Easy Camping Meals (no fridge)

You can make many easy camping meals by cooking dried pulses over an open fire, just like the cowboy baked beans featured in the Spaghetti Western. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, they are healthy and simple campfire dinners made from scratch, no fridge no cooler needed. Whether you are in the wild of a camping site or in the warmth of your own fireplace, these slow-cooked creamy vegan or vegetarian campfire meals will carry you in a Sergio Leone's movie, sitting right next to Clint Eastwood.

Jump to:

• Canned vs dried pulse
• Soaking dried pulses
• Preparing the fire for cooking
• Preparing the pulses for cooking
• Cooking over the open fire
• What pot to use
• How to serve them
• More campfire recipes
• Cowboy baked beans
• Origin of these easy campfire food ideas
• 📋Easy Camping Meals (no fridge)

Canned vs dried pulse

Pulses are crops harvested solely as dry grains, they include all beans, peas, lentils and chickpeas.

Many camping recipes used canned pulses, and while it is faster and more convenient, dried pulses are so much better.

• You can find a larger variety of dried beans and pulses and you can make a different meal each time.
• You can mix different pulses together and they are much tastier, especially if cooked from scratch on the open fire.
• If you are camping in the wild, they are lighter to carry, and that is a good enough reason for me.
• You can make one pot camping meals by adding foraged wild vegetables like mushrooms, asparagus or fennel.
• They are the perfect side dish for a wild-caught fish
• You are in open nature, enjoy natural ingredients

Soaking dried pulses

If you are cooking dried pulses, either on an open fire or on a regular stove, you always have to soak them in water the day before.

Chickpeas, beans or dried pulses should be soaking in water for at least 12 hours. Use a large bowl and cover with abundant water as they increase in size.

Before you use them, throw away the water and rinse them a couple of times. Make sure there are no stones hiding in between.

N.B. In this recipe you can use any type of dried beans, chickpeas, or pulses.

Preparing the fire for cooking

The pulses are cooked in a clay cooker or in a cast iron Dutch oven next to the open fire.

The clay cooker should not be too close to the live flame. You need to start the fire at least 1 hour before so you have enough charcoal or ember to put next to the pot to start the cooking process.

Once the fire is ready, you will need to keep the burning wood on one side, the charcoal and the ember in the middle and the pot on the other side.

As it has to cook for a long time, at least 2 hours, make sure you have wood-burning on the side so you can add more charcoal and ember as time goes by.

If you are cooking them at home and you have a glassed enclosed fireplace you can leave the pot next to the ember during the night. Just make sure there is enough water in the pot before you go to bed.

If you hear the water bubbling, it means that the pulses are still cooking.

Preparing the pulses for cooking

Once the pulses have been soaked for at least 12 hours and they are ready to be cooked, rinse them a couple of times and pour them in the clay cooker.

Some clay cookers also needs to be soaked in water, check more about cooking pots below.

Vegan version

Whatever pulses you are using the ingredients are the same:

• 1 diced carrot
• 1 diced onion
• 3 chopped fresh long tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 3 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil, and
• salt
• You can also use a Bouquet Garni which is bay leaves, sage, and thyme wrapped into a leek leaf and tight with a cooking string.

If you are not vegan, you can add cheese or bacon. See more below.

Cooking over the open fire

1. Once all the ingredients are ready, pour all the ingredients inside the clay cooker, cover with water, and put it next to the charcoal.
2. Do not fill the pot with water all the way to the top as the pulses will increase in volume while cooking.
3. Keep next to the fire a bowl of water, a wooden spoon, and bbq fire-resistant gloves.
4. Cover the cooker with the lid or with aluminum foil. Let it cook for at least 1 hour before checking if more water is needed.
5. The beans or chickpeas are cooking in the steam, so it is important the lid is not continuously opened.
6. To make sure they are cooking you will hear a bubbling sound coming from the pot.
7. Every 1-hour check if you need to add water.
8. If you need, add water to the pot and stir.
9. Make sure there is always some charcoal or ember next to the pot to maintain the heat.
10. Cook for at least 2 hours or more if necessary, the water should become creamy and the pulse will break a little, but that is ok.

What pot to use

My sister bought hers and my pots at a local artisan market. It is made of clay, very rustic, glazed in the inside but not on the outside.

If you find one at your local artisan market I would recommend buying it. Make sure it is lead-free. I found one on Amazon but it is on the costly side: Clay Cooker (affiliate link)

You can otherwise buy a cast iron Dutch oven at a more reasonable price.

If you are using a clay cooker, read the instructions carefully, and double-check that they are safe to use on an open fire. Usually, they need to be soaked in water for 1 hour before using it.

Be careful, when you cook, clay cookers should not be next to a live flame, but close to an ember. Read the recipe carefully before you start.

Variations

If you are not vegan or vegetarian, add some bacon or guanciale and/or a hard piece of parmesan cheese or pecorino.

If you don't have young children, you can also add some dried chili to make it spicy. We do love spicy food so we add plenty.

N.B.: check notes on how to handle hot chili

How to serve them

Once the chickpeas or beans are ready you can serve them in a bowl with some fresh bread. Since you are in the wild, you may be able to forage some wild fennel fronds or dill as it gives a nice aniseed flavor to the creamy pulses.

Let everyone adjust for salt, pepper, and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

If you are at home during a cold winter, you can add some pasta (I suggest gnocchetti sardi ) and make the coziest Pasta Fazool, in Italian pasta e fagioli!

More campfire recipes

If you are camping during the mushrooms season, it is the best opportunity to serve these simple campfire meals with some freshly foraged wild mushrooms like Chanterelle or Porcini. You can find out how to clean and cook them in the recipe: easy chanterelle recipes.

If you want to serve them with other food cooked over the open fire, you can read the recipes Brazilian Picanha BBQ or easy Bqq chicken breast.

For dessert, nothing better than roasted chestnuts on an open fire.

Cowboy baked beans

I don't know about you, but I grew up craving the beans, Clint Eastwood, in his iconic poncho, ate with huge appetite in between his "hyperviolent" adventures of the famous Spaghetti Westerns.

How many of you have seen the Italian westerns played by Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, as "My name is Trinity"?

They were sometimes called the Laurel and Hardy of the Italian west. (Telegraph)

Baked beans on an open campfire had a big part in every movie, the best opportunity to come up with farts and burps. As children, we would crack up with laughter.

No wonder our favorite campfire meal was and still remains baked beans.

Origin of these easy campfire food ideas

This recipe is from my sister Gilda, the veterinarian. She leaves in the countryside and loves to cook and eat natural country-style food. You will not find canned food in her kitchen.

She has her own vegetable patch and an old wooden stove in the kitchen. Even if she enjoys eating meat, she does prefer to eat vegetarian meals, especially in the evening.

Pulses are the perfect options, especially during the winter when embers are left in her secured fireplace and they slowly go out during the night.

Her central heating is linked to her fireplace and the fireplace is enclosed with a glass panel. Her fireplace is designed for safety, I wouldn't suggest you leave your fire unattended.

Often she prepares a clay pot full of beans, chickpeas, or a mix of different pulses to leave inside the fireplace. They cook for a few hours while they watch a movie and left overnight on the embers.

This is a well-tested recipe, made with dried pulses. She has made it for me so many times, I never get tired and my boys love every version of it.

If you are making these easy camping meals (no fridge) leave your comment below I would like to know which one is your favourite. You can find more delicious ideas if you FOLLOW ME on Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram or sign up to my newsletter.