The complete guide to food on a DofE Expedition — breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks!
Having food that you enjoy on DofE can turn an expedition from horrible to incredible — but finding the right food for you is not always intuitive. You are limited by the types of food you can bring, and also need to ensure you have enough to properly fuel long days of hiking. To make things as simple as possible for you, I’ve explained all the ins and outs of DofE expedition food below.
DofE food can be stressful. Not anymore.
For a limited time only, you can access DofE Hero’s detailed expedition meal plans completely for free (retail price £5.99).
What types of food are best for a DofE Expedition?
Dense, filling food such as nuts, sweets and dried meat are ideal for DofE. Avoid all canned goods, items packaged in glass, or food that requires refrigeration.
You should also bear in mind that some foods release energy slowly, and others quickly. It’s best to find a mix of both, especially for your snacks — for example, mixed nuts or protein bars are brilliant snacks for releasing energy slowly over time, but a pack of dried mango (which is high in sugar) will give you an immediate energy spike.
I personally also like to ensure my meals are more substantial than my snacks, in particular at dinner. This is why my teammates and I always had a hot dinner in the evening — there’s nothing like eating a warm, filling meal with your group at the end of the day.
Of course, check the lifespan of the foods you bring. Aside from lunch on the first day, you shouldn't be bringing any items that require refrigeration. Canned goods, items packaged in glass, and oversized packaging (such as a can of Pringles) should also be left at home. They’re bulky, heavy, and remember, you might not see a rubbish bin all day.
How much food do you need for DofE?
You will need to eat much more food on a DofE expedition than you would at home. Aim for 3000 - 5000 calories per day, depending on your weight, sex, and how far you'll be walking.
This may seem like a lot of food (and it is!), but when you consider that walking 20km burns roughly 1500 calories, which has to be replenished by the food you eat, 3000 - 5000 seems less extreme.
Remember that you won’t need to pack breakfast for your first day or dinner for your last day. Generally breakfasts are around 600 kcal and dinners around 1000 kcal, so make sure you deduct that from your meal plan accordingly to avoid bringing too much food.
Use Amazon.
Unless you live fairly near to somewhere that stocks lots of outdoor expedition foods, Amazon is your best friend. Almost all the ‘specialist’ foods you’ll need to buy for a DofE expedition can be found on Amazon, with the free and fast delivery we all love.
As a quick disclaimer, many of the links below are part of the Amazon affiliate scheme, meaning that if you decide to make a purchase after clicking a link, I’ll make a small commission at no extra cost to you. This massively helps me to keep DofE Hero economically sustainable and to continue to provide you with ever-free DofE content.
Breakfasts
Breakfasts on DofE can either be hot or cold. For hot breakfasts the best options are boil-in-a-bags or porridge, while the best cold breakfasts are ready-made crepes, bars, biscuits, or cereals.
Many people like to spend the extra time in the morning to boil some water and enjoy a hot meal with a cup of tea or coffee. I personally didn't — I preferred to have a more leisurely ‘wake-up’, eat a cold breakfast whilst still in the tent, and then pack up camp and get going promptly. Both options make sense, and it really depends on whether you want to commit in advance to getting out your cooking equipment each morning.
If you opt for the hot breakfast, there are a number of options I'd recommend:
Breakfast boil-in-a-bag meals will always be the quickest — I actually had this all-day breakfast from Wayfayrer for dinner a number of times on my Gold expedition and thoroughly enjoyed it.
A great vegan option for a hot boil-in-a-bag breakfast are these posh baked beans from Firepot, which include vegan mince, potatoes, tomato, onion, garlic and more. It’s certainly on the more expensive side, but if it makes the difference between a bad morning and a good morning, it’s worth it.
Instant porridge pots, such as these golden syrup-flavoured ones from Fuel 10K, which pack 13g of protein per 70g pot, and taste great. The one thing to note about porridge pots is that the packaging is too bulky — you should decant the contents of the pot into a small resealable plastic bag, and then prepare the porridge in a mug on the expedition.
If you opt for the cold breakfast, again there are a range of options:
Ready-made chocolate filled crepes are my secret for great tasting, zero prep DofE breakfasts. I had these every day on my Gold expedition and they were exactly what I wanted. I bought these ones by St. Pierre, and would do the same again.
Cereals are also quite popular and many people bring standard multipacks such as these ones from Kellogg’s. You can simply remove the cardboard packaging in advance and bring just the plastic pouches. When it comes to breakfast time, add some powdered milk and water for a quick and fail-safe breakfast.
