Australian Hiker

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Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad Review

The Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad is a rarity in the outdoor freeze dried market being a salad. Typically at the end of a day hike, particularly on those longer days, I look for something hot and filling but for lunch the last thing I want to do is drag out my stove preferring to eat cold food. In the case of this salad based meal all that is required to rehydrate in cold water (cold soak) with the appropriate amount of water.

Many hikers could be forgiven for thinking that a salad isn’t going provide the energy to keep you going. In this case we are talking about a beetroot and carrot meal that also contains other ingredients such as honey, molasses syrup and dried seeds amongst other things. What this means is that a single serve meal provides a pretty impressive 571 calories all in a very tasty meal.

While I have only just started to test the Real Meal range the Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad will definitely go into my top 10 of Real Meals and most likely my top 10 for freeze dried meals overall.

This salad tastes sweet due to the honey and dried fruits. It also has a bit of crunch to it thanks to the seeds and overall is hard to stop eating. Having said that I had planned to eat this single meal for lunch after a fairly demanding physical morning but I struggled to finish it and shared it with my wife Gill. Even though it’s a single serve meal you can could easily split it between two. In addition there is no spice or heat in this meal so it won’t upset anyone’s tastes.

This is a cold soak meal and while the recommendation is to add 100 mls of cold water and stir for 30 seconds, I found the mix too dry for my taste and ended up adding 140 mls in total. By the end of the rehydration process this provided a texture that was really pleasing. As such I’d recommend starting off with 100 mls and adding more water to suit your taste.

The only negative for this meal is that as a beetroot based meal it has the potential to stain clothing so be careful with dropping it.

Price wise at AUD $19.99 RRP sits within the typical freeze dried meal category and given the taste and ability to fill you up or share its pretty good value.

The sodium level in this meal is 455 mg with anything over 400 mg considered high but while I could taste the saltiness in this meal it is well balanced against the sweatness and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t add salt to their meals. In fact, I think the level of saltiness is one of the reasons I liked this meal.

Protein wise this meals only contains 8.4 grams which sits at the bottom of the freeze dried meals which isn’t really a negative as such unless you are looking for a big protein hit after long hard – this is where the Real Meals Venison Casserole comes in given it contains 57.8 grams of protein.

So what’s the verdict? I love this meal and will definitely add it to my meal roster for my upcoming trips!

We Like

• Lightweight meal option
• Good calorie level to satisfy hungry hikers which is unexpected for a salad
• A good sized meal, in fact we shared this between the two of us!
• Easy to prepare
• Very tasty, in fact its hard to stop eating

We Don't Like

• The only fault I can pick with this meal is that beetroot can stain clothing

Best Uses

• An easy to prepare meal without having to use hot water so makes a great meal on the go

Buy One

You can purchase the Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad from Snowys or from Wild Earth

Disclosure: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Please note that our affiliations do not influence, in any way, the independence of our reviews. If we don’t like a product, you’ll hear about it from us!

Investment

AUD $19.99 RRP

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad as purchased

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad rear of packet

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad nutrition and ingredient panel

Real Meals packet base folded out

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad before rehydrating in the open pack

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad rehydrated and ready to eat

Real Meals Beetroot & Carrot Salad bag torn down to form a bowl. If you use a long handled utensil you won’t need to cut or tear the bag down

Disclaimer

This review was done with product provided for testing by the Australian distributor of Real Meals

Last updated

25 December 2025

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