Why Vegan Cheese Is Perfect For Your Next Backpacking and Camping Adventure

vegan cheese for backpacking hiking and camping trips

Why on earth would you want to take vegan cheese with you on your next backpacking, camping or hiking trip? It's simple, calories, flavour and longevity.

When you're looking for food for your next adventure we're you'll be on your feet all day or active for more than a few hours, for multiple days, the number one thing you're on the lookout for is calories.

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Why on earth would you want to take vegan cheese with you on your next backpacking, camping or hiking trip? It's simple, calories, flavour and longevity.

When you're looking for food for your next adventure we're you'll be on your feet all day or active for more than a few hours, for multiple days, the number one thing you're on the lookout for is calories.

And with vegan cheese, comes calories.

If you're looking for specific vegan cheeses, head on over to our discovery app, which has the biggest database of vegan cheeses anywhere.

We believe that vegan cheese could be the perfect meal topping, added to the staples of rice, beans, nuts, dried fruits and vegan jerky and even store bought camping meals which are all popular and great foods for endurance activities, including for; expeditions, bicycle touring, bikepacking, ultra running, thru hiking and similar adventurous pursuits.

A bold claim, that's for sure, but after thinking about it and looking more in to it, we're completely convinced that vegan cheese could be the next big thing in the camping and backpacking world.

But why? Can't you just eat nuts or add oils to your meals to get those extra calories you might need?

Well, yes, but like us, after a couple of days in the mountains or on a long bicycle tour, you will get bored, we know we do. And you'll be looking for other high calorie tasty food options before you know it.

Vegan cheeses are literally trail mixes and oils that have been solidified and made to be very tasty and flavourful!

Now imagine a high calorie food topping that could also replace your other condiments too. Many of the vegan cheeses have herbs, himalayan salt and other flavourful ingredients.

And you have meals that taste even better and energy for the next day.

Vegan Cheese Is Calorie Dense

We'll get right to the point, here is why we think vegan cheese should be taken with you on your next backpacking, camping or cycle touring trip.

It is really high in calories, here are the top 10 most calorie dense vegan cheeses, which compare to those of trail mix and high calorie backpacking meals.

We found this site, outdoorfood.club which ranks over 1000 outdoor and sports foods and the most calorific camping and hiking foods are about 6.5 calories per gram which is 650 calories per 100grams. 

Now take a look at high in calories and the flavours in the following cheese types and you'll see for yourself.

Thats right, most of these vegan cheeses would be in the top 100 most calorie dense outdoor foods and right up there with any hiking and camping branded meals.

Here we'll look in to other reasons we think that those off on their next ultra marathon, camping trip or thru-hike could benefit from vegan cheeses.

  • Shelf life is very good, you can even freeze most vegan cheeses, there are plenty of vegan cheeses that don't need refrigeration and can just be pocketed or put in any part of your backpack
  • Very high calorie density in the majority of vegan cheeses because they're made mostly of oils and nuts
  • Sweet and savoury options, herby options and plant based cheeses that are full of flavour

You may be thinking, hold on a minute, why would I want to take a plastic, orange, squidgy vegan cheese with me, it might even give me an upset stomach? 

And we say to you, when was the last time you had vegan cheese? The industry has completely changed in the last 5 years and we have the biggest database of vegan cheeses anywhere (nearly 500 at the time of writing) to prove to you that there are some amazing options out there for you to try.

Just have a look at these amazing looking vegan cheeses to see for yourself.

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sheese creamy herb vegan cheese spread on rye cracker

Buy @ Vegan Kind

Above is a beautiful creamy Sheese, which is spreadable and if you're only going for one nights wild camping adventure would be a great accompaniment to your main meal. This cheese is made mostly of coconut oil and comes in a small tub, so plenty of calories and easy to carry.

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hard blue vegan cheese

Buy @ Vegan Kind

Above is a beautiful hard blue vegan cheese, I Am Nut OK - Miner Threat is creamy and will last days wrapped in a paper wrapper. We could see this being added to any meal in chunks and watch as it melts within. Being made mostly of nuts, with a little coconut oil, so plenty of calories and a great taste.

We love just eating it from the block, as long as no one else is looking.

