Cooking on camping trips – for some it´s necessary and inevitable, for other it´s the highlight of the day. Anyhow, we all agree we need to eat something and in this new post I´ve put together a list with descriptions of the equipment we use for cooking on camping and overland trips. From pots to stoves and other little things. Maybe some of you get some new ideas.

BBQ AND PORTABLE STOVES

What´s the best thing about camping and over land travels (besides sleeping out there in the middle of nowhere in the nature)? BBQ, of course! Well, at least for us. Cooking on open fire and in the nature might require a little bit more ingenuity and practise, but also some initial enthusiasm – some are just crazy about cooking on open fire and others think it´s totally overrated. We think cooking on open fire is not only economical (it basically costs nothing), but also very tasty. So, what do we use and need for cooking outdoors?

SPARE TYRE BBQ – from Front Runner, price around 140€. Surely, it´s not cheap but it´s totally worth its money and we would not change it for another one. You can stick it onto your spare tyre very conveniently and place it also on an uneven floor while cooking, The surface is partially flat and partially has smaller gaps. This allows different ways of cooking over an open fie and we can easily put our stainless steel pan or our Le Creuset pot on it.

SMALLER PORTABLE BBQ – we bough this one in a local supermarket for a little over 10€ and even though it is nothing fancy it is sometimes very useful, especially when we have no opportunity for making a real camp fire.

WATERPROOF BAG FOR WOOD & BBQ EQUIPMENT – when we´re travelling through places where we can easily make camp fires and BBQ dinners, this kind of bag comes very useful. In it we store our smaller portable BBQ, a bag with twigs and cones, wooden logs and other things to make a fire. Usually all of these are pretty dirty and it´s good to keep them all in one place. We carry the bag on the roof of our car, unless it´s raingin really hard – in that case we put it inside.

The picture above, shot somewhere in Finland, shows best how we do BBQ dinner – spare tyre bbq, portable smaller bbq, waterproof bag, folding aluminium table & chairs and other things.

LARGER GAS STOVE – portable gas stove Home & Away 2.0 is a great thing to have even though it does take up a little bit more space than we would have liked to. On it we can easily cook on our middle-sized pan which is really too big for the smaller gas stove we have as well. Also, I think kit´s a good idea to always carry a spare cartage of gas in case it runs out while you´re cooking (which btw is often the case).

SMALLER GAS STOVE – we also have a smaller gas stove from Primus which is very useful for making breakfasts and coffee in the mornings. We also make risottos, soups, pasta and things like this on it. For it we as well carry a spare cartage in case the old one runs out of gas.

POTS, PANS  & Co

PANS – for making the most of our meals we use a larger steel pan for BBQ (for making steaks, veggies and other things), we use one middle sized pan on the larger gas stove for practically anything and one mini pan for a sunny side up egg made on a smaller stove.

CAMPING SET OF DISHES – they are very practical because they normally fit in one another. There is a big choice of brands and varieties, we opt of the ones form Quechua in Decathlon and are very satisfied with what we got for the price we paid.

LE CRUSET POT – this one as well is not quite cheap but it´s worth all of its money and you have it for life. We love to use it at home as well, but mostly on the BBQ over the open fire. The only disadvantage of it is that it´s really heavy and not so practical to store in the car if you don´t have much space. That´s why we often store it in the waterproof bag mentioned above.

TEA POT – we prefer to drink coffee over tea but we are gladly using this aluminium pot for heating up water over the open fire anytime we need it. Not only for cooking but also when we need

to take a shower in the nature and we have no other hot water source.

PLATES – we have a couple of smaller and bigger enamel plates (bough in Ikea) which are very durable and a goo alternative to the plastic or ceramic plates.

GLASSES – because we like to drink a glass of wine here and there we are also carrying a couple of wine glasses with us. Of course not made out of real glass but out of hard plastic. We also have a couple of water glasses from the same series as well. We´ve been using them for quite a while not and exdce4pt for a couple of scratches they are still as good as new.

CUPS & COFFEE POT – for our morning coffee we use enamel cups and a special coffee making pot called “dzezva”. You can get really nice ones these days, we got our at ustvarjalnicarp.com. Check out their Instagram and order yours as well.

CUTLERY – since we don´t like to use the plastic cutlery, we always ake some forks, spoons, knives from home and always keep it in the car.

FOLDING STRAINER – a folding silicon strainer from Ikea turned out to be a very useful thing to have in the car. Also to wash the salads or to put a hot plate on it.

PLASTIC CUPS WITH LIDS – we also carry a couple of smaller hard plastic cups with us in case we need to store food leftovers or we make our own spreads. We also use these when we go hiking or when we want to make a picnic along the way.

BBQ NETS – we have a pair of BBW nets for grilled fish with us, especially because we love to eat fish and we sometimes fish on our own as well. You can for sure also use them to cook something meaty on the BBQ. .

A GOOD CUTTING KNIFE – we cannot live without a good cutting knife while camping. Sure you can also use any other knife but it´s just not the same. Therefore we always take our best ones with.

CHOPPING BOARD – we don´t go anywhere without at least one wooden shopping boars which can also be a good gadget for serving snacks and other dishes.

OTHER USEFUL THINGS

Besides the things mentioned above you can of course use lots of other little things while camping. Sure, everybody has their own way of cooking and camping so you need to try it a couple of times first to see what works the best for you, but here are some of our favourite gadgets and equipment besides the ones I have already mentioned.

So, we also always carry the following things: Thermos bottle (for tea when its cold or cool water when it´s hot), cans & bottles opener, potato peeler, mixing whisk, wooden sticks for skewers, aluminium foil for wrapping up food rests and preparing baked potatoes, paper & cotton kitchen towels, a cotton bag for bread, elastics, clippers, trash bags, cleaning sponge and foam, scrub brush for dirty dishes, head lamp and candles for cooking in the dark.

More about where we cook while on the road with our Defender and how we managed our cooking space in & around our car is coming up soon. But we sure have a great view while cooking most of the time!

To end this post I have to mention one more thing – please always make sure you pick up all your trash while camping and make sure you know the rules about making camp fires. Somewhere it is forbidden to do so in the dry season, somewhere at all times. Somewhere it is also not allowed to wild camp, so do your research forehand about this too. If you can, support local businesses and food farms.

For more ideas on what to cook and which food to take with you on camping / overland trips read the other two posts on the blog about CULINARY IDEAS and FOOD & INGREDIENTS on camping trips.