Another good option is to have a few breakfast bars. You could get energy-dense flapjacks like this mixed flavour case by Trek, breakfast soft bakes such as these ones by Belvita, porridge bars like these ones from Quaker, or perhaps even try something home-made. If you decide to have something else for breakfast, these bars all make for excellent snacks.
For even more breakfast ideas, check out my latest blog post, 12+ DofE Expedition Breakfast Ideas.
DofE food can be stressful. Not anymore.
For a limited time only, you can access DofE Hero’s detailed expedition meal plans completely for free (retail price £5.99).
Lunches
Lunches on DofE should be quick to prepare and use little or no cooking equipment. Generally, lunches are carb-based, and involve some kind of bread, wrap, pitta or croissant.
As you’ll be eating lunch whilst out hiking, you probably won't want to get out cooking equipment or crockery from your backpacks. My favourite lunch, which I had most days on my Gold expedition, was a very simple wrap filled with biltong (a type of dried meat) and a small BBQ sauce sachet.
Another top tip is to bring something you won’t have the opportunity to eat for the rest of the expedition for lunch on the first day! For lunch on your first day, you can (and should) bring a perishable item from home.
Chicken sandwich is one of my personal favourite and is what I had for lunch on the first day of my Gold expedition (although any substantial sandwich works just as well). For this I fried up some small chicken pieces the morning of the expedition and threw them in a sandwich with some cheese, tomato, lettuce and mayonnaise.
Cold pizza is also a great option. Just make sure it's well-packaged so it doesn’t crumble inside your pack (I would recommend wrapping individual slices in cling film).
For the rest of the expedition, you'll have to go for more classic DofE foods.
Wraps with dried meat were my choice and also very popular among my DofE group. I strongly recommend buying one large pack of meat as opposed to multiple small packs — you’ll save space and weight by minimising packaging. As you can expect to eat around 50g of dried meat per lunch, I would suggest purchasing a pack such as this one by Smally’s. If you fancy a bit of sauce, these Ketchup sachets or BBQ sauce sachets by Heinz make a great addition.
Peperami hot dogs are also a really great option. These consist of a hot dog roll, one or two peperami sticks, a few sprinkles of these crispy fried onions (make sure to pack them appropriately), and maybe a Heinz mini ketchup sachet. For a DofE lunch, it’s an absolute winner and can be prepared in about two minutes without the need for any crockery.
Pita with veggie jerky was the lunch of choice for my vegan teammate and it honestly looked delicious. He added some nut butter (although beware of nut allergies in your group), a generous helping of veggie jerky like this one by Kings, and a dash of maple syrup that he’d decanted into a tiny tupperware at home. I’d be lying if I said I was never jealous.
ADAPTATIONS: you may have noticed that the above recipes follow a general “protein + bread” formula, making them highly adaptable to your preferences. To make things easy, I’ve listed a number of options below that you can mix and match in order to find your perfect DofE lunch:
| Protein | Bread | Topping |
|---|---|---|
| Biltong/jerky | Wrap | Mini sauce sachets |
| Peparami | Hot dog or burger bun | Crispy fried onions |
| Candied smoked salmon | Pitta | Nut butter |
| Veggie jerky | Brioche roll | Pork scratchings |
| Dried jackfruit | Naan | Dried banana chips |
Dinners
Dinner on DofE should be a hot meal. There are two main options: one-pot meals, such as pasta with a sauce, or boil-in-a-bag style meals. Boil-in-a-bag meals are generally much quicker to prepare and require no clearing up — plus there’s also a huge range of options suitable for a variety of diets.
When I started my Bronze DofE in 2015, there were only a handful of boil-in-a-bag options. If you didn’t like traditional English meat-based dishes, you were out of luck. In the years since then, the boil-in-a-bag market has exploded, with numerous high-quality brands and an enormous variety of dishes. I think, today, boil-in-a-bag meals outdo one-pot meals every day of the week, including for those with dietary requirements.
Almost all available boil-in-a-bag meals can be purchased on Amazon (see links below). Alternatively, you could check out the selection at a local outdoor/expedition shop. Some of my personal favourites are below:
Wayfayrer all-day-breakfast and Wayfayrer chilli and rice were my two favourite dinners on my Gold expedition. They are pre-hydrated, meaning they weigh more but (in my opinion) taste better for it.
