Camping cuisine need not be limited to sausages and marshmallows. With a small gas stove, a knife, and a spork, you can prepare flavorful meals that rival those from a fancy hotel restaurant, according to a recent article in Feast. The key is to focus on one or two versatile ingredients that don't require refrigeration, such as cured chorizo and feta cheese, and build meals around them.
Simple Ingredients, Big Flavor
During a week-long camping trip in Devon, the author relied on chorizo and feta as flavor bombs, along with olive oil, chilli sauce, and salt. These staples turned simple finds from local village shops into feasts. For instance, blackening aubergines over a fire pit yielded a sort of baba ganoush (without tahini), served with supermarket pitta, feta, and cherry tomatoes.
Eggs also proved invaluable. Farm campsites often sell their own eggs, and with bread, they make quick meals: scrambled eggs with chorizo, nettle tortilla, or fried egg rolls with squashed tomatoes. The article notes that no fancy hotel restaurant could compete with a meal enjoyed by a gently babbling brook.
Recipe Inspiration from Chefs
The article highlights recipes from chefs like Joe Woodhouse, Thomasina Miers, and Yotam Ottolenghi. Woodhouse offers ideas for sweetcorn salsa, shredded cabbage with blue cheese and kidney bean salad, and Moroccan carrot salad. Miers' piperade with baked eggs and crispy chorizo is a flavor bomb, though some spices could be swapped for Tabasco. Ottolenghi's watermelon and basil salad or Nigel Slater's feta and puy lentil salad (made with tinned lentils to save fuel) are also recommended.
Claudia Roden's spicy potatoes from Rioja and Georgina Hayden's blackberry, feta, and seed salad are ideal for camping, as one main ingredient (blackberries) comes into season soon. For fire pits, aubergines can be blackened over flames for baba ganoush.
Beyond Main Meals: Cake and Drinks
The author also shares a triumph: a triple-chocolate malt cake made for a Substack summer fete, decorated with a cairn terrier design inspired by Chelsey of Chelsweets. For drinks, a cold brew jug is recommended for caffeine-dependent campers, using coarsely ground beans from Rave. Cherries from the National Fruit Collection at Brogdale can be frozen for later use, made into Uzbek cherry punch, or pickled for salads.
For those following the Tour de France, team chefs prepare meals for athletes burning 6,000 calories a day, with regional specialties highlighted on the Tour's website. TNT commentator Jonathan Harris-Bass posts a recipe daily on Instagram throughout the tour.
