Vegetarian, gluten free freeze dried camping meals

[Woody girl]

I have been looking at these, and they seem to be very expensive. Having never tried them, I don't want to pay out loads of dosh if they are not too good, so I wondered if anyone else has tried any, and can recommend any particular meals or brands, particularly any that are not chilli or curry, as I'm not keen on those meals at all.
Price is also a consideration, as I'd like to bulk buy a few , as getting to shops is problematic at the moment. Any places that do deals or are cheaper than others for the same brands, and most important, I have to be able to phone the shop or Company to order, as I don't order online.
I'm sure that there are some here who have to eat gluten free, so I'm appealing to the collective wisdom here.
I'm also happy to eat meat meals, but try to be as vegetarian as possible, so if a meat meal is particularly good, I'd be ok with that too.
I do make up some dehydrated meals at home, but its a lot of work, and my repotoir is pretty limited.
Thanks.

 

[nigelp]

I eat the Summit to Eat vegetarian meals. They are very good, tasty and not too expensive. Not sure if they are gluten free?

 

[Woody girl]

I eat the Summit to Eat vegetarian meals. They are very good, tasty and not too expensive. Not sure if they are gluten free?

Looked at those, and most are chilli or curry and all have wheat, at least the ones I looked at have.
I bought some other brand from a shop by phone, and believe it or not, the veg fried rice had wheat in!
I've made that at home since the mid seventies, and never once used any wheat in the preparation and execution of the meal... why do they need to put wheat in a meal that was never designed to have wheat in?
Disappointed.
That's why I'm appealing for help to track down some decent meals that don't have wheat in . I can manage oats but wheat makes for the sort of problems you don't want on the trail.

 

[stevec]

Tent meals sell the hard to get components so you can make your own stuff up. Things like cooked dried rice, tomato powder. Dried mushroom and spices easy enough to get from shops. Might be worth looking at.

 

[Robson Valley]

Don't ignore corn (Zea mays) as a non gluten grain. We have 3 distinctly different corn products: corn meal, corn flour and corn starch. I can make all kinds of Tex-Mex foods with corn meal and corn flour.

Quinoa is another alternative with better nutritional values that any other grain.
It cooks up just like rice. I have quinoa cookbooks to make just about anything I can make with wheat.

Bulgur taste really good to me. Love Tabbouleh on leaves from my own grape vines.

I'll do these for the benefit of others at my table. I have a gluten addiction. Damn difficult to finish any meal without sneaking a slice of my own wheat bread into it.

 

[Woody girl]

I do miss real wheat bread, more than anything, but its the putting of wheat in everything that realy doesn't need it that tees me off.
Makes life difficult .

 

[Robson Valley]

McIlhenny (the Tabasco sauce people) have a pretty good online cook book that they used to sell paperback (Now you know how old I am.)
The corn meal and corn flour recipes taste "right" to me, I like corn about as much as I like wheat. Funny but that's bread wheat (Group III) not the Group II pasta wheats.

Skillet cornbread, hot out of the oven with butter and Crosby's Fancy molasses.

 

[lou1661]

Fire pot do a GF range https://www.firepotfood.com/collections/firepot-dehydrated-meals/gluten-free

 

[crosslandkelly]

OOF! Looking at the prices of gluten free meals, I think it would be wiser to invest in a dehydrator and reusable food bags. IMOHO

 

[fingertrouble]

Don't ignore corn (Zea mays) as a non gluten grain. We have 3 distinctly different corn products: corn meal, corn flour and corn starch. I can make all kinds of Tex-Mex foods with corn meal and corn flour.

Quinoa is another alternative with better nutritional values that any other grain.
It cooks up just like rice. I have quinoa cookbooks to make just about anything I can make with wheat.

Bulgur taste really good to me. Love Tabbouleh on leaves from my own grape vines.

I'll do these for the benefit of others at my table. I have a gluten addiction. Damn difficult to finish any meal without sneaking a slice of my own wheat bread into it.

Bulgur isn't gluten free btw....just so you know. Neither is Rye or Spelt. As the OP says, oats have to be GF, I can stand normal oats a little, as I can wheat but over the tipping point - ugh.

(GF sensitive IBS victim, I found out the hard way!).

P.S. really interested in this thread since I'm about to do another trip where I cook, and my diet is not only odd but complicated by gluten issues...although I'm the reverse, I don't eat many veg.

 

[fingertrouble]

Tent meals sell the hard to get components so you can make your own stuff up. Things like cooked dried rice, tomato powder. Dried mushroom and spices easy enough to get from shops. Might be worth looking at.

Tomato powder? Isn't that basically Tomato Cup-a-soup? ;-)

One trip aeons ago I had these liquid soup things, like soup pouches but concentrated. Not sure they make them anymore. Dried mushrooms is a good call.

