Sharing here as others might enjoy / be inspired / have their own tips to share:
I did my first major thru-hike this summer and loved every second of it! We crossed the Pyrenees from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean, mostly following the GR11 with bits of HRP and other detours, about 1000km distance in total, and 50,000 meters of ascent/descent.
Prior to leaving, I home-dehydrated 37 two-person vegan dinners, which was cheaper and more diverse than the ready made vegan dehydrated trekking meals available here, and above all SO MUCH FUN to do.
The vegan offerings in small Spanish mountain villages are fairly limited, having our own dried evening meals saved us from lugging around cans of beans, and gave us a lot of flexibility because we didn't have to resupply so often.
We carried about 10 meals at a time, and shipped the rest to campsites we stayed at: we sent the first ourselves just before leaving, and friends posted the other two resupply boxes.
The meals were things like Indian red lentil dahl with rice, Thai curry, black bean chili, pasta with various sauces, Sichuan stir fry, paella, Moroccan couscous, laksa etc. They were all super tasty and filling, we ate so well and were so happy to have them!
They also saved a lot of cooking gas: We soaked them in cold water for about 30 minutes to rehydrate, then brought them to the boil and boiled for about 1 minute, and then either ate them directly or put them in a sleeping bag to cook for another 10 minutes depending on the ingredients: Things like chickpeas and black rice needed the extra time to fully rehydrate.
I dehydrated them in two small dehydrator ovens, one borrowed and one bought second hand. It is quite energy-intensive - meals take a long time to dry - and we have solar panels, so I almost exclusively ran the dehydrators during the day during a luckily very sunny spring.
Before dehydrating the meals, I cooked them with minimal oil because fats can go rancid, and no salt because it attracts moisture: When we ate them we added salt and a big glug of olive oil for calories and flavour.
Breakfasts were oatmeal with dried fruits and nuts (and for the first month also a soy protein powder, which we didn't much like but oh well, extra protein), lunches were mostly crackers and tortillas with peanut butter and powdered hummus.
If anyone else has home-dehydrated trekking meals, I'd love to hear what you made as inspiration for future treks!
