As making and enjoying good food is so important to us, we want to share some thoughts about how we prepare for outdoor dinners. We have also added in a few favourite recipes from other bloggers that we have been testing outdoors.
We often freestyle when making dinner on our trips. Either completely without a recipe or slightly inspired by one or several. The process is still very often the same, and below we have summarized what we usually consider in our preparations and what you need to think about if you seek inspiration for this.
Decide what kind of food you want to make. Are you feeling the tex mex? Something with a red wine sause? Or maybe some creamy pasta dish?
Choose a base: Potato, rice, pasta, couscous, quinoa and polenta are all very good as a base. It is important to get enough calories and carb loading is essential for long trips. If in doubt, always bring more of this than you think you will need.
Legumes such as beans, lenses and peas can easily replace meat or fish when cooking. It contains a lot of proteins and is more suited to bring along as it does not require cold storage as meat does. And not to mention the benefits for the planet... Bring the canned og presoaked versions.
Be creative with spices and seasoning. Spices creates a lot of flavour and reduces the need for salt. An all time favourite is fried chickpeas with warm spices such as coriander seeds, cardamom, cumin and smoked paprika. This can be added to any base. Another favourite is frying chickpeas with ground ginger, cinnamon and cumin, combined with a dressing of equal parts of maple syrup, sesame oil and peanut butter, with a dash of lemon. If you want tex mex, try mixing chilipowder, chiliflakes, dried oregano, cumin, ground paprika, garlic and salt and pepper at home. Combined with a can of tomatoes and a can of black beans you have a great start for a camping meal.
Choose your vegetables. The more spices you use for frying vegetables, the less it matters what kind of vegetables you eat. At least that is our experience. And almost anything tastes good with garlic powder. We usually choose something that is in season, if available.
If you are worried that your meal might be too dry, make a dressing. We recommend preparing dressings in advance. If you want to make a solid dressing you will usually need quite a few ingredients, so make it at home and bring it in a jar and pour it onto the yummyness you create on site. We love all kind of nut butter-dressings, as a vegan high protein option.
If you do not feel confident enough to make something without a recipe just jet, we have left a few links to some delicious recipes here, from other bloggers we love. We have tested these on our trips and would say they are suitable for outdoor cooking.
Green Kitchen Stories make delicious vegetarian food and we have tried making many of their recipes on our trips. We once tried a version of their vegan cauliflower pasta pesto. To make it more camping appropriate, we only made the pesto (at home) and poured it over pasta and broccoli, served with some cherry tomatoes. It turned out pretty nice!
Another time we did our take on their Grilled Asparagus & Creamy Lemon Quinoa. It does not look too fancy, but the creamy quinoa was so rich and yummy!
We would also recommend trying their Moroccan quinoa salad.
Another favourite is from Rabbit and Wolves. They have a recipe for vegan polenta with red wine mushrooms. As they write on their blog it is quick enough to be a week night meal but decadent enough to be a date night meal. What's not to love about that?!
And last but not least, we never forget drinks and dessert...
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