Best meals to make while camping

Sometimes you miss the comforts of home when you’re on a Cornwall camping holiday and one of them is food.

Cooking while camping can feel like a chore, but that is only because you have to settle for a boring meal. With these recipes, you can proudly produce a number of tasty dishes for your friends and family to enjoy at your holiday park in Cornwall.

Campfire Pizza

Ingredients:

1 pre-made pizza base
1 medium onion, diced

3-4 tablespoons olive oil

Handful of basil leaves

2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped

250g cherry tomatoes, halved

4-5 tablespoons passata

50g grated cheddar

Instructions:

​Put three tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan, then add the onion and garlic. Cook for five minutes, then add tomatoes and passata. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, before removing from heat and then stir in the basil. Leave to cool.

1. Put the remaining oil in another pan and press in the dough to cook until golden, should be 10 minutes.
2. Spread sauce onto base, evenly add the cheese and place back onto heat until the cheese melts.
3. Bring with you extra toppings of your choice, or you can buy them to personalise your pizza. To spice it up, add chilli powder to the passata before mixing onto base, or drizzle pesto on the top for extra flavour.

Campfire Lasagne

Ingredients

8 oz. of lasagne sheets, brake into 1 inch pieces
1 tsp salt

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

¼ tsp chilli flakes

2 Handfuls of salami, diced

2 Handfuls of tomatoes

4.5 oz. tube sundried tomato paste

3 oz. cheese

Instructions

1. Using the same pot/pan, fill with water and pasta and bring to boil, seasoning to taste.
2. While the pasta cooks until al dente, cut the tomatoes into halves and slice the cheese into ½ inch pieces.
3. Drain the pasta, keeping about half an inch of water in the pan. Put fan back onto heat, adding half of the tomato pasta and all of the seasonings and spices. Keep stirring and once the sauce becomes thick, add remaining tomato paste.
4. Finally add salami with the fat and cheese and stir. Layer or place into pan with added cheese and continue to stir to mix it in. On a lower heat, add the final layer of cheese and tomatoes and leave to melt on top.

Foil Grilled barbeque chicken

Ingredients

8 tin foil sheets to wrap around the chicken breasts

4 skinless and boneless chicken breasts

120ml barbecue sauce

1 zucchini, sliced into thin rounds

1 bell pepper, cut into thin strips

8 asparagus spears

Extra virgin olive oil

Instructions

1. Place a grill over your fire.
2. Place two sheets of foil one-atop the other and put one breast in each sheet, seasoning with salt and pepper.
3. Coat each breast with one to two tablespoons of your barbecue sauce, you can have more or less depending on taste.
4. Place vegetables around the breast in their individual parcel evenly, seasoning if necessary. Drizzle with olive oil.
5. Fold up the parcels so that the chicken is completely covered and seal. Place the parcels onto the grill and leave to cook for 20-30 minutes.
6. Check the chicken after 20 minutes, you can move it around the grill for extra heat or less heat depending on progress. Turn it over once.
7. Let the chicken rest for a few minutes before serving.

Cheesy dip in foil

Ingredients

2 sheets of tin foil

1 250 g container of Philadalphia Herb & Garlic Cream Cheese, or similar soft cheese

180ml salsa

1 diced tomato

1 sliced green onion

Instructions

1. Put the cream cheese on two layers of tin foil and add salsa, tomato and onion and wrap into parcel.
2. Place the foil pouch into warm-hot embers for 5 minutes. After this time, open and check that the cheese is now melted and warm. If not, return to the embers.
3. Add further ingredients like bacon, sauces, or varieties of salsa to the cheese for variety and option.
4. Enjoy with bread, crisps or anything you can dunk!

Sticky sausage wheel

Ingredients

12 Chipolatas linked together

1 Teaspoon of oil

250ml cider

2 tbsp wholegrain mustard

2 tbsp clear honey

For the salad

1 lemon juiced and zested

1 tbsp clear honey

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ small celeriac peeled

2 carrot peeled

2 raw beetroot peeled

1 apple

100g mixed seed (toasted if you have a spare pan)

Instructions

1. Keep the chipolatas linked together, carefully untwist them and squeeze to make one long sausage. Roll the sausage into a cartwheel, before holding it in place with two wooden skewers in the shape of a cross.
2. Put oil into large frying pan and heat. Place in the sausage wheel and cook for 8-10 mins until brown, before flipping and cooking on the other side for a further 8-10 mins.
3. Mix cider, honey and extra mustard together until smooth and pour onto the sausage. Let it bubble and thicken for about 10 minutes, until it becomes a glaze.
4. For the salad, mix the honey, oil and lemon juice and zest in a large bowl, adding seasoning. Grate the apple, celeriac, carrots and beetroots into the bowl with the seeds and toss.
5. Cut the sausage into sections and serve with salad and condiments.

Don’t fancy a salad with your sausage? Then why not try making a baked potato. Gav from Get Out With the Kids has given us his tip for cooking a baked potato on your camping trip.

• Wash your potato then cut it open as you would do normally after cooking.
• Place some butter or margarine inside the potato. This helps prevent the inside of the potato drying out and makes it cook better.
• Wrap the potato in two layers of foil. Keep the shiny side of the foil on the inside.
• Place the potato in hot embers, not directly in the flames, which will burn your potato.
• You will need to turn the potato every 10 minutes or so and check that the foil isn’t burning through. If it is, move the potato to somewhere cooler.
• Expect the potato to take at least 45 minutes to cook. You will need to open the foil up and check it is cooked through. As the heat from the fire is difficult to control you may have to put it back on a few times.

You can add tasty toppings to your potato during or after, like cheese, bacon, beans, mince or simply enjoy on its own.

Spiced baked potato and egg

Ingredients

3 large potatoes (depending on how many you are serving)

60ml olive oil

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

1/2 tsp minced garlic (dried or fresh)

1/2 tsp curry powder seasoning with turmeric

1/4 tsp sea salt and black pepper each

4 eggs

Foil

Instructions

1. Cut potatoes into chunks – smaller than roast potatoes – and part boil them. Put them into a large bowl with olive oil, spices, seasoning and toss until covered.
2. Put the potatoes into four 8×8 or 9×9 pieces of foil and fold them securely into a parcel. Place the parcels into the embers of the fire, (be sure not to place into the fire otherwise they could burn) for 15-20 minutes until tender.
3. Carefully remove and crack an egg on top of the potatoes in each pack and carefully place back into embers for a further 10 minutes or until yolks look firm but not overcooked.
4. Remove and add extras like cheese, spices, chillies and seasoning and put onto plates or eat from the foil.
5. You can add extras before, during and after. Try cutting up small pieces of bacon, adding cheese or use sweet potatoes for a great meal.

Image Credit: cyclonebill,  Nat Tarbox, daveynin (Flickr)