Camping recipes

Cath has devised a selection of delicious camping recipes for adults and children that are ideal for cooking and eating outdoors

Feta and mint salad

Serves 4 If you can get fresh peas in their pod and a decent crumbly feta cheese, then this is great for lunch served with hearty chunks of brown bread. Ingredients 1 x 200g packet of feta cheese 100-150g (about one bag) tasty leaves like watercress, lamb’s lettuce, rocket or a mixture 100g fresh peas,…

Salade nicoise

Serves 4 A classic salad easily prepared outside a tent on a warm evening. Ingredients 300g salad potatoes, Jersey Royals if you’re feeling flash 100g green beans, topped and tailed 4 eggs 1 tbsp herbs such as tarragon, chervil and/or chives, chopped 4 tbs olive oil Juice of half a lemon 1 clove garlic crushed…

Corned beef hash

Serves 4 I remember eating this on the shores of Anglesey with my Dad, aunt and uncle. My auntie made it beforehand and reheated it on the two-ring burner Calor Gaz stove. You could easily make it from scratch or it would make the perfect ‘just pitched’ meal to take along and reheat. My local…

Spaghetti vongole

Serves 2 I cooked this traditional Italian recipe on a sloping field in Cornwall using only a Trangia meths stove. Unfortunately Math’s filling was prised free by a rogue shard of shell, which meant he was dosed up on painkillers for the rest of our trip. You can put this meal together on store cupboard…

Minestrone

Serves 4 Tinned soup is the first food you associate with camping. Instead of opening a tin of Heinz Big Soup, get chopping fresh, seasonal vegetables, supplemented with a can of borlotti beans. If you are feeling adventurous, source fresh borlotti beans as they are around at the height of summer, but they do need…

Pesto

Serves 4 with pasta The pesto revolution arrived in my world (or more accurately Math’s world) in the early 1990s when we were both at university. When I visited him in his scabby house, he used to cook it for me with mushrooms. It was either that or the other pasta dish he invented –…

Store cupboard essentials

Here are a few things I make before I go camping, so that I always have a quick lunch to hand or a tasty easy way to spice up barbecued meat. – Pesto – Salsa romesco These are labour-saving stand-bys that I then load into Lock-and-Lock airtight storage containers to save me pestling, mortaring and…

Spicy minted peas

Serves 4 as a side dish Mint and peas are a great match, to which I add chilli and coconut for a veggie curry. Ingredients 500g fresh peas in their pod, shelled 1 red chilli, split lengthways Half a small onion, very finely sliced 1 tbs fresh mint, chopped (or ½ tsp dried mint) Half…

Tomato and onion salad

Very simple but effective side dish. Ingredients 2 tomatoes, deseeded and sliced ½ onion, finely sliced ½ cucumber, sliced in half lengthways, middle scooped out and sliced into half moons A pinch of sugar 3 tbs fresh mint, chopped A squeeze of lime (or lemon) ½ tsp fresh red chilli, very finely chopped (optional) Salt…

Saag halloumi

Modelled on the classic Sag paneer spinach-and-cheese curry, but with some local halloumi from High Weald instead of the paneer. Halloumi is a great camping standby. Ingredients 500g spinach, washed 1 x 200g packet halloumi , wiped dry with kitchen towel and cubed into small pieces 1 tbs flour 1 tomato, deseeded and chopped 1…