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Our 9 Favorite Camping Recipes

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Cooking, eating, and cleaning at your campsite can be a time of laughter, togetherness, and enjoyment -- if you plan ahead. Without planning, cooking can be a major source of camp frustration.

Since you're reading this, you're obviously a planning type. Let's see how to make your camp cooking a success.


Camping Meal Ideas

Our list of favorite camping recipes includes food you can make ahead of time, and recipes designed to make at the campsite.

Camping Breakfast Ideas

Baked Granola

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Cook time: 1 hour

Serves: 6

Ingredients

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1 pinch salt

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

5 cups oats, steel-cut

1 cup raw unsalted sunflower seeds

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1 cup salted mixed nuts

2 cups of dried fruit (such as cherries, raisins, cranberries, blueberries, pineapple, etc.)

Smoked Sausage & Potatoes

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Cook time: 50 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 pounds hot sausage links

2 pounds fingerling potatoes

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

4 tablespoons butter

Applewood Smoked Bacon

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Cook time: 2 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients

1/2 cup kosher salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 pounds pork belly, skin removed

Camping Lunch Ideas

Grilled Veggie Sandwich (make-ahead)

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Cook time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1½ cups chickpeas

1/3 cup tahini

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

4 tablespoons lemon juice

1 small eggplant, sliced into strips

1 small zucchini, sliced into strips

1 small yellow squash, sliced into strips

2 large portobello mushrooms

Olive oil

Lemon juice

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup ricotta cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

4 whole ciabatta buns, for serving

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Caramelized Onions

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Cook time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 medium yellow onions, quartered

1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon butter

Salt

Ground black pepper

8 slices bread

8 slices mozzarella cheese

8 slices fontina cheese

8 slices white cheddar cheese

Baja Style Fish Tacos

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Cook time: 20 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

MAIN

2 limes

1 pound of skinless white fish such as cod, monkfish or halibut

Traeger Veggie Rub

MARINADE

2 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

FOR SERVING

Shredded cabbage

Diced red onion

Cilantro leaves

Pickled jalapeño slices

Diced avocado

Pico de gallo or salsa

Sour cream

8 corn tortillas

Camping Dinner Ideas

Traeger Smoked Sausage (make-ahead)

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Cook time: 2 hours

Serves: 4

Ingredients

3 pounds of ground pork

1/2 tablespoon ground mustard

1 tablespoon onion powder

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon pink curing salt

1 tablespoon salt

4 teaspoons black pepper

1/2 cup ice water

Hog casings, soaked and rinsed in cold water

Tin Foil Dinner

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Cook time: 1 hour

Serves: 4

Ingredients

1 pound of stew meat

1 teaspoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon Traeger Veggie Rub

1 small red onion, chopped

2 green bell peppers, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

2 whole russet potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 sprigs thyme

8 tablespoons butter, cut in cubes

Kimi's Simple Grilled Fresh Fish

Grilled Fresh Fish

Cook time: 45 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients

1 cup soy sauce

1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

2 lemons, juiced

Fresh basil


The Basics of Camp Food and Cooking

This is the basic stuff you'll need to deliver delicious campsite meals.

Something to cook on: a portable grill

Food: premade foods, ingredients that need to be cooked, condiments or seasonings

Cooking equipment and other supplies: pots and pans, silverware, cooking utensils, cooler, and cleaning supplies

The specific equipment you'll bring will vary depending on the type of camping you're doing.

If you're backpacking -- hiking into your campsite, rather than driving to it -- you'll want to keep your cooking supplies light and compact.

If you can drive to your campsite (aka car camping), you'll have room for bulkier items. But you need to provide your own means of cooking and refrigeration.

If you're camping in an RV, you have most of the comforts of home like a stove and refrigerator. You can cook just like you would at home which is a benefit on stormy days. But on nice evenings, you may want to cook outside, instead.

Fishing and Foraging While Camping

There's no better feeling than catching a fish and bringing it back to the campsite for the ultimate fresh seafood dinner. In some areas, you may also be able to forage fruits and vegetables. Still, you should pack enough food to sustain you in case you aren't successful.


Backpacking Camping Supplies and Food

Carrying everything on your back (plus the need to pack out your trash) makes backpack cooking a delicate balance.

Backpacking Camping Stove

The best stove option for backpacking is a single burner propane stove. Anything larger will be uncomfortably heavy to carry long distances.

Backpacking Camping Food

When planning your backpacking food menu, lean heavily on foods that don't require cooking or that you can cook ahead of time, like trail mix and beef jerky. You won't want to be carrying a cooler full of ice, so you'll be sticking with foods that are shelf stable -- they don't need to be refrigerated.

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It is nice to have a warm meal at the end of a long day of hiking. But your single burner stove doesn't have very much cooking power, and they're best for boiling water. So for dinners, consider pasta, instant noodles, or freeze-dried food packets.

Backpacking Camping Cooking Utensils and Supplies

Again, you'll want to stay light. However appealing camp biscuits are, you're not going to pack a cast-iron stove on a backpacking trip. Thin aluminum pots are ideal because they heat up very quickly.

When you're backpacking, you're almost always going to places without regular trash collection. It's your responsibility to pack out your waste.

For this reason, you'll want reusable silverware and plates -- not disposable ones -- to save space on the way in and out. If adding boiling water is the only form of cooking you're doing, you shouldn't really need cooking implements like a spatula, tongs, or serving spoons.

For cleanup, highly-concentrated, biodegradable dish soap will take up less space. Since you'll be packing out your trash along with your other belongings, bring resealable plastic bags to prevent spills and leaks.


Drive-up Camping Supplies and Food

Your car or truck can haul heavy items and serve as a power source.

Drive-up Camping Grill

With a power inverter, you can use your car battery to run a portable wood pellet grill. The wood fired flavor and temperature control of a Traeger, opens up a whole world of grilling and smoking -- techniques you can't use with a propane stove.

Here, chef and fishing guide Taite Pearson shows how he uses his Traeger Ranger to provide high-end meals in the Idaho backcountry.

Drive-up Camping Food

Even though you'll have more cooking power, it's nice to have some nutritious, nonperishable food for snacks and to keep you powered up on hikes or other adventures. Consider bringing items like trail mix, jerky, and fresh fruit. Prepackaged food like pasta and bottled sauce, or instant noodles, can make for easy meals that cook quickly.

Meat, dairy, and other refrigerated foods must go in a cooler. Consider your cooler space as you plan your meals. You can only bring as much refrigerated food as you have cooler space.

You don't want to pack a pantry's worth of condiments and seasonings. So as you plan, try to choose recipes that use the same seasonings and other ingredients.

It's a good idea to have one cooler for drinks and another for meats, dairy, and other perishable foods. You and your campmates will frequently open the drinks cooler for hydration purposes. The other cooler can stay closed, helping refrigerated items stay safely cooled.

Drive-up Camping Cooking Utensils and Supplies

Job number one: Don't forget the can opener!

Beyond that, planning meals ahead will help you choose the kitchen implements you need. Tongs are a good multipurpose tool, and can keep your hands safe if you do any campfire cooking. But if you're planning to make anything flippable like burgers or pancakes, you really will need a good spatula.

The same thing goes for pots and pans. Pasta is an easy choice for camping, but do you have a pot big enough to cook pasta for the whole group? A nonstick skillet is nice to have if it’s light and easy to clean.

If you're headed to a state park or private campground with regular trash collection, bringing disposable plates and silverware will make cleanup less of a chore. But dishes that you can clean are a more economical and eco-friendly choice.

Even if you bring paper plates, you'll still need to clean pots, pans, and stirrers after every meal. Make sure to bring tubs for washing, dish soap, and scrubbers. Set up a dishwashing station well away from your tents, so you don't have dirty water seeping into your sleeping area.


RV Camping Supplies and Food

An RV provides most of the comforts of home. But you didn't drive it out to the campsite just to sit inside, did you? Here are some ideas for enjoying the great outdoors while you cook.

RV Camping Grill

You can certainly use the stove in your RV kitchen. But with the electricity from your RV, you can easily power up a portable Traeger grill and enjoy the sights and sounds of nature while cooking outside.

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A wood pellet grill also has the versatility to smoke, roast, and bake — a nice option if your RV doesn't have an oven.

RV Camping Food

An RV fridge is a huge convenience, but doesn't provide unlimited space. It pays to plan meals ahead of your supply run, so you only buy what you need.

With a wood pellet grill powered by electricity, you can smoke and roast meats, filling your campsite with the pleasing aroma of natural wood smoke. If you feel like a day of lounging, smoking a nice hunk of pork or beef in a Traeger is a nice way to spend it. Leftovers can be stored in your fridge for sandwiches on the go -- saving you a stop at a busy truck stop or drive-through.

RV Camping Cooking Utensils and Supplies

An RV has enough space to store basic cooking utensils, dishes, silverware, and clean-up supplies.

You may also want to stock outdoor cooking supplies like skewers, long-handled tongs, and cast-iron pans.

Traeger Smoked Sausage

by Traeger Kitchen

Prep Time

30 Min

Cook Time

2 Hr

Serves

4

Pellets

Mesquite

Pork to fork wood-fired goodness. Ground pork, onion, garlic, and ground mustard pair perfectly with this homemade mesquite-smoked sausage. You'll never go back to store-bought.

Ingredients
3 Poundground pork
1/2 Tablespoonground mustard
1 Tablespoononion powder
1 Tablespoongarlic powder
1/2 Teaspoonpink curing salt
1 Tablespoonkosher salt
4 Teaspoonfreshly ground black pepper
1/2 Cupice water
Hog casings, soaked and rinsed in cold water
    Steps
  • 1

    In a medium bowl, combine the ground pork, ground mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, pink curing salt, kosher salt, and black pepper and mix until the seasonings are well incorporated.

  • 2

    Add the ice water to the pork mixture and mix with your hands, working quickly, until incorporated.

  • 3

    Place the pork mixture into a sausage stuffer and stuff it into the hog casing, following the manufacturer's instructions. Do not overstuff or the casing may burst.

  • 4

    Once the casing is stuffed, determine your desired link length and pinch and twist a couple of times or tie it off at even intervals until the entire length is divided into links.

  • 5

    When ready to cook, set the Traeger temperature to 225℉ and preheat with the lid closed for 15 minutes. For optimal flavor, use Super Smoke, if available.

  • 6

    Insert the probe into the thickest part of one of the links. Place the links directly on the grill grates, close the lid, and cook until the internal temperature registers 155℉, 1-2 hours. Let the sausage rest for a few minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

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