"I Am Nut Ok's signature cheese - a bold, smoky cashew cheese ripened in a coat of activated coconut charcoal ash, featuring a gorgeous black vein running through the center. A depth of woody, hickory flavours give body to the cashew nut’s natural creaminess."

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pimp my salad hemp vegan parmesan cheese

Buy @ Amazon

One more suggestion to show you the diverse range of vegan cheeses available, this is the Pimp My Salad Vegan Hemp Parmesan Cheese.

We recommend it for backpacking and camping because it is high in fibre and is an amazing condiment having herbs, seeds, hemp, coconut and would be perfect for any meal topping.

"HEALTHY INGREDIENTS: Made with antioxidant-rich and mineral-rich ingredients like sunflower seeds, coconut, organic hemp, nutritional yeast. Add texture, color, and nutrition with our dairy and meat alternative flavorings"

 

How To Use Plant Based Cheeses Whilst Camping and Hiking

Either sprinkle them in to your meals or just make amazing tasting sandwiches out of them, they'll melt and blend well with many meal ideas!

Hard Vegan Cheese

If you're looking for a hard cheese, you can cut them up and make cheese sandwiches, add a little pickle and you have something beautiful in front of you.

Soft Vegan Cheese

Which come in tubs, can be put in to small jars and taken with you to add to rice and beans, spread on sandwiches and much more.

Crumbly Vegan Cheese Condiments

There are plenty of pre-shredded cheddars, mozzarella and crumbly parmesan style vegan cheeses. That you can take with you in a bag or jar and sprinkle over any meal that you make.

We absolutely love some of the parmesan alternatives, that are super high in calories and an amazing condiment as well.

This is the exact application we think vegan cheeses are perfect for. If you take 100 grams of a crumbly vegan parmesan you could have up 560 calories. The weight to calorie ratio is just fantastic.

And instead of taking salt, pepper and other herbs and spices with you on a camping or hiking trip, why not take just one jar or shaker of dry vegan cheese?

You probably won't have 100 grams serving of a parmesan alternative, but 10-20grams (which is 50-100calories) is doable on top of a meal and would give you those extra calories you're looking for.

 

 

What Are Vegan Cheeses Made Of

The vast majority of vegan cheeses are made with coconut oil and nuts, amongst other things. Sometimes a vegan and plant based cheese can be made entirely of one ingredient, like coconut oil and sometimes just made of nuts, like cashew nuts.

You can even find vegan cheeses which are made of both coconut oils and nuts combined, which leads to great tasting and high calorie snacks and meal toppers.

Even though there are only a couple of ingredients used, they are a great addition to a backpacking trip.

 

What Do Others Have To Say

If you want to see what others have to say, we have plenty of reviews of vegan cheeses from many vegan cheese lovers and we're sure you'll learn a thing or two from their thoughts.

https://vegancheese.co/discover/reviews

We have new vegan cheese reviews added all the time, so when looking at a vegan cheese you may be interested, check out their star ratings as well.

Vegan cheese lovers from around the world have left their ratings on how good each cheese is overall, how good they are raw on top of meals, melted and for cooking with.

If you're looking for a dairy free cheese, we're sure we can help you..

 

Still Not Convinced? Try Before You Buy

If you're in London or the UK, there are a number of shops, including La Fauxmagerie where you can try some samples before you commit to buying any plant based cheeses before your next adventure.

There are also vegan fairs and markets on most weekends where there will be a vegan cheese stall that you can try some artisan, cultured vegan cheeses, yummy!

 

Worried About Fibre

No need to worry, there are some with high fibre amounts, we've added this nutritional column to the full table at the bottom of this page so that you can see for yourself.

This is only important if you are looking at having cheese in a meal where vegan cheese makes up the majority of the meal.

What Is A Good Calorie Density

Backpacking meals like Tent Meals and Mountain House average about 4.5calories per gram and trail mix nuts are about 5.5calories/gram and sometimes more dependin on the nuts used.

How do vegan cheeses compare? Well, just look below, they compare tremendously well, with most having at least the same amount of calories per gram and calorie density as high-end calorific backpacking meals and some with even more.

That's right, vegan cheeses have more calories per gram than backpacking meals and as much as trail mix!

Vegan cheeses can get as much as 5.6calories per gram, which is just incredible. This means less weight and more calories, and most importantly they taste amazing too!

 

List of Vegan Cheeses Sorted By Their Calories Per Gram

We have created this list of vegan cheeses and sorted them by their calorie density so that you can see for yourself. There are actually some vegan cheeses we were unable to find their nutritional info so there could be more out there with even bigger calorie densities. 

Cheese Title Shop Calories per 100g Fats per 100g Carbs per 100g Protein per 100g
Casa Del Fermentino Grattino Vegan Cheese Casa Del Fermentino Grattino 648 calories /100grams 56.00 g / 100 grams 14.00 grams 20.00 grams/100g
Good Carma Parmesan Style Chilli Flavour Fusion Good Carma Parmesan Style Chilli Flavour Fusion 549 calories /100grams 44.30 g / 100 grams 13.60 grams 24.70 grams/100g
Good Carma Parmesan Style Garlic Flavour Fusion Good Carma Parmesan Style Garlic Flavour Fusion 546 calories /100grams 44.20 g / 100 grams 12.60 grams 25.00 grams/100g
Good Carma Parmesan Style Original Flavour Fusion Good Carma Parmesan Style Original Flavour Fusion 545 calories /100grams 44.30 g / 100 grams 12.40 grams 24.80 grams/100g
Il CashewFicio Il Cashew-Sano Formaggio Vegano Il CashewFicio Il Cashew-Sano Formaggio Vegano 542 calories /100grams 38.50 g / 100 grams 27.90 grams
Kinda Co Blue Kinda Co Blue 533 calories /100grams 51.00 g / 100 grams 9.40 grams 9.10 grams/100g
Kinda Co Farmhouse Kinda Co Farmhouse 531 calories /100grams 49.00 g / 100 grams 12.00 grams 11.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone Red Queen V Camembert Vegan Sun Zone Red Queen V Camembert 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone Cambozola Queen - Wegańzski Ser Pleśniowy Vegan Sun Zone Cambozola Queen - Wegańzski Ser Pleśniowy 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone King Roq - V Roquefort Vegan Sun Zone King Roq - V Roquefort 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone Carbon Queen - V Camembert Vegan Sun Zone Carbon Queen - V Camembert 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone Golden King - V Roquefort Vegan Sun Zone Golden King - V Roquefort 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Vegan Sun Zone Cashew Queen - V Camembert Vegan Sun Zone Cashew Queen - V Camembert 499 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 30.00 grams 19.00 grams/100g
Good Carma Parmesan Style Oregano Flavour Fusion Good Carma Parmesan Style Oregano Flavour Fusion 497 calories /100grams 35.20 g / 100 grams 9.80 grams 28.60 grams/100g
Nutty Artisan Foods Co Cerado Con Cebolla Y Cebollino Queso Vegano Nutty Artisan Foods Co Cerado Con Cebolla Y Cebollino Queso Vegano 474 calories /100grams 37.70 g / 100 grams 20.30 grams 13.70 grams/100g
Kinda Co Farmhouse Creamy Spread Kinda Co Farmhouse Creamy Vegan Cheese Spread 472 calories /100grams 44.00 g / 100 grams 10.00 grams 9.80 grams/100g
Mouse's Favourite Beer-Washed Rind Vegan Cheese Mouse's Favourite Beer-Washed Rind Vegan Cheese 472 calories /100grams 40.40 g / 100 grams 13.40 grams 13.80 grams/100g
Casa del Fermentino Camelia Bloomy Rind Fermentino Vegan Cheese Casa del Fermentino Camelia Bloomy Rind Fermentino 471 calories /100grams 41.00 g / 100 grams 5.30 grams 16.00 grams/100g
Chalk Farm Bloomy Rind Camembert Vegan Cheese Chalk Farm Bloomy Rind Camembert Vegan Cheese 458 calories /100grams 38.50 g / 100 grams 13.80 grams 14.20 grams/100g
Kinda Co Chilli Kinda Co Chilli Vegan Cheese 458 calories /100grams 43.00 g / 100 grams 9.70 grams 9.50 grams/100g

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Discover Other Vegan Cheeses

Thinking of going vegan but finding it hard to quit dairy cheese?

We have the biggest database of vegan cheeses anywhere online at our discovery app

Go check it out as we're sure you can find a new favorite or first vegan cheese that you love!