Camping and caravanning is a great way to explore the UK and its tourist attractions. Sometimes, there’s no better way to spend a weekend with the family than hiking across the Peak District or mountain biking up Snowdonia. If that all sounds a bit too active, there’s plenty of campsites and caravan parks situated on the coast, meaning that you can enjoy a seaside holiday on your doorstep.
When you’re camping it can often be inconvenient - and expensive - to eat out all the time. But there’s plenty of easy recipes you can make with just a saucepan and a camping stove. Ingredients like ready cooked rice and grains, tinned potatoes and fish don’t go off and can all be used to create delicious campfire meals. Why limit yourself to a tin of beans cooked over a Calor Gas stove when you could be cooking risotto, shakshuka and even cakes baked inside oranges?
Brilliant Brunches
Everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, particularly if that day involves a lot of physical activity. BBC Good Food’s Campfire Smokey Bean Brekkie is just the thing to provide your family with plenty of energy for a full day out. Best of all, everything can be cooked in a large frying pan meaning you can spend more time eating and less time arguing over who’s going to be doing the washing up.
If you’re looking for a brunch that is lighter on the meat but heavy on the protein, try our great recipe for Shakshuka. This popular Middle Eastern dish comprises eggs cooked in a spicy tomato sauce and only takes ten minutes to cook on a camping stove. If you’re looking to bulk it up a bit, you can throw in a tin of cannellini or black beans. We suggest having plenty of toast on hand to mop all of that yummy tomato sauce.
What’s for dinner?
After a long day in the great outdoors, you’ll be wanting something substantial - and tasty - which can be thrown together quickly. Thankfully, Foodie Quine has us covered with her Coconut, Prawn and Spinach Camping Risotto. It combines pre cooked rice with pre cooked prawns and creamed coconut to create an easy dinner sure to please the whole family. If you don’t have prawns readily available - or you’re worried about keeping them in a coolbox for too long - try making this with tinned salmon instead.
One pan recipes are the savior of camping holidays, as seen with The Hedge Comber’s recipe for Sausage and Cider Campfire Skillet. This requires a bit of forward planning, as she suggests cooking up a batch of potatoes the night before to ensure that they crisp up when they’re cooked in the skillet. However, it’s totally worth it for all those delicious crispy bits.
Unique Sweets
Just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you have to miss out on our favourite course, dessert! If you’ve ever wondered what a ‘S’More,’ is, now’s the time to find out. This traditional American campfire treat sandwiches a square of chocolate and a marshmallow between two biscuits which is then cooked over a fire. All of the ingredients melt together to create something toasty, ooey and gooey. Try Almost the Weekend' recipe for UK S'Mores. Once toasted over the fire, you can squish everything together for a delightfully messy treat.
You’ve heard of mug cake and microwave cake. Now try ‘cooked inside an orange’ cake. Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary’s Chocolate Orange Campfire Cake is one of the most unique recipes we’ve ever seen. A cake mix is poured into a hollowed out orange and then cooked over a fire. It’s an incredibly clever idea and biodegradable too! Now that does sound delicious.
