Eating good food on the trail, whether you're hiking, camping or backpacking, requires advance planning and preparing. Especially when you have food sensitivities like our family does and can't grab a Subway sandwich on the way out of town. But if you think ahead you can prepare extra food at one of your weekly meals that can be packed for a day hike. This will save you a lot of hassle the morning of your hike when you are trying to pack all your other gear and it helps ensure you eat healthy and aren't tempted to grab easy junk "food".

Knowing all this I asked my family last Friday night, while we were planning our weekend, "So guys (even though 3 of the 5 of us are gals), what should I make for a trail lunch for Sunday's hike?"

Saturday would be busy day of doing our taxes and taking care of financial paperwork. I wanted something I could make for Saturday's lunch that could also double for a hiking lunch the day after. It needed to be easy to prepare but also hearty and healthy for the trail.

"What about split pea soup?" suggested our nine year old. "Yah! Split pea soup is so good!" the others joined in. (It's amazing what your children will like when they are used to eating vegetables and beans, and aren't fed mac n' cheese & hotdogs).

I couldn't agree more, split pea soup is so good. And it's even better heated up on the trail for a very filling, stick-to-your ribs kind of meal.

Split Pea Soup Recipe

This is our family's basic split pea soup recipe. It varies depending on what veggies are in season and what happens to be in the fridge. I cook almost all our soups in our pressure cooker. For an explanation of using a pressure cooker you can see this tutorial at Fatfree Vegan Kitchen. Using a pressure cooker makes this an easy soup that "cooks up" in less than an hour from start to finish.

Ingredients

• 2 onions
• 1 small head of garlic, 5 or 6 cloves
• 3 medium carrots
• 1 medium celeraic root or 3 stalks of celery
• 8 medium potatoes
• 10 cups of water, with broth powder or bouillon cubes added
• 2 cups split peas
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp Braggs Aminos
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tsp cumin
• pinch of crushed red pepper
• freshly ground pepper and salt to taste

Preparation

Chop up all your veggies, don't worry about getting them really small you'll blend them all together in the end.

Saute onions and garlic in a little bit of water till soft. Add rest of veggies and stir it all up. Add water and remaining ingredients.

Pressure cooker method: Bring the soup to a boil and secure the lid. Bring to 1st pressure line and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and either do a quick pressure release by putting pot under running water or use natural release.

Regular pot method: Um.. I have no idea. Simmer soup for probably at least an hour to cook the split peas. You'll have to watch it yourself and see.

After soup is cooked remove the bay leaf and using a hand blender blend the soup till smooth.

Serving

We like to eat our soup on the trail with cooked rice. We heat the soup on our stove and serve it over the cooked rice. The hot soup warms the rice and the rice adds texture and more carbohydrates to the meal.

Don't forget the salt and pepper shaker.

Enjoy!