Cooking tips to keep all campers happy

Whether you're toasting marshmallows or experimenting with campfire stews, embrace cooking and eating in the great outdoors with these tips…

Camping means something different to everyone. Some people are in it for the challenge, and relish building a working spit out of logs and cooking a full roast dinner over an applewood fire. For others, camping means having all the best gear – a gas cooker, a collapsible kitchen cupboard, and an electric hook-up to power the waffle iron.

Then of course there are those who want a holiday from everything, including the kitchen – for whom camping means the freedom to do as little as possible, savouring a diet of bacon sandwiches and toasted marshmallows.

Our tips will help you enjoy camping wherever you are on the continuum. Except maybe the dehydrated food crowd – you seem to know what you’re doing!

Take frozen food

Load your cool box with a bottle of frozen milk and frozen fruit and veg, which will thaw slowly and act as an extra ice block.

A thermometer inside the box will help you feel confident everything is safe. If you’re storing fridge food, it should be under 8°C. Try to keep the cool box out of direct sunlight and keep it closed as much as possible (using it as a table ensures you prioritise how often you clear it to get in there!).

If you have a lot of mouths to feed, and a lot of fun to have, boxes of frozen dal, chicken stew, lamb tagine or veggie chilli will defrost slowly and be ready to heat through for a hearty dinner after a long day. But don’t take more than you can realistically keep cold.

Great freezable options include:

• Flexible lentil stew
• Halloumi curry
• Easy chicken tagine

Best for: Families, active campers, the shopping-averse, preppers.

If you’re a regular camper, it’s worth keeping a streamlined box full of the basics, that you don’t unpack between trips. Include a dedicated box of your utensils, with the all-important bottle opener, a wooden spoon, slotted spoon, fish slice, tongs, grater and wooden skewers. Always keep salt, sugar and pepper in here too.

A few key spices will keep your food interesting. You can purchase a pack of four small plastic lidded pots or re-use those tiny jam jars from your cream tea. Smoked paprika, cumin, curry powder and cinnamon are good to take, as well as a box of stock cubes.

A small, screwtop bottle of oil – light olive oil is adaptable – is a must-have. Pack a sealable pot with butter if that’s non-negotiable on your campfire toast. The reason? The paper wrapper gets wet in the cool box and the butter can absorb other odours.

Couscous and bulgur wheat are great for camping as they don’t need a big pan of water to cook in. Mix together the couscous, half a crumbled stock cube, a little oil and seasoning in a jug or plastic box and just pour boiling water over to serve.

We’re not saying you should raid the service stations, but do hang on to your extra condiment sachets for camping, especially ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, mayo and mustard – all things that you might use in small quantities.

These grain-based dishes are quick to pull together

• Spiced bulgur wheat with roast vegetables
• Lemon and pomegranate couscous
• Baked sweet potato with roasted vegetables and bulgur wheat

Best for: Frequent campers, forgetful types, folks who like to stop at honesty boxes and improvise.

A roll of foil opens up plenty of possibilities if you have a barbecue without a lid.

• A flat piece of foil over a barbecue grill makes a frying pan surface for luscious cheese toasties, quesadillas or safe halloumi frying (lightly oil it first).
• Make [campfire burritos] for a crowd by wrapping up tortillas with a mix of beans, cooked rice, cheese, tomatoes, avocado, chilli sauce and any other fillings.
• Adapt traybakes like halloumi and roast veg or fish parcels that steam over the heat.
• Wrap up a box of camembert (plastic wrappings removed) with garlic slivers stuck in.
• Wrap cooked potatoes with some sliced onions and plenty of seasoning in an oiled foil packet for a quicker version of campfire jacket potatoes.
• Popcorn is do-able in a foil parcel if you can turn and shake it regularly to avoid burning, but a pan over gas is more reliable (if less romantic).

You could wrap the following up in foil

• The perfect baked potato
• Barbecue vegetables with almond sauce
• Bake in a bag fish

Best for: Everyone, take the foil!

It’s easier to prep some foods for the cool box at home, so they are on standby as short cuts to make the first few days of pitching camp a little easier. For example:

• Hard-boiled eggs or tuna mayo for sandwiches.
• Coleslaw that will keep crunchy for a couple of days.
• Boiled potatoes, cooked grains or pasta, which can be reheated in hot water or made into salad.
• Dips such as hummus or red pepper dip for pre-dinner snacks or veggie sandwiches.
• A pre-measured pancake mix in a clean milk bottle that just needs milk and a good shake.

These prep-at-home options will appeal

• Basic potato salad (add the sauce when you're camping)
• Healthy homemade coleslaw
• Super smooth hummus

Best for: Families with kids on the go, people light on cooking gear.

Wait, come back! If you have one kicking around, stews and all-in-one dishes taste amazing when cooked in a stainless steel paella pan over the coals of a barbecue. A paella pan is fairly flat and easy to slot into a packed car. Keeping the heat gentle and steady requires plenty of attention, but the possibilities are endless.

You can make a mega fried breakfast with potatoes and bacon or sausages, or a big pan of beef chilli or refried beans for incredible campfire nachos. You can of course make paella, too!

Use the pan over embers, not flames. The pan may have hotter and colder spots, depending on how it sits. The more even and gentle the better – slow cooking allows a deep, smoky flavour to develop.

You could use your pan to make these hearty options:

• Veggie breakfast fry up
• Huevos rancheros
• Crisp bacon rosti with fried eggs

Best for: Dedicated campfire/BBQ cooks, show-offs.

Hangry and camping don’t mix. Long walks or days on the beach use up a lot of energy, so keep healthy snacks of nuts and seeds, fresh and dried fruit, oat biscuits or crackers. No-cook energy balls or dried fruit bars are easier to whip up than you think and generate no plastic wrappers. And a malt loaf or sturdy fruit cake is never unwelcome with campfire tea.

If your campfire dinner is taking a little longer than you anticipated, make this quick no-cook cheese dip or tzatziki to eke those crisps out a bit further. Toast a few slices of bread on the barbecue or on a toasting stick and top with tomatoes, cheese or sizzling chorizo. If you want to show off, call them crostini.

Bring these snacks with you on holiday

• Easy fruit cake (Granny’s cake)
• Chickpea, date and cashew bites
• Perfect chocolate brownies

Best for: Hikers and active campers, tardy cooks.

The easiest pudding is a bag of marshmallows and a stick, but if that’s not your thing, try making a quick fruit fool or Eton mess. You just need a bowl and fork – whip the cream with the fork and squash together some ready-made meringues and local fruit. It doesn’t have to be strawberries and meringues (there’s no such thing as pudding police) – hedgerow blackberries and ginger biscuits are great. Welsh cakes – hot, coated in sugar, and easy to press between two plates if you haven’t brought the rolling pin (you haven’t?) cheer up the rainiest camping day.

S’mores is an American classic, sandwiching a toasted marshmallow and chocolate between two biscuits. We don’t have the traditional Graham crackers in the UK, so we have free rein to explore variations. The thinner version of chocolate digestives work well, as do cinnamon biscuits, chocolate cream-filled biscuits and ginger snaps.

If you can’t get enough of campfire food, wrap apple slices, apricot halves or drained, tinned peaches in a foil packet with a knob of butter and a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon. Seal and cook over the barbecue while you fry some muesli with butter and sugar to make a crunchy, toasty topping for an instant crumble.

These desserts could be made on the campfire

• Pancakes with sugar and lemon
• Barbecue strawberry skewers with chocolate sauce
• Barbecued apricots with honey, pistachios and mascarpone

Best for: Completists, kids with an extra pudding stomach.

Originally published August 2020. Updated August 2025

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