!

To help feed you on your upcoming trips, we adapted our car camping tortilla soup so you can make a tasty and lightweight backpacking version. It’s only 9 ingredients, fits into a small ziplock bag and uses 2 cups of water. The revelation here is tomato powder. It’s basically dehydrated tomatoes in powder form and it tastes really good. We are planning to try it out in more backpacking recipes.

We were so excited about this recipe that we even demoed it at A16 in West Los Angeles last week where we gave a fun talk about Gourmet Cooking for Hikers and Campers. Yep, you read it right, we fed people backpacking food. And they liked it! That’s a good measure of a backpacking recipe if it tastes good even when you aren’t borderline hangry and tired from hiking all day long with a heavy pack on.

Emily is on a trail right now somewhere in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We hope you are on your way to a fabulous adventure this weekend as well. Cheers!

For the purists out there, I should specify that this Spicy Korean Lentil soup is not really Korean, but rather is influenced by the flavors of this cuisine.

This Spicy Korean Lentil soup has some real heat to it. It’s a peppery-slow-heat-in-the-back-of-the-throat kinda kick that decreases as your meal progresses. One interesting anecdote: I served it with rice and after each bite of rice, the heat factor came back! It’s like the rice cleansed our palates, and resensitized our taste buds to the spiciness.

I came up with this Coconut Curry Soup and it was good enough that I actually made it for lunch at home several times since – not something I can say about most backpacking recipes. The coconut cream powder is a little hard to find, but it’s definitely worth seeking out. You can find it in some Asian grocery stores and, of course, online.

I should meditate. That’s supposed to be a part of this detox plan. I’m not good at it though. I can sit still, and I can focus on nothing, but I’m not good at focusing on the present. I’m still always waiting for the end. Can you meditate with your eyes open? Does it count if you notice the birds and the wind and the sweet sleepy sounds of your boys? If it did I’d probably do it more often. Maybe I’ll do that now anyway, as I wait for sleep to get me. Its got to at least be a step in the right direction. Its fun to be in health mode, because you don’t have to focus so much on what you need to improve. You can just focus on how satisfied you feel. This soup was the first satisfying thing I’ve eaten since I started this new get healthy thing.

We cook a lot of vegetarian dishes for Dirty Gourmet, in part because we believe in that way of eating, but also because its just too difficult to deal with meat in many camping situations, due to refrigeration and handling issues. We believe that food should be easy, wonderful, and sharable. There are plenty of meat and dairy free meals that fit within this category, and would satisfy anyone regardless of diet.

A few things to keep in mind:

1. Vegetarian usually means not eating meat (or anything with a mom), but vegetarians are usually ok with dairy and eggs.
2. Pescatarians include fish in their diets, but not other types of meat. They usually eat dairy as well.
3. Vegans do not eat or use any animal products whatsoever. There are, of course, different levels of strictness for each individual, but generally no meat, dairy, eggs, leather, down, etc. Some go as far as including things like honey or wine (which is often clarified using animal products), but
   some don’t.

It’s best to just ask which rules the individual adheres to. Many people who take a stance with a strict diet are very willing to discuss it, especially if there aren’t a bunch of cheesy (or meaty) jokes involved in the conversation.

There are a growing number of options available to make restrictive diets easier for people to handle, such as soy cheeses and meat substitutes, but you can create a balanced and satisfying meal without these things as well. Here is one option that we ate on our backpacking trip last weekend that is as easy as it gets, and totally satisfying. If you have any questions or concerns that you haven’t been able to resolve regarding anything food related, let us know. We want to cover topics like these in more detail to dispel, any stereotypes and encourage people to try new things. We’ll cover these topics in the next few weeks along with delicious vegan recipes.