Nomad Nutrition Indian Red Lentil Stew

A tasty Indian stew that reminds me of a classic (but slightly less spicy) Dal. As I’ve written with the other Nomad reviews: this is my new favorite brand of dehydrated backpacking food.

Ingredients: Potatoes, Carrots, Red Lentils*, Coconut Milk*, Onions, Peas, Sundried Tomatoes*, Olive Oil*, Garlic*, Spices*, Sea Salt*.   *Certified Organic Ingredient.

Nutrition: (for the 100-gram package) Calories 680, Carbs 93g, Sugars (10 g), Protein 24g

Prologue:

When I was messaging back and forth with Alicia (Trailspace Co-Founder and Editor) about testing some food items, I mentioned that I would only be interested in vegetarian options (I’m not actually vegetarian or vegan, I just rarely eat meat). For those excluding meat altogether, the pre-packaged choices are understandably limited in the backpacking/dehydrated food genre. I was quite intrigued when Alicia came back with this brand as I had never heard of them before.

As I read about the company and product my interest was piqued further; you can check out their story here but I’ll relate that all products are plant-based, possibly non-GMO /organic (they don’t claim to be fully non-GMO/ organic but state that they “do their best” to use those type of ingredients), produced in small batches and nutritionally optimized for athletes.

I also like it when companies are aware of sustainability and commit to using local farms.

Preparation and packaging

This meal is as easy to prepare as any just-add-boiling water type meal. Simply remove the desiccant, add the recommended (or desired) amount of boiling water and wait 10 minutes.

The cook-in-bag worked well. I normally don’t like to eat out of bags (or pack the bulky aluminized type), but I did it with this product once just for reviewing purposes.

Flavor

If you’ve had a good Dal before this will taste similar but perhaps less earthy via the use of red lentils (versus a traditional brown) which tend to have a sweeter flavor.  If not, this a good introduction as it does a fine job representing a classic Indian dish. You can distinctly taste the potatoes, red lentils, peas, coconut milk, and tomatoes. I’ve had few prepackaged backpacking meals that I can so easily discern the individual components of.

Satiety

It was OK in terms of feeling full, but I like Dal and could honestly eat much more in one sitting than you get out of the 100g package.

Texture

As with most of these Nomad meals, the texture really stands out as being natural and more like fresh food than other brands. Thumbs up!

Conclusion

This is a tasty stew and fine product. There is a plainness to this food that really appeals to me and makes me feel as if I’m eating something healthy. I’ve done so much backpacking in my lifetime that I’ve gone through various stages of burn-out with all the pre-packaged food choices and had mostly given up on using them in general.

I’m happy to find a brand that I like so much; they are doing it right at Nomad and producing a great product. Unfortunately, the price is too high for me to indulge in this very often. I’m willing to splurge for a special trip, but at $12 US per meal, I can’t justify spending that much money routinely. But I will be purchasing this brand for future trips. 

Background

I have over 8,000 miles of trekking experience in the last decade and I've tried many, many brands of pre-packaged meals out there over that time span. I was sent three packages of this flavor for review and have consumed all three.