3 More Fire-free Camping Recipes

These stress-free recipes make campside dining a fun and enjoyable experience

Fire bans have become a part of every local summer these days, and so those used to cooking over an open fire while camping are more and more out of luck. But if you’ve got a camp stove or a portable BBQ, you should be perfectly fine for a meal on site. 
 
Following our previous recommendations, here are three more recipes that are also fire-free, but a step-up from your basic hot dog dinners…

1. Cast Iron Dutch Oven Nachos

You can get away with having a cast iron and tenting it with tin foil to melt the cheese on these, but doing them in a Dutch oven or cast iron—with a lid—makes it incredibly easy. 
 
The toppings suggestions below are very loose (you know how you like your nachos), but don’t overload them, as you don’t want things to get soggy. The main benefit of using canned black beans as the protein, is that they don’t need to be refrigerated, so your cooler will have more room too!

INGREDIENTS

• Tortilla chips 
• Cheese, shredded (I used Monterey jack and cheddar) 
• Black beans 
• Green onions 
• Cilantro (optional) 
• Salsa and/or sour cream

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If you’d like, you can put down a layer of parchment paper, but the cast iron should be able to handle this easily. 
2. Place one layer of chips, then top with cheese and beans, repeat stack until you see fit (and it doesn’t touch the top of the lid). 
3. Heat the camp stove to medium-high and place the cast iron nachos on top. It should take about 10 minutess for the cheese to melt and everything to get hot. You can peek at them after about seven minutes just to make sure they’re moving along and the cheese is melting but not burning. 
4. Remove from stove, and remove lid. Top with green onions and cilantro, and serve with salsa and/or sour cream.

Note: When there is no fire ban, you can also make these by putting them on the grill above your (low) fire.

Serves two to four

2. Shrimp Scampi

Foil packet dinners are so great and easy to do, especially when you can throw them into the coals of the fire to cook, but they’re just as easily done fire-free. This recipe requires a BBQ for the foil packet and a camp stove to make the pasta—but you could also make this over rice that you’ve cooked at home and brought with you. The other great thing about this is that you can bring the shrimp frozen, and let them thaw in the cooler, giving your cold items an extra frozen boost for the first day. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 bag of frozen, peeled (make your life easier) and deveined shrimp 
• 4 tbsp of butter 
• Dry white wine (a few splashes) 
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced 
• Juice of ½ lemon (save second ½ for garnish) 
• ¼ tsp red pepper flakes 
• 4 tsp of chopped parsley 
• Parmesan for topping 
• 2 servings of dry penne (or other pasta)
• Heavy duty tin foil

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Heat BBQ to at least 350 degrees. 
2. While BBQ is pre-heating, place a pot of water (salted) on the stove, and cover, letting it come to a boil. 
3. In the meantime, take two layers of tin foil and create a walled packet, placing the butter on the bottom.
4. Drain the bag of shrimp and pat them dry, then add them to the foil packet. Add the garlic, lemon juice and white wine. Thoroughly seal the packet seams and then place on the BBQ. 
5. Cook the pasta while the shrimp packet is cooking, taking the shrimp off after approximately 10 minutes to check if they are just pink. If not, give it a few more minutes, but don’t over-cook.
6. Drain the pasta and return it to the pot, and then pour the foil packet contents in and stir to combine. 
7. Plate evenly and top with parmesan and parsley and a lemon wedge. 

Tip: If you have way more shrimp than you need, save some of the cooked ones for a breakfast scramble the next morning. I used mine in a frittata.

Serves approximately two

3. Fried Rice

You have several options with this fried rice, but—no matter what route you go—it’s an easy meal to make on site, and good for both a quick lunch or for dinner. 
 
The rice can be made on-site (and left to cool and dry out a bit), at home (cooled and brought to the campsite), or you can use one of the packs of pre-made rice that only requires reheating on the stove. I made this near the end of my trip when I was running out of ice, so I brought the pre-made rice as an easy, cooler-free option. 
 
If you want to bring some frozen veggies to add in, that’s a great choice, and you can cook and chop up chicken (at home makes it even easier) and throw that in too. I went with eggs as scrambling, cooking and cutting up into pieces takes little to no time.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 servings of cooked rice (see options above) 
• 2 eggs 
• 3 to 4 tbsp soy sauce 
• 2 tsp sesame oil 
• 2 tsp cooking oil 
• Veggies (frozen, raw, or dehydrated/rehydrated) of your choice 
• 1 green onion, sliced thinly
• Cooked, diced, chicken, cooked prawns or firm tofu, fried (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Scramble the eggs in a small bowl, and heat one teaspoon of the cooking oil in a higher-walled frying pan or cast-iron skillet. 
2. Pour the eggs in, letting them cover the surface, as you would with an omelette. Once it starts to puff up, flip and cook for another minute until done. Remove from the pan, set aside to cool slightly, and then roughly chop into small pieces. 
3. In the same pan, add the sesame and cooking oil, and heat slightly. Add in the rice, any veggies or protein you are using, as well as the soy sauce. On medium-high, stir constantly so the rice doesn’t burn, and cook until veggies are done and softened, and rice is starting to crisp up. 
4. Add in the egg and chopped green onion and serve.

Tip: If there are leftovers, don’t toss. They’re great in a breakfast burrito!

Serves two