Stowaway Gourmet Chana Masala

A lovely, creamy break from the usual salt-bombs.

Another solid meal from a relatively new company, Stowaway Gourmet's Chana Masala is a pretty darn tasty dish. It is perhaps a little on the small size for an end-of-day backpacking meal, but it is just the right size for a midday meal on a long day hike.

I added an extra quarter cup of water and an extra five minutes of rehydration time based on the usual requirements of rice—it was not necessary. This may have contributed to a perceived mildness in flavor, compared to, say, Backpacker's Pantry's offering.

Oh, Stowaway's is tasty, no doubt! But I wished it had just a little more oomph.  I will say that the sauce, yogurt-based as it is, had a wonderful texture lacking from BP's. At $15, it felt a little spendy, but I didn't feel in any way ripped off as I have with some other meals.

Background

Decades of backpacking and day hiking, eating freeze-dried meals from a wide variety of major manufacturers and boutique providers. I cooked this up in the middle of a ten-mile day hike at about 400 feet.