Why Onigiri Is the Perfect Hiking Lunch

For a food to satisfy the needs of a hiker, it has to check a few boxes: It must be packable and easy to eat on the go. It can’t spoil easily and must remain appetizing at ambient temperature. And it has to hold up to being shoved between layers and water bottles inside a backpack. Good nutritional value and a strong calorie to weight ratio are plusses, and, of course, it’s gotta be delicious.

Only a handful of foods meet all of these requirements, and as a result, most hikers eat the same few things on the trail. But a person can only eat so many peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which often get squished and soggy in a backpack. Bars, trail mix, and wraps don’t always satisfy the craving for real food on the trail. Over the past few years, I’ve been on the hunt for portable foods that offer more satisfying flavors and textures. And after discovering onigiri, I may never eat a PB&J again.

Onigiri, for the uninitiated, are a Japanese lunch or snack food made from steamed rice shaped into balls and filled with any number of savory ingredients. In Japan, they’re widely available in convenience stores and popular trail food. Onigiri are portable, easy to make, and customizable with whatever fillings you like—in other words, the perfect hiking lunch. Traditional fillings include tuna and mayo, pickled plum (umeboshi), and roe. The balls are often shaped into triangles wrapped in nori. But with homemade onigiri, the filling possibilities are endless. The internet is rife with onigiri recipes, many of which make for great hiking snacks. Stick with the classics, or experiment with what you can find at your grocery store. Here are some ideas for onigiri fillings for hiking.

• Canned or smoked salmon and sriracha mayo
• Canned tuna and mayo
• Avocado and ginger
• Mushroom and miso
• Egg and bacon
• Summer sausage and cheese
• Shredded chicken or pork and barbecue sauce
• Tofu and soy sauce

How to make onigiri

Onigiri is best for dayhikes, as bacteria can grow in cooked rice after just a couple of hours. Make them the morning of for best results, or store them in the fridge for up to two days before your hike.

Ingredients

• Japanese short grain rice (sometimes sold as sushi rice)*
• Salt
• Fillings of your choice
• 1 to 2 sheets of nori (optional)
• Furikake or sesame seeds (optional)

*Do not substitute for another kind of rice here—other grain shapes won’t provide the stickiness and texture needed to form a ball.

1. Prepare rice according to instructions on the package. (A cup of dry rice will make about five standard-sized onigiri.)
2. While the rice cooks, prepare your fillings. Be creative! Set aside.
3. If desired, prepare nori by cutting a sheet into thirds.
4. Form the onigiri. You can use a triangular mold or shape the balls by hand (triangles are traditional, but any shape will do). To do so by hand, wet your hands with salted water to prevent the rice from sticking to you. Scoop about ⅓ cup of warm rice into your palm. Using a spoon or your fingers, create an indent for your filling. Spoon 1 or 2 teaspoons of filling into the indent. Cover the filling with another spoonful of rice, then use your hands to pack the rice into a ball, sealing the filling inside. Shape into a triangle with your hands, or whatever shape you like.
5. If desired, coat the outside edge of your rice ball with sesame seeds or furikake (rice seasoning).
6. If you’re going to eat your onigiri right away, wrap with a sheet of nori. However, wrapping it ahead of time will cause the nori to get soggy, and most people prefer it crisp. For crisp nori, pack it separately.
7. Wrap onigiri in plastic wrap for the trail. (If you want that classic convenience store wrap that keeps nori crisp, you can purchase special onigiri wrappers online.) When ready to eat, wrap nori around the onigiri and enjoy.