Kate Humble sometimes prefers to keep striding, rather than stopping to eat, so she fills her pockets with tasty bites she can nibble on the move. ‘Dates or dried apricots with some nuts in a little bag are brilliant to carry with you, and so much better than a processed energy bar,’ she says. ‘I also love Marmite and cheese oatcakes. They’re brilliant for when you want something salty and savoury, and much less heavy in the stomach than bread.’

Ben is a big fan of high-carbohydrate snacks that remain fine to eat even if they get a little smooshed in a backpack along the way. ‘Cold roast potatoes are an unsung hero,’ he says. ‘Roasted in olive oil and popped in a plastic bag with some nice flaky salt, they’re one of the most underrated foods.’

He also recommends full-fat Babybel cheese and a bag of chopped malt loaf or ginger cake mixed with dried fruit, nuts and dark chocolate (see recipe, above). He suggests eating before and during the hard sections of a walk to fuel the exertion.

The lunch munch

Again, a meal that’s made from whole foods and high in carbohydrates, healthy fats and protein is ideal for lunch (or dinner, if the walk is a multi-day one). ‘There’s no real reason why we need to go for gels and energy bars,’ Ben says. ‘Although it’s obviously fine to have them in the bottom of your pack in case your blood sugar plummets.’

French Alpine hikers swear by baguettes filled with ham and cheese for the ultimate portable lunch – and with good reason. ‘They’re full of the fuel we need,’ Ben says. He’s also fond of chicken, sweetcorn and mayonnaise sandwiches and wraps, which he’ll eat halfway through the morning while they’re still fresh. (Chicken shouldn’t be carried for long periods in warm weather, due to the risk of bad bacteria flourishing and causing food poisoning. It’s best to pack foods containing chicken or fish in a container in the middle of your backpack wrapped in a jacket, ideally with an ice pack.)

Tofu is also great in wraps or bread rolls. ‘Sliced miso- or soy-glazed tofu is one of my favourite things to put in a crusty bread roll,’ Ben says. ‘It tastes of Twiglets.’

On a multi-day walk, Ben takes a scrumptious evening meal packed into a tall jar: a mixture of soy sauce, miso paste, sesame oil, chicken stock and a splash of water at the bottom, topped with cooked rice noodles, sliced vegetables and tofu. ‘Tip it out into a bowl, and it’s the most insanely good thing to eat on the side of a hill,’ he says.

A pub lunch in the middle of a walk is hard to resist. But Ben suggests a proper meal might be better saved for after the walk, or you could feel heavy and sleepy. ‘A roast dinner is the perfect recovery food,’ he says.

On walks where Kate doesn’t plan to stop long for lunch, she carries a flatbread sandwich stuffed with cream cheese, crunchy peanut butter and lettuce. ‘Cut the sandwich into wedges and package them up separately to eat as and when,’ she says.

Perfect picnics

For a sociable winter picnic walk with friends, Kate might take flasks of hot soup – lentil and tomato is a favourite – along with sausages wrapped in foil, with a tiny pot of mustard to dip them in. ‘Our tradition on Christmas Day is a 10-mile [16km] walk with friends. We’ll have our lunch at a lovely spot that overlooks the sea, and then have my mum’s chocolate biscuit cake when we come down. It’s bliss.’

Alison Lockett-Burke, a chef who runs the catering company and supper club Fig and the Wild, regularly walks in the Welsh mountains – and for her, too, good food is an integral part of the pleasure.

‘As someone obsessed with food, what I take with me to eat is important, just because that act of sitting down on the side of a mountain to eat in silence deserves to be savoured,’ she says. ‘It’s never anything too complex or fancy. You need something that’s easily wrapped and not going to leak or spill.’

She might take a simple cheese sandwich, with top-quality components to make it special. ‘Strong Snowdonia Black Bomber Cheddar on a beautiful white bloomer,’ she explains. ‘I usually have some thickly sliced white onion in there for crunch, plenty of Shirgar Welsh salty butter and probably a smear of Hellmann’s mayo.’

Hydration obligation

Ben advises that walkers should take at least two litres of water on a long walk – and, most importantly, not forget to drink it. ‘Even experienced walkers underestimate how much they sweat,’ he says. The weather may be chilly, but you could be losing a litre or two of liquid every hour through perspiration on a winter hike.

Kate admits it can be tricky to make herself consume enough liquid on long walks, so she takes a bottle of drink made with half apple juice and half water. ‘You get a bit of a carb boost from the apple and it’s a good way to make sure you’re taking on board enough liquid,’ she says.

Ultimately, your walk will be richer if you carry food and drink that keeps you fuelled and brings you joy. A beautiful landscape, physical exertion, lungs full of clean air and soaring spirits deserve more than an energy gel, don’t they?

For more delicious recipes and nutrition inspiration, follow walk's food writer Sue Quinn on Instagram.