Chana Masala

I thought this meal was pretty good. I have noticed, though, that if the water has not been boiling for a bit, it won’t be hot enough to hydrate everything. Stirring the mix BEFORE and after the water is also often necessary to be sure the mix separates.

I accidentally had an Epic in Spring of 2025 where my main source of calories were Backpacker's Pantry meals. On night 2, I was probably 3000 calories in a hole and cooked the Chana Masala. Each bite was equal parts chickpeas, rice, and CLOVES which made the meal entirely inedible. I've seldom been hungrier in my life, but I was totally unable to choke this meal down. Maybe I got a bad batch, but it's been months and I can still taste the cloves.

https://ajinkyasadventures.wordpress.com/2025/06/06/the-isolation-traverse/

I backpacked the Quehanna Trail with my dog last month and took vegan meals with me. I found them to be generally a bit too spicy for my taste, but otherwise fine.

I backpacked the Quehanna Trail with my dog last month and took vegan meals with me. I found them to be generally a bit too spicy for my taste, but otherwise fine.

Just open the bag, fill with some boiling water, let it sit to cook, and you've got a nice warm meal. The chana masala is delicious.

Just open the bag, fill with some boiling water, let it sit to cook, and you've got a nice warm meal. The chana masala is delicious.

This is one of the work backpacking meals I've ever had. The flavor was off. It had a weird chemical taste. Everything rehydrated well, too well maybe. It was mostly just mush. Between two people we couldn't even eat half of it.

This is the meal that our entire family enjoys the most, we have other favorite but this one makes us all happy. The flavors, textures, and spice combination are delicious, even if it's on the spicy end taste wise our young daughter enjoys it tremendously. We are vegetarians so it provides an excellent source of protein. We have ordered it many times.

This is one of my favorites! I love the flavors, textures, and spice combination! Excellent source of protein, too. This is one of my go-to’s!

This is one of my favorites! I love the flavors, textures, and spice combination! Excellent source of protein, too.

We LOVE this dinner! It’s definitely a great addition to all our other favorites out on the trail. We take 4-5 night backpacking trips every summer with our teenage sons. We’ll cover 10-12 mile days and are starving by dinner time. We eat a lot out there. Each of us can put one of these down easily. It’s got great flavor and fills us up perfectly.

We're vegan, huge lovers of all Indian food (especially Chana Masala) and all things spicy, and big fans of Backpacker's Pantry's plant-based options. That said, this recipe was a miss for us. I'm wondering if we got a bad batch as it was basically inedible; we ended up tossing the bag after only a couple bites each. I've read other reviews that note a distinct "soapiness" and I think that's pretty accurate in our experience as well. We're now trying to figure out what to do w/ the other 5 bags we have.

Thankfully we tired this one at home before heading for the campground.

We're vegan, huge lovers of all Indian food (especially Chana Masala) and all things spicy, and big fans of Backpacker's Pantry's plant-based options. That said, this recipe was a miss for us. I'm wondering if we got a bad batch as it was basically inedible; we ended up tossing the bag after only a couple bites each. I've read other reviews that note a distinct "soapiness" and I think that's pretty accurate in our experience as well. We're now trying to figure out what to do w/ the other 5 bags we have.

Thankfully we tired this one at home before heading for the campground.

Backpacker's pantry Chana Masala now ranks as the worst backpacking entree ever tasted by me or my team. Somewhat dry rice, lots of salt, chickpeas that don't reconstitute well, and yellow food color instead of flavor. Literally, we fought over who would eat it, but neither of us could. We couldn't carry back the reconstituted unfortunate stuff, or choke it down so we fought about could we bury it and leave it in the backcountry OMG god-awful. How this got the OK for release I will never understand.

Backpacker's pantry Chana Masala now ranks as the worst backpacking entree ever tasted by me or my team. Somewhat dry rice, lots of salt, chickpeas that don't reconstitute well, and yellow food color instead of flavor. Literally, we fought over who would eat it, but neither of us could. We couldn't carry back the reconstituted unfortunate stuff, or choke it down so we fought about could we bury it and leave it in the backcountry? OMG god-awful. How this got the OK for release I will never understand.

This is the worst-tasting dehydrated meal I have ever had, in my opinion. I do like Indian food, but this is not! It was somehow bland but still spicy after swallowing it. The little flavor that it did have was worse than any Indian food I have ever had.

Good nutrient mix, great flavor, filling, and priced right.
Only problem is that I can't seem to find it reliably on Amazon!

This is one I did not like at first. I could only eat about 1/4 of the package. So I said screw it and tried again and I am glad I did.
It actually grew on me. Plenty of calories and protein. Does have some spice to it. Rehydrates nicely. Doesn’t have a off taste like Mountain House.
I am glad I came back to this meal. It will be a staple in my hiking meals. Give it a shot as the price is wonderful.

Stellar, best Chana Masala ever!
I'm not sure what all the complaints are about. My meal was fresh and absolutely delicious.
I'm going to drop a six pack x3 in the shopping cart on my next order.
Thanks again BP for another very EXCELLENT meal. :-)

This meal is fire all sorts of flavor and delicious.

NOT GOOD...my family and I have pretty open expectations when it comes to food and we simply could NOT eat this.

I had high hopes for this meal, but it just didn't work for me. When dried, you could tell it was going to be spicy. When cooked, all you tasted was heat and salt. It was so hot and salty that I drank more water than I could spare. I couldn't tell if I was full because of the water or the meal, but I would not buy this again. Oh, and like the other meals, only add about 2/3 of the water it recommends. It will keep your meal from being too soupy and you can save that water for drinking later.

I've had this meal when the chickpeas didn't rehydrate perfectly, like some people mentioned, but the last 4 times I've had it, it's been great! The ymay have sourced new chickpeas or something. If you want to play it safe you can let it sit a little longer in the pouch than the instructions mention.
Either way, I really like the flavor. It's great if you cna bring a little naan bread. Nice heat, and nice treat after a long day hiking!

I could not eat this--the flavor was off, was it the cloves? idk, but I ended up eating trail mix for dinner. Enough to make me research making my own backpacking meals.

I raved about how excited I was to try this for weeks before I actually had the chance. My boyfriend and I shared it for dinner one night and we both had the absolute worst stomach aches and rough next morning. Flavor was ok, wasn’t was I was expecting. Be cautious! Have tums!

I love backpackers pantry but this is the is the one meal I won't buy again, bought a multi-pack because it was on sale for a long hike and for some reason the chickpeas never fully rehydrated even after using boiling water and letting them soak for close to an hour. Some would get semi-soft by then, but you'd still be biting into some that were rock hard.

I really enjoyed the Chana Masala for its texture and taste, but would have really enjoyed a bit stronger flavors!

I really enjoyed the Chana Masala for its texture and taste, but would have really enjoyed a bit stronger flavors!

The taste is pretty good, except that it appears they quadrupled the necessary salt required. Damn this one is way too salty! Cut the salt down and this is a big winner.

I was pleasantly surprised by Backpacker's Pantry Chana Masala. SUPER hearty. I ate a whole package myself but it could have easily been shared. The spices and flavor are incredible.