Give me your simple but warming cold-weather foods

January 24, 2022 9:26 PM

We're prepping for a camping trip that's going to be luxe but also cold (for southern California), help us warm our bones.

We're going to have a camper van with a 2-burner (smallish, but I have small-footprint pots) induction stove + my butane single-burner. I need to plan for 5 nights of dinners, 2 breakfasts, and at least 2 lunches. I can't count on a campfire at any point because of fire bans, but also wind and cold as we'll be in the desert and at 4000ish feet most of the time. We will have electric hookups a few nights, but I'm looking for a mix of quick-if-necessary and simmer-a-while options.

There will be a dorm-sized fridge with "freezer" compartment, plus I'm bringing a smaller cooler with biiig ice packs so I can carry frozen stuff that will stay that way several days at least. We'll also be passing an Aldi and other chain stores around the midpoint of the trip for resupply, with opportunities for maybe some more specialized butcher/fishmonger access if things work out right.

We are omnivores, but also love vegan food and try to include several veg*n meals in our camping repertoire because honestly the components travel better than animal products. I love to cook and I love interesting limitations, but honestly I don't cook stovetop-only very often, so this is an opportunity to play but without my typical dozens of cubic feet of pantry and cold storage. I also kinda want to wow us - I am sure I'll make us a one-pot pasta whoosit one night for primal coziness, but I'd like to really cook, do something a little more elegant, a little more Italian Wedding Soup or interesting stew. I just need to be able to bring in the portions I need and not cook giant vats of food (my normal M.O.).

Oh, and if I was answering this question for someone else I'd say "avoid rice and potatoes" but I do actually have an overstock of pandemic "ready rice" in every possible style (jasmine, basmati, brown, brown + quinoa, dehydrated RightRice I can cook in a thermos with boiling water). And I'm bringing a bag of baby potatoes in hopes I will get enough of a fire at least once to roast them.

Bonus challenge: I will be celebrating one of them Significant Birthdays in the middle of this trip, up a mountain in freezing overnight weather with electricity but no internet access. I'm probably going to buy a wee bakery cake for us just in case...but if you have a stovetop-only showstopper that will make the van smell amazing and feels like a fancy dessert, I am listening. (I also have a box of Funfetti cake mix and I *will* make pancakes with it if it comes to that.)

posted by Lyn Never to Food & Drink (15 answers total)

Response by poster: Also any stovetop bread recipes would be amazing.
posted by Lyn Never at 9:34 PM on January 24, 2022

You could make a crepe cake with chