The Forestia range is made from high-quality ingredients
Outdoor dining has historically meant having to limit our choices or compromise on the types of food we can enjoy.
However, the days of sticking to the same boring campsite fare are over, according to a new brand appearing in the UK.
Forestia is a new range of restaurant-quality outdoor meals that its makers say give you the chance to enjoy a delicious and nutritious feast in minutes, wherever your adventure takes you.
The packs can be cooked on a camp stove as boil in the bag, or microwaved if there is an oven available.
Forestia also has optional portable self-heating meal packs which means there is no need to carry stoves or gas cartridges with you, each meal pack comes with a self-heating bag that simply requires users to add cold water in order to create a tasty and piping hot meal in minutes.
“With no extra kit required, Forestia’s self-heating meal packs also offer peace of mind that you won’t be caught out by soggy matches or an empty fuel cartridge,” the company said.
“Forestia’s self-heating meal packs also offer the taste and nutritional benefits of 100 per cent natural, high-quality ingredients.
“With a wide range of gourmet recipes from around the world to enjoy, options include hearty fusilli all’uovo with chicken bolognese and grana padano, Spanish seafood paella or you can even enjoy a spicy chicken madras with long grain and wild rice.
Forestia meals come with the option of an accompanying self-heating bag
“The Forestia collection also includes multiple vegan and vegetarian options such as a vibrant Mediterranean vegetable rice stew. Harnessing the health benefits of natural, premium ingredients, every Forestia dish has been created to offer a balanced meal and is also guaranteed to be free from trans-fats, genetically modified ingredients, preservatives and artificial flavours or colourings.”
Mini-test
Grough sampled two Forestia meals and cooked them conventionally; one in a microwave oven and one in a camp pan on the stove.
Forestia chili con carne with whole grain rice
Forestia chicken madras with long grain and wild rice
Price: £6 (£8 in self-heating bag)
Chilli weight: 370g (including pack)
Energy per pack: 350 kcal (1,463 kJ)
Chicken madras weight: 412g (including pack)
Energy per pack: 469 kcal (1,960 kJ)
Forestia is a new brand of deluxe outdoor food from the Spanish Jomipsa Group, a market-leading company with more than 30 years of experience distributing food rations and emergency solutions to humanitarian organisations.
The chicken curry variety contained slightly more than the chilli, despite both having nominal weights of 350g. The madras also has a higher energy content, essential if you’re burning up calories on the hill.
Both are wet foods rather than dehydrated, meaning they carry a weight premium in the pack, though are easier to prepare: either put them in a pan of hot water (or bain marie if you want to be posh as it says on the packaging) for between seven and eight minutes. If the campsite has a microwave, the meal can be ready to eat in two minutes.
The meals can be eaten straight from the pack after cooking
Both varieties we tested were free from trans-fat, genetically modified organisms, and artificial colourings and flavours.
The curry would provide almost a quarter of recommended daily energy for a normal adult, but bear in mind your energy needs in the outdoors are likely to be higher if you’re walking for a large part of the day or taking part in moderate- or high-energy activities.
The chilli provides about 18 per cent of daily energy requirements, subject to the above caveat.
The meals come in a sturdy pouch with a tear-off section at the top, and you can eat straight out of the pouch once opened if you want.
They are also available in a version with a self-heating bag if you don’t have access to a stove or microwave.
There are vegan and vegetarian options in the range of 15 meals.
The chicken madras was nicely hot after eight minutes in boiling water, and opening the pouch was easy.
The Forestia meal smelt good and looked good too for a prepared meal. The chicken was nicely tender and the dish was tasty. For a madras, I might have expected a little more spicy heat, though if you’re a long way from facilities, maybe too much chilli powder isn’t a great idea. The meal had a slight sweetness.
It was certainly a more appetising filler than dehydrated pasta meals, but at quite a bit more cost and weight.
The chilli was also not very spicy, a sensible move when camping. We heated it in the microwave for two minutes. Quality was good, as with the curry, and the Forestia meals provided a good, filling camp meal.
It’s nice to have a little luxury when you’re roughing it on a camp, and the Forestia meals provided just that, with only a little premium over some other wet food camp meals. We would probably always have a stove with us when wild camping, to make hot drinks and such like, but if you want to cut a little weight, for an extra £2 you can add the self-heating bags instead.
