Camping is so wonderful. What’s better than a night out under the stars with a warm fire crackling away as you take in the sounds of nature? Pretty good stuff! And what better way to enjoy those precious moments than yummy meals cooked over an open fire (and a warm and gooey chocolate s’more with roasted marshmallows, of course). Here are some of my favorite vegan camping foods.
When camping, you want to take as little with you as possible — even if you’re car camping. On a recent camping trip, we wanted to have yummy food to eat that was nourishing while still working with less. It’s definitely possible to have a delicious, vegan meal — here’s what we did:
We roasted potatoes over the fire! They were absolutely delicious. So yummy, and filling, and perfectly warm since they were cooked in foil. Typically at home, we don’t use foil to cook with. But for camping it made sense.
According to macrobiotic chef Christina Pirello, aluminum foil is potentially toxic because it’s a soft alloy that “sort of melts in heat,” she says. “So when you see black on your aluminum foil when it comes off a hot dish, that alloy has gone into the food.” Pirello says that even though the risks for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and certain forms of cancer are low, “why would you risk it?”
Our potatoes were perfectly cooked and so savory. We also roasted asparagus and had some delicious Field Roast sausage. The Smoked Apple Sausage is a favorite of ours at home and it was even tastier over an open campfire. We tried a few different types of vegan hot dogs that were available from the health food store in Alaska — and still came out with the Field Roast as the group favorite. We put the sausages in bread with mustard and some other condiments. We found wrapping it in bread tasted yummier than using a hot dog bun. We do love the vegan hot dogs served at the Gentle Barn sanctuary here in LA. They serve Beyond Meat sausages and Field Roast frankfurters, so if you can find those, we love and recommend those — camping or not.
And of course, a campfire favorite: S’mores! We used Hu Chocolate, which is one of my absolute favorites, Dandies vegan marshmallows (no gelatin!), and the Whole Foods brand 365 graham crackers, which are made with organic ingredients and no palm oil. They do contain a small amount of honey, but they were the only clean ones we could find at the store. Basically, there isn’t a healthy graham cracker that I can find! (If you know of any, please let me know!). There are some vegan options, like Kinnikinnick S’moreables graham crackers are vegan and perfect for your summer s’more making. They do still contain sugar and other unhealthy ingredients, but they are honey-free. For me, I’d rather have all of the organic ingredients and a bit of honey than the not-so-healthy stuff. Whichever ones you use, S’mores are so fun to eat out under the stars on a warm evening.
There’s really not much else quite as perfect.
Love,
Alicia
