Easy campfire cooking

Whether it’s the open air, the open flame or the relaxed atmosphere, camp food is so delicious, and yet so simple.

Before you set out on your camping trip, you’ll need to know the campfire rules and safety tips specific to the campsite you’ve booked.

If campfires are permitted, it’s likely you’ll need to use your campsite’s existing firepit, if available. Make sure you have some cast-iron frying pans with wooden handles which will withstand the high temperatures.

If campfires are prohibited, it’s likely you’ll need to pack a portable camp stove or barbecue to cook your meals, unless the site has barbecue facilities. Be sure to know before you go!

Whatever the heat source, cooking basic camping recipes with minimal equipment, ingredients and methods means you’ll have less to pack, less to clean and more time to spend enjoying mealtimes with your camp buddies.

This easy meal plan designed for a three-day camping trip should offer some easy and delicious recipe ideas to follow. It can also help you create your own meal plan, grocery shop, prepare and pack before you set out on your first camping trip.

Day 1 (arrival): Dinner and Dessert

Dinner: Pasta with sauce

After setting up the campsite, you’ll appreciate this quick and easy first-night dinner to ease you in.

Serves: 4

Equipment:

• Firepit with grate, camp stove or barbecue
• 1x large saucepan
• Strainer
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients:

• 5 litres of water
• 500gm bag of dry pasta
• Pinch of salt
• 500ml of store-bought or homemade pasta sauce (Bolognese, Napoli, etc)
• Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Prepare your heat source
2. Fill your saucepan with water and a pinch of salt and place it on the grate or camp stove
3. Wait until the water is boiling, then add the bag of dry pasta
4. Cook for the suggested time before removing from the heat
5. Strain the water and return the cooked pasta to the same saucepan
6. Add the sauce and stir until heated through Top with parmesan cheese before serving

Dessert: Fruit Skewers

When grilled, the natural sugars in fruit caramelise, bringing out a unique sweet flavour.

Serves: 4

Equipment

• Firepit with or without a grate, or barbecue
• 4 metal BBQ skewers with wooden handles

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• ½ a pineapple
• 1 punnet of strawberries
• ½ a cantaloupe
• 2 peaches
• 4 apricots
• ¼ watermelon
• 3 figs
• Haloumi or feta cheese (optional)

Method:

1. Cut your selection of fruit into large cubes or small chunks
2. Thread the fruit onto the skewers
3. Hold and turn the skewers over an open flame or rest them on a grate, turning occasionally
4. Once the fruit has a chargrilled appearance, let cool before using a fork to pull them off the skewer to enjoy!

Day 2 (full day): Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner and Dessert

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs on toast

A breakfast classic which you can customise based on your personal tastes.

Serves: 2

Equipment:

• Firepit with grate, camp stove or barbecue
• 2x frying pans
• Mixing bowl
• Fork
• Serving spoon

Ingredients:

• Non-aerosol oil spray (stocked at major supermarkets or make your own)
• 4 eggs
• A splash of fresh or long life milk
• 4 slices of bread
• Optional sides: sliced tomatoes, avocado, cheese

Method:

1. To make the scrambled eggs
2. Prepare your heat source
3. Spray a frying pan with oil and place it on the grate or stovetop
4. While the oil heats, crack your eggs into a mixing bowl, add the milk and whisk together using a fork
5. Pour the egg mixture into the skillet and slowly move it around using the fork until the eggs are scrambled and cooked through

To make the toast

1. Lightly spray both sides of bread slices with oil
2. Place on a clean frying pan over your heat source or directly on the grate and turn until both sides are toasted

Serve scrambled eggs on toast on a plate with optional sides

Lunch: Jacket Potatoes

To make jacket potatoes on a campfire, you’ll need coals. Using salt in the cooking process, you’ll end up with delicious crispy skins and fluffy insides.

Serves: 2

Equipment:

• Firepit
• Coals
• Long tongs
• Pastry brush
• Aluminium foil

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes
• Butter
• Salt
• Toppings of choice: grated cheese, sour cream, spring onions

Method:

1. Prepare your campfire with a bed of coals
2. Once lit, let the fire die down a little so you have hot coals without the flames
3. Wash and dry the potatoes, and poke holes in them with a fork
4. Brush the skins with butter and sprinkle with salt
5. Wrap in two layers of aluminium foil and bury them in the hot coals
6. Check whether the insides are soft after 30-40 minutes using a fork
7. Once cooled, remove the foil, cut open and top with extra butter and your toppings of choice

Dinner: Hamburgers and sausages in bread

You can fry up your raw meat patties or sausages directly on the grate or barbecue grill. If you’re using a camp stove, you’ll need a frying pan or griddle.

Serves: 4

Equipment:

• Firepit with grate, camp stove or barbecue
• Large cast-iron frying pan or griddle with wooden handle
• Tongs (for sausages)
• Spatula (for meat patties)

Ingredients:

Method:

To make the meat fillings

1. Before preparing the heat source, spray the grate or griddle with oil
2. Once the heat is on, place the meat on and turn until cooked through

To make the fried onions

1. Drizzle the frying pan with generous lugs of oil and place it on the grate or stovetop
2. Fry the sliced onions in the oil until soft and translucent

To serve, place the meat and fried onions inside the fresh bread, rolls or buns and drizzle with your favourite sauce and/or mustard.

Dessert: Banana Boats

Banana boats are a creative and sweet take on the jacket potato and are cooked in a similar way, buried in hot coals or on a grate if you don’t have coals.

Serves: 2

Equipment:

• Firepit with or without coals, a grate or barbecue
• Long tongs with wooden handles
• Aluminium foil

Ingredients:

• 2 bananas
• Toppings such as: fresh strawberries, peanut butter, chopped nuts, choc chips or shredded coconut.

Method:

1. Prepare your campfire with a bed of coals (if you don’t have coals, you can use a grate)
2. With its peel still on, cut a split lengthways into the bananas until your knife just touches the peel on the other side
3. Open it up slightly and fill the ‘boat’ with your toppings of choice
4. Gently wrap the entire banana boat in two layers of aluminium foil
5. Bury them in the hot coals, or rest on a grate over a campfire or barbecue and turn occasionally
6. After ten minutes, remove from the heat, unwrap the foil and eat the melted sweetness straight out of the peel with a spoon

Day 3 (departure): Breakfast

Breakfast: Pancakes

Using milk powder, you can make the dry part of the pancake batter before you leave. Then, when you’re ready to cook, simply add the wet ingredients and fry.

Serves: 4

Equipment:

• Firepit with grate, camp stove or barbecue
• Large frying pan
• Mixing bowl
• Fork
• Large spoon or small ladle
• Spatula

Ingredients:

Dry (pre-mixed):

• 1 cup plain flour
• ¼ cup sugar
• ¼ cup dry milk powder
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon of salt

Wet:

• Butter (for frying)
• One cup water
• One egg

Method:

1. Mix the dry ingredients at home and store in an air-tight container
2. To make the batter on site, whisk your wet ingredients in a mixing bowl using a fork and then mix through your dry ingredients
3. Prepare your heat source
4. Add a bit of butter to the frying pan and once melted and distributed across the surface, spoon in mounds of pancake batter
5. Flip pancakes so both sides are cooked through