For a plant-based diet I’d hands-down recommend Firepot, who have an amazing selection ranging from porcini mushroom risotto to vegan orzo bolognese, from chili non carne to daal & rice with spinach.
This Expedition Foods spaghetti carbonara packs an amazing 1000kcl into just 213g. This meal is so light because you have to add the water (unlike the Wayfayrer meals which are already hydrated and simply require heating up).
There is truly a huge range of options for boil-in-the-bag style meals on DofE. If nothing I’ve mentioned so far sounds right for you, I would suggest checking out the full ranges of the companies that make boil-in-the-bag meals using the following links: Wayfayrer, Firepot, Summit to Eat, Trekmates, and Expedition Foods.
I'll still go through the best options for one-pot meals because I know that some expedition providers require you cook a dinner ‘as a group’ for Bronze. If you are going for the one-pot meal option, you'll likely be cooking a pasta or rice based dish.
Pasta with pasta sauce is a classic and probably the safest bet. Another benefit is you can bring your own small pasta sauce (e.g. pesto, or tomato sauce) but share the pasta among teammates.
Rice with black beans, bell peppers and tomatoes. Make sure you don’t bring any cans for the beans; I would recommend finding pouches (something like this). Also, make sure to divide up who brings what with your group in advance, so you don’t end up carrying more than you need!
I'm also a fan of adding in a hot dessert after the main course. There aren't as many options for desserts, but I found that Wayfayrer’s hot salted caramel chocolate brownie rounds off the day perfectly. For hot desserts, I think it's better to stick with the pre-hydrated meals — after seeing a teammates reaction to dehydrated rice pudding, I'm steering clear.
DofE meal plans can be stressful. Not anymore.
For a limited time only, you can access DofE Hero’s detailed expedition meal plans completely for free (retail price £5.99).
Snacks
On DofE, your snacks are more important than any individual meal of the day. You want to find great-tasting snacks that are a mix of slow-release energy, such as bars and nuts, and quick-release energy, such as sweets and chocolate.
My personal favourite snack for DofE is trail mix. It’s a simple homemade mixture of nuts, dried fruit and chocolate in a bag. It’s super versatile, packs an astounding number of calories, and you can slowly graze on it over the course of the day. Aside from trail mix, sweets, chocolates, energy bars, dried fruit and nuts all make for fantastic snacks.
Trail mix — for my Gold DofE trail mix I chose to include mixed nuts, sultanas, dried apricots, and a large bag of peanut M&Ms. You can buy pre-made trail mix (I quite like the look of this one), but I still think it’s best to prepare your own.
Energy bars such as chocolate chip Clif bars or caramel almond & sea salt KIND bars are perfectly designed for outdoor expeditions. They taste great, have a really good balance of nutrients, and there’s a huge range to choose from — see here for more.
Sweets were an integral part of my snacks list. Whether you start to feel your legs aching, or just need a mid-morning boost, something like Haribo Starmix or Maoam stripes work a treat
Chocolate is also highly recommended, whether that’s a good ol’ Dairy Milk or some double chocolate fudge, they taste great and release energy quickly. Just be careful that the chocolate hasn’t completely melted when you open the wrapper (for that reason I preferred to keep my chocolate for the evening, when it’s colder)
Kendall mint cakes are somewhat of a Marmite of the hiking world. Personally, I hate them, but if you're into peppermint flavoured bars made 87% out of sugar, then congratulations, you've hit the jackpot.
Dried fruit makes a great snack. In particular, dried mango which every person on my Gold expedition group ate daily. You could also go for this dried fruit mix from Happy Belly, which includes pear, pineapple, prunes, apricot and apple.
Drinks
The majority of what you drink on DofE is water. Energy drinks are not a good idea, especially the canned versions. Many people do, however, bring tea or coffee to have at breakfast, dinner or both.
Tea and coffee is fairly standard, just don't bring more than you need. Decide in advance whether you'll be making hot drinks in the morning, evening or both (for my Gold expedition I simply brought four teabags — one for each dinnertime).
If you prefer to drink milk with your hot drinks, powdered milk like this is your only choice.
If you enjoy your hot chocolate, something like these Galaxy instant hot chocolate sachets will be a great addition. There were a few people on my Gold expedition who had a hot chocolate every evening (I’m just not much of a hot chocolate person myself).
If plain water really isn't for you, you could potentially bring something like this passionfruit and mango Robinson's Squash'd to add some flavour — just don't bring anything oversized like a full-size bottle of squash.