Vegan TVP tacos are the perfect backpacking dinner. They are easy to make, packed with flavor, lightweight, and budget-friendly.
Why Make Your Own Backpacking Meal?
Relying on premade freeze-dried backpacking meals can be expensive and limit the kind of food you can bring. While there are many amazing vegan options available they may be hard to find or contain ingredients you want to avoid. Furthermore, m
Making your own backpacking food is incredibly easy and gives you total control over the

How To Make Your Own Backpacking Meals
There are a few things to consider when you’re planning your meal:
Food Weight And Volume
Since you’ll be carrying all of your food on your trip weight and size are things you want to keep in mind. The length of your trip and your own personal preferences will impact this. For short trips, you could bring heavier and bulkier items like canned food or fresh produce, but for longer
Calories
Calories are your body’s fuel. While you’re backpacking you will be burning a lot of calories and therefore you’ll need to consume a lot. When on the trail I shoot for a minimum of 3,000 calories a day! To keep the weight down look for calorie-dense food or increase the calories by adding extra oil or sugar to your meals.
Equipment
Keep in mind all of the equipment that you’ll need to prepare your food. If you plan on cooking not only will you need a stove and fuel, you’ll also need things like pots, skillets, and utensils and items to clean them after each use.
Fuel
Foods that take little to no fuel to prepare are ideal since longer cooking times will require to pack more fuel. Dried beans would be a very light-weight and compact food. However, due to their long cooking time they would require too much fuel to make an ideal backpacking food.
Packablity
In addition to weight and nutritional considerations backpacking food needs to physically withstand being transported without being broken or squished. Sturdy food like tortillas is a better option than a delicate food like bread.

What Is TVP?
TVP stands for textured vegetable protein. It’s derived from soy and is sometimes also called isolated soy protein and is sold as dry flavorless granules. Once rehydrated, it has a texture similar to that of ground beef and works well for recipes like tacos and chili.
TVP makes a pretty good backpacking meal since it’s light-weight, versatile, and easy to prepare. It can be cooked by simply adding boiling water to a freezer bag with the mixture and allowing it to rehydrate for about ten minutes. This is known as the freezer bag method, preparing food with this system cuts down on both fuel and equipment since the only thing you’ll need is a kettle. The downside is that it’s a pretty low-calorie food.
TVP is available at health food stores, some grocery stores, and online
Make these TVP tacos into a full meal by serving on tortillas or over Minute Rice.

For more vegan backpacking resources check out Vegan Backpacking Guide, Vegan Backpacking Curry Rice, and Vegan Backpacking Gear.
Print
Vegan TVP Tacos
- Prep Time: 1 min
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 16 mins
- Yield: 4 Tacos 1x
- Category: dinner
- Method: freezer bag
- Cuisine: Vegan | Gluten-free
Description
Incredibly fast vegan backpacking tacos made from TVP and dried spices.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup TVP
- 1/2 tbsp chili powder
- 3/4 tsp garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp dried chopped onions
- 3/4 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/4 tsp dried oregano
- 1/4 tsp dried cilantro
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup boiling water
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a large bowl and wait 10 mins or until TVP has softened.
Notes
For backpacking: at home add all dry ingredients to a 1-quart freezer bag. To cook add the hot and wait 10 mins
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 Tacos
- Calories: 258
- Fat: 1.6
- Carbohydrates: 27
- Protein: 37
Keywords: vegan, tacos, backpacking, gluten-free
Totally going to try this! Love it when people show how easy tasty vegan food is to make!
http://www.daninaughton.com
Sooo easy.
does yield mean 4 tacos or 4 servings ?
Four tacos.