 

[Robson Valley]

Dry your own foods. Every autumn, I get to buy a 25 lb box of field-ripened Roma tomatoes. I cut them in halves and dry, takes about 36 hrs at +52C. Chop those for pasta/quinoa. Looks good until you realize that you just put 20 tomatoes in the pot!

Don't ignore Zea mays as a non-gluten grain. Skillet corn bread and Crosby's fancy Molasses. Also Quinoa. They are vastly superior if you need to depend upon them for basic nutrition. Look them up in McGee.

 

[fingertrouble]

Dry your own foods. Every autumn, I get to buy a 25 lb box of field-ripened Roma tomatoes. I cut them in halves and dry, takes about 36 hrs at +52C. Chop those for pasta/quinoa. Looks good until you realize that you just put 20 tomatoes in the pot!

Don't ignore Zea mays as a non-gluten grain. Skillet corn bread and Crosby's fancy Molasses. Also Quinoa. They are vastly superior if you need to depend upon them for basic nutrition. Look them up in McGee.

Dry your own foods in what? I'm guessing a food dehydrator....which are rather pricey themselves!

I eat a lot of rice. Quinoa I cannot stand, and also not happy about the local effect it had in South America - trendy pricing it out of reach of the locals, where it was a staple food.

Also Zea Mays - you mean corn? Again I use it where I can, but you're obviously in the States.

Corn flour aka corn meal - not what we call cornflour (long story, we have the french cornflour here which is different, you call it corn starch) is actually really hard to find in the UK. I always wanted to make cornbread, but it's far from easy to find.

Then you have the problem of making buttermilk... :-/ And then that I refuse to cook with eggs (not vegan but I really hate the smell), and then it all becomes a bit too hard. Shame cos I love cornbread, but you cannot buy it here. At all.

 

[Robson Valley]

We have three very different Zea mays corn products. We call them what they are:

1. Corn meal. Wonderful for polenta and baking corn breads and so on.
Friends don't let friends buy corn bread. That's dreadful. DIY in minutes.
Check the online cookbook in the Tabasco website for a civilized recipe.

2. Corn flour. Common to all DF batters and pancake mixes since the starch does not hydrate easily and coatings stay crispy for much longer. Look in the East Indian section of a big grocery store.

3. Corn starch. Gels easily as a thickener.
= = =
Although bitter in high %%%, do you eat buckwheat? I use 20% in many flours in recipes for the little "bite" that it adds.

 

[EdS]

Corn flour as flour for making things isn't so hard to get in the UK. Guess it depends where you are.

Gram flour is readily available and gluten free. Makes excellent chapattis

 

[fingertrouble]

Corn flour as flour for making things isn't so hard to get in the UK. Guess it depends where you are.

Gram flour is readily available and gluten free. Makes excellent chapattis

That's corn starch, the white fluffy stuff?

Corn meal I could only ever find in specialist big Asdas.

 

[fingertrouble]

We have three very different Zea mays corn products. We call them what they are:

1. Corn meal. Wonderful for polenta and baking corn breads and so on.
Friends don't let friends buy corn bread. That's dreadful. DIY in minutes.
Check the online cookbook in the Tabasco website for a civilized recipe.

2. Corn flour. Common to all DF batters and pancake mixes since the starch does not hydrate easily and coatings stay crispy for much longer. Look in the East Indian section of a big grocery store.

3. Corn starch. Gels easily as a thickener.
= = =
Although bitter in high %%%, do you eat buckwheat? I use 20% in many flours in recipes for the little "bite" that it adds.

I do eat buckwheat, I have buckwheat noodles in the pantry. Problem is a lot of ramen SHOULD be buckwheat since wheat isn't a traditional thing in Japan or China, but recent versions even Japanese ones now tend to use wheat, annoyingly. Proper traditional ramen: 100% buckwheat.

I am a lucky since the highest proportion of Koreans outside Korea live here (if you watch a certain TV show you know where that is, and no it's not US or Canada, UK!) and it means we are awash with great Asian import stores. They have the proper ramen (or the corn varieties - the Chinese ones are super cheap)

 

[Robson Valley]

I was imprinted on corn (Zea mays) as a little kid. I like corn in all forms. Corn bread and Crosby's fancy Molasses (straight cane) is a meal for me. I make my own tortillas when I get really craving.

I'm an omnivore. My teeth and my guts show 5,000,000 years of adaptations to that.

 

[EdS]

That's corn starch, the white fluffy stuff?

Corn meal I could only ever find in specialist big Asdas.

Maize flour rather than corn starch.

Seems to common in the supermarket round Bradford

 

[Woody girl]

I forgot all about this post, I'm still looking, as I still haven't found much that is gluten free, unless it's priced well out of my range.
I'm wondering if there are gluten free army rations, they seem to cater for vegetarian and halal, and there must be gluten intolerant soldiers, if so, where would I get them?