Vegetarian Camping Meals
Over the past year, I (Lauren) have been making an effort to eat less meat for a mix of reasons: environmental impact, my love for animals, and honestly, meat has just started giving me the ick. Once I made that shift, it completely changed how we cook while camping.
We’ve always loved simple and low effort camping meals because when we’re out adventuring, we don’t want to spend a ton of time cooking or cleaning. In the past, that meant a lot of meat-based meals like burgers, sausage breakfast sandwiches, and deli subs. Transitioning to more plant-based camping food has been fun, but also a bit challenging at times, especially when we’re not sure what to make!
Below is a growing list of vegetarian camping meals we’ve actually cooked and enjoyed. We’ll keep updating this list as we try new recipes.
Table of Contents
Breakfast Camping Meals
Spicy egg sandwiches
We cook the spicy egg sandwich on a pan with our Coleman camping stove. If you don’t like spicy you can also use cheddar cheese or any cheese of your liking.
Ingredients:
- Brioche buns, English muffins, or any other bread you like for sandwiches. We like Brioche buns the best
- Eggs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder
- Spicy Mayo
- Pepper jack cheese
What we use to make it:
Scrambled eggs
Cheesy veggie scrambled eggs are a go-to for us while camping! Camping hack, you can pre-scramble your egg in a mason jar or container and not have to worry about cracking eggs while camping. We first cook the peppers and onion until the onion start to get a little translucent. Next, we added the scrambled egg and cheese.
Ingredients:
- Eggs
- Red and/or Green Pepper
- Onion
- Salt, pepper, garlic powder
- Cheese (we usually use pre-shredded cheddar)
- Olive oil
What we use to make it:
Pancakes
Another easy breakfast camping meal that we lean on often. We usually like to add blueberries or bananas to it! Our local grocery stores sell Betty Crocker Bisquick Shake ‘n Pour Buttermilk Pancake Mix that is very easy to use. Water is the only other ingredient needed.
Ingredients:
- Pancake mix
- Blueberries or bananas
- Syrup
What we use to make it:
Lunch Camping Meals
Veggie sandwiches
I found this blog post a few months ago and I have been obsessed with making these sandwiches not only when we are camping but at home too! The blog post goes over different things you can do to make veggie sandwiches and gives a variety of options. Below is what I do!
Ingredients:
- Boar’s Head Sweet Chili Garlic hummus as the base
- Cucumbers
- Green, yellow, or red pepper
- Shaved carrots
- Arugula
- Onions (sometimes I won’t if I don’t want onion breath)
Dinner Camping Meals
Veggie burritos
We found this recipe on Taste of Home and love it! It’s super simple to make but has a lot of flavor. For the full recipe check out the link here.
Ingredients:
- Water
- Uncooked instant brown rice
- Olive oil
- Green pepper
- Chopped onion
- Minced garlic
- Chili powder
- Ground cumin
- Crushed red pepper flakes
- Canned black beans
- Flour tortillas
- Salsa
- Sour cream/Guac if preferred
What we use to make it:
Veggie Chili
Out of all the recipes, this one takes a little more time, but overall, it is pretty fast, especially once you understand how hot you need to get the cast iron dutch oven. We found this recipe on Fresh off the Grid. For the full recipe click here. We love this meal because it’s one pot and fairly easy to clean. Plus, it’s great when it’s a little chilly out in the evening. In addition to the ingredients we top off our chili with shredded cheese and Fritos Scoops or crackers.
Ingredients:
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 14 oz can black beans, drained
- 14 oz can red kidney beans, drained
- 14 oz can diced tomatoes, with their juices
- 1 can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, seeds removed (see below)
- 12 oz can beer, preferably lager
- 2 teaspoons sea salt
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
What we used to make it:
Chickpea stir fry
This one is super simple! I was the only one eating this so I only used one can of chick peas and a small stir fry mix, but you can also do more cans of chickpeas and the larger stir fry mix. You also have the option to cut up fresh vegetables, but for camping, it was easier to just get the pre-made bag at the grocery store.
Ingredients:
- Chickpeas
- Salt
- Pepper
- Garlic powder
- Stir fry mix
What we use to make it:
Minestrone Soup
I’ve actually been making this soup since before I met Owen! This specific recipe was purposely made for one, but there is an option to double it in the recipe. We recently camped with Owen’s parents and we made enough for 4 people. This recipe calls for bacon and chicken broth, but we opted for no bacon and used vegetable broth instead. I have made it with bacon and it is delicious if you eat meat! Below is what we did for 4 people:
Ingredients:
- 1 chopped onion
- 2 clove garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 1 can canned red beans
- 1 canned diced tomatoes
- 12 oz bag of frozen mixed vegetables
- 4 cups vegetable broth (we used the entire 32 oz box which is a little more than 4 cups)
- Salt if you want
- Ground black pepper to taste
- 2 cup dried small shaped pasta
What we used to make it:
Buffalo Cauliflower
These were so easy to make! I seasoned the cauliflower with salt, pepper, and garlic powder, then tossed them in Buffalo Wild Wings medium sauce. Wrapped them in foil and cooked them over the fire. So simple and so good !I roasted them for 15 minutes, added more sauce after checking, and left them over the fire for about 30 minutes total.
What we used to make:
Za'atar Roasted Zucchini & Pepper Sandwiches
This is a meal we had when we were doing HelloFresh and we love it so much we even make it when we’re camping! It’s super easy to make. Below is what you need for two people but you can always double it for more! I also included photos of the HelloFresh recipe above.
Ingredients:
- Red Pepper Jam (I add it to taste, depends on how sweet you want it)
- 4 TBSP Mayonnaise
- 1 Zucchini
- 2 Baguettes
- 1 TSBP Harissa Powder (Whole Foods has this spice)
- 1/2 cup Feta Cheese
- 1 Red Bell Pepper
- 1 Yellow Onion
- 1 TBSP Za’atar Spice
What we used to make it:
Black Bean Burgers
This has become one of our favorite meals to make during the week from our Cooking For Two Cookbook (highly recommend!). So I thought “why not try it for camping?”. I prepped the burgers before we left and then rolled it into a ball, wrapped it with wax paper, and put it in a pyrex container. I add chipotle aioli, pepper jack cheese, and arugula to the burger. Attaching the full recipe below – it says it makes 2 burgers but we think it makes enough for 4.
Ingridents:
- 1 large egg
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (I put a little more because I like spice)
- 1 can black beans, rinsed
- 1 cup panko breadcrumbs
- 1/2 red bell pepper, chopped fine (I’ve used the a full bell pepper and it has been fine)
- 2 tablespoons minced cilantro
- 1 small shallot, minced
- 2 hamburger buns
What we used to make it:
For other items we bring camping check out our blog post here.
