Vegan campfire cooking?

November 17, 2011 11:42 AM

Vegan campfire Thanksgiving ideas?

I am having a normal Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday with one side of the family and another on Friday with the other side. We're thinking about cooking over a campfire on Friday so it isn't an exact duplicate of Thursday. My wife and I are both vegan (we avoid most animal products). What vegan foods can we cook primarily over a campfire that are suitable for a Thanksgiving feast? I don't imagine a gluten roast would do well on a spit but chopped vegetables wrapped in tinfoil and roasted are certainly a possibility. Anything else?

posted by ChrisHartley to food & drink (15 answers total)

You could probably do the same with potatoes (marinate, wrap in foil, roast 1-1 1/2 inch squares).

You could also mix in seitan or tofu to make kabobs. If you use poultry seasoning it'll have a more Thanksgiving-y taste.

Or roast a whole squash, similar to how you would in the oven. Of course, I'm assuming you're going to have all the kitchen equipment you need by the fire.
posted by DoubleLune at 11:49 AM on November 17, 2011

Corn on the cob is wonderful when flame roasted. Carefully peel back husks, remove silk, soak a little while in water. Replace husks. Roast on a rack over open fire till husks start to blacken. Super-wonderful with butter (margarine?) & salt! Also, portabella mushrooms in a balsamic & soy marinade are really good when flame roasted or grilled.
posted by cuddles.mcsnuggy at 11:52 AM on November 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Tofu vegie kabobs! Best thing ever.

You can also roast small pumpkins the way you would a squash - I cut whole ones in half, scoop out the seeds, and wrap in tinfoil to bake in the fire.
posted by strixus at 11:55 AM on November 17, 2011

The sporting goods section of your local big box store should have a few different kinds of covered skillets with long handles meant to be stuck in an open fire. Those will let you cook up just about anything.
posted by Burhanistan at 11:57 AM on November 17, 2011

A big pot of delicious veggie soup? Seitan sausages on a stick? I've also had good camping luck with a foil packet of flavored seitan + onions, garlic, etc. tossed in the fire for a few minutes.
posted by anotherthink at 12:14 PM on November 17, 2011

Corn on the cob is wonderful when flame roasted. Carefully peel back husks, remove silk, soak a little while in water.

Brush with melted butter into which you have mixed a liberal amount of Old Bay and a few drops of sriracha.

Replace husks. Roast on a rack over open fire till husks start to blacken.
posted by headnsouth at 12:31 PM on November 17, 2011 [1 favorite]

Sweet potatoes!!!
posted by maryr at 12:35 PM on November 17, 2011

I'm totally gonna try that old bay & sriracha corn thing. Yum.
posted by cuddles.mcsnuggy at 12:59 PM on November 17, 2011

Most "classic" Thanksgiving foods (of the Norman Rockwell turkey vision) are baked rather than grilled, sauteed, fried, or other stovetop kind of things, so there may be a lot of baking in coals going on - I don't have any direct-heat ideas.

If you like the "and stuffing" part of the Thanksgiving tradition, consider stuffed peppers. Hollow out a few red bells, make up a batch of your favorite bread-cube stuffing (apples/raisins, and mushrooms/hazelnuts are some of my favorites, if you're not big on standard carrot/celery versions). Stuff, wrap in foil, (take to campsite), "bake" in the coals.
posted by aimedwander at 1:03 PM on November 17, 2011

Pudgie Pies!
posted by cosmicbandito at 1:16 PM on November 17, 2011

if you're allowed to use cast iron, I've been meaning to try this brussels sprouts and potato hash described as a, "vegan lumberjack breakfast."
posted by cmoj at 1:23 PM on November 17, 2011

I recently went camping and was very pleased with the taste and regular-marshmallow-like-performance of Dandies vegan marshmallows so I'm going to second maryr and suggest cutting sweet potatoes open, inserting vegan margarine and vegan marshmallows and cooking in foil. It might be a good idea to partially pre-bake or parboil them first, though. Maybe serve with maple syrup?
posted by Morrigan at 5:52 PM on November 17, 2011

Thank you for the good suggestions. I will report back after the feast.
posted by ChrisHartley at 4:10 AM on November 19, 2011

Well we just ended up doing vegetables (potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, celery, carrots) in foil packets on the coals. For desert we had sweet potatoes with dandies vegan marshmallows in foil. My wife's family calls the packets "Sure Enough Pocket Chefs (oooh yeah)" and they were indeed quite good. Not super Thanksgivingy but still a good meal.
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:42 AM on December 2, 2011

Oh and we also had the last of the home grown corn, wrapped in foil and baked on the coals.
posted by ChrisHartley at 9:43 AM on December 2, 2011