Easy and Tasty Campfire Recipes

Our competition to win a tripod campfire cooking set inspired some talented outdoor cooks to come up with a host of delicious recipes.

Here are just some of their mouthwatering dishes – all seasoned with fresh air and fun.

kotlich cooking

Tracy Green’s Sausage Stew

kotlich stew

Tracy Green cooks up a delicious sausage stew in a borrowed kotlich.

We cooked this stew whilst glamping recently, using the glampsite’s kotlich equipment (which we all fell in love with). It’s hearty, chunky and warming.

  • 6-8 sausages (veggie or vegan ones will work too)
  • 1 onion (chopped)
  • 6 large carrots (chopped)
  • 5 large potatoes (chopped
  • 3 large parsnips (chopped)
  • 1.5 pints of stock
  • 1 tbsp cornflour (or something to thicken the stock)
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • Crusty granary bread

Add a little oil to the pot and fry off the sausages. Remove and set to the side. Add the onion to the pot and fry until light brown. Add chopped carrots, potatoes and parsnips to the pot. Add the stock and cornflour and bring to a steady simmer. Cut the sausages in half and add to the pot.

Leave kotlich pot cooking over the camp fire for 45 minutes to an hour. Serve in bowls with a hunk of crusty bread.

Donna Campbell’s Chocolate Chilli – our kotlich competition winner!

campfire goulash

I got my inspiration from A Girl Called Jack by Jack Monroe. The recipe serves three to four people.

  • 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans in chilli sauce and 1 x 400g tin of baked beans
  • 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 small chilli
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 veg stock cube
  • 4 squares of dark chocolate

Peel and dice onion, garlic and chilli. Add oil to the kotlich and fry onion till translucent. Add garlic, chopped chilli, paprika and cumin and fry for a few minutes. Add red kidney beans in chilli sauce, baked beans and tomatoes.

Crumble stock cube into pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Remove from heat and stir in the chocolate till melted. Served with baked potatoes or rice.

Christopher Hobbs’ Goulash

campfire cooking

A real Hungarian gulyas simmering nicely in north Wales.

My friend David, who’s Hungarian, made this Aporka Gulyas. We made it by the beach in Borth y Gest in North Wales. It was delicious. Aporka is a village south of Budapest, by the way. Serves six.

  •  750g beef chopped to 2cm cubes (tastes good without the meat too. Add some chickpeas for protein)
  • 8-10  carrots
  • 4-6 parsnips
  • half celeriac
  • 3 onions
  • 4 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped into small pieces (omit, of course, for a veggie/vegan option)
  • 6-8 medium potatoes
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp black pepper
  • dried basil and dried thyme
  • 1 whole garlic, chopped small
  • 4 tomatoes chopped small
  • 1 packet of passata
  • 1 red pepper chopped small
  • 1 bay leaf
  • A glass of dry red wine

Fry the bacon, then add the onion, and the red pepper, after a few minutes add the tomatoes. When it’s all browned, add the paprika and then the meat, the garlic and the black pepper and salt and herbs. When the meat is brown, add a glass of red wine and let it cook for a bit. Add enough water to cover the meat, but no more. Add the bay leaf.

Wait until the meat is fully cooked (you can add more black pepper and salt if you want) add the chopped vegetables, then add enough water to cover everything, along with the passata. It’s ready as soon as the vegetables are cooked.

The Johnson-Renshaw Family’s Fish Chowder

fish chowder

Our family always has this meal bubbling away on our first night of camp. It is easy to prepare, tasty and nourishing. It’d work fabulously in a kotlich and is a perfect seaside camping recipe. Serves four.

  • 2 diced carrots
  • 1 large onion
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • Podded peas
  • 2/3 smoked haddock fillets
  • Small tub of single cream
  • Fish stock cube
  • 3 large potatoes diced
  • A handful of spinach
  • Black pepper & cayenne pepper to taste

Fry the onions and carrots in the kotlich. Add the potatoes, peas and stock. Simmer till the potatoes are soft, then add the peas. Five minutes before serving, add the diced fish. Stir in the cream, spinach and pepper just before serving. Eat with some crusty bread.


cooking outdoors campfire kotlich

Richard and Elsie Hopewell’s Sausage and Beer Casserole

Another recipe based on the Jack Monroe book and one that’s infinitely adaptable to whatever ingredients you have around. Using a BBQ Toro Tripod set. Thanks, Jack! 

  • Sausages (we use two per person, usually pork but sometimes meat-free)
  • 2 chopped onions
  • 2 fat cloves of garlic, chopped or crushed
  • Big tin of butter beans (or baked beans, if you prefer)
  • Half a bottle of red wine
  • 250g chopped mushrooms
  • 400g tin chopped tomatoes (or use whole ones and mash them during cooking)
  • Herbs or spices to taste (we use coriander, but use what you like)
  • Oil for cooking

Put oil in the pan, heat until the oil is reasonably hot and drop in the pricked sausages. After a couple of minutes, add the onions and the garlic. If you are using spices rather than herbs, add them now.

Cook, stirring occasionally to stop anything sticking, until the sausages have browned nicely. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until they reduce

in size a bit (usually only a few minutes). Once everything looks as though it’s going well, add the tomatoes (and mash if necessary) and then the wine. Finally add the herbs, if you are using them, and give it all a good stir. Reduce the heat a bit and cook for 25 to 30 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid sticking.

Eat with fresh, crusty bread.

Kate and Rachel’s Magic Daal

kotlich dal

We love this recipe, and it would work perfectly in the kotlich. We call it Sami’s Magic Daal because our friend Sami makes it. We think she got it from someone else, who got it from someone else… So who knows where it came from in the first place. Serves eight to 10 people.

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 1/2 cup quinoa
  • 1/2 cup pulse any kind – lentils work well
  • 1 large red onion or 2 leeks
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • Grated ginger – approx 3” piece
  • 1 chilli
  • 3 tbsp crushed mixed Indian spices (have a look at our ideas for carrying spices when camping)
  • 1 large butternut squash
  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 2 carrots
  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 large courgette
  • Basically any veg you want….
  • Around 3 pints of vegetable stock
  • Fresh coriander and lime/ lemon juice to serve

Gently fry onion, garlic, ginger, chilli and spice until translucent. Add grains, pulses, veg and stock. Simmer gently until cooked. Add chopped coriander or parsley and juice. Serve with love.

Read our 

Campfire Tripod Cooking – The Best Three-Legged Cook Guide (3 Legs)

Books

Camping cooking tips and veggie/vegan recipe books

If you like vegetable dishes with great flavour and a bit of flair, the books below are the ones we use the most. 

Planted just happens to be vegan (though the chef-author isn’t). Veggiestan is middle-eastern and Vegan Street Food is Indian and south-east Asian cooking. Many of the recipes are too complicated and rich in ingredients for camping, but they’re very adaptable (and so are we!).

Have a look at our travelling spice ideas below.

Vindar Spice Holder 12 Sets
Veggie BBQ: 10 brand-new Lean in 15 recipes
Charred: The complete guide to vegetarian grilling and barbecue (Vegetarian BBQ Cookbook)
Vegan Street Food: Foodie travels from India to Indonesia
Veggiestan: A Vegetable Lover's Tour of the Middle East
Planted: Stunning seasonal vegan dishes: A chef's show-stopping vegan recipes
Fresh Veggie BBQ: All-natural & delicious recipes from the grill

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