Backpacking Recipe: Thai-Style Ramen with PNB

Last Updated on 02/2025 by Mom Goes Camping

Tired of boring backpacking dinners and don’t want to spend a fortune on freeze-dried meals? This backpacking ramen recipe is super easy and delicious. It includes peanut butter, which makes the meal more calorie-dense and also gives it more protein.

Here’s the recipe and instructions.

Also read:

Serving Size and Calories:

This recipe comes out to 1275 calories, which is enough for two meals (or one dinner for two people). The dry weight is 10.4oz (295g). That comes out to 123 calories per ounce (4.3 calories per gram). If you want to make it even more calorie-dense, add more peanut butter or sesame oil.

Ingredients:

3 packets of ramen (mine were 70g packets of 315 calories each)
3 Tbsp of peanut butter (=290 calories)
1 tsp of sesame oil
2 Tbsp soy sauce*
Flavorful add-ins: I added dehydrated scallions, dehydrated mushrooms and some chili powder

*I found this cool soy sauce paste. You mix it with 4x as much water to turn it into soy sauce. Because it’s in paste form, it’s easier to transport and weighs less!

Instructions:

Remove the ramen from its package. Pour it (and the spice packets they come with) into a zip baggie. This means you’ll have less trash to pack out.
Put any other dry ingredients (spices, dry mushrooms, etc.) into the bag with the ramen.
Put the wet ingredients (PNB, soy sauce paste and oil) into a separate container. I just put them in a doubled baggie (the second baggie in case of leaking). Also read: How to carry PNB when backpacking.

This is what it looked like all packed for the trail.

On the Trail:

Put all the ingredients in your pot.
Pour water on top. Let it sit for at 5-10 minutes, or until the ramen has absorbed water. This way you will use less fuel!
Stir the ingredients. Then bring to a boil.
Enjoy!

We were so hungry that I didn’t get a picture of the ramen before eating it. It was definitely delicious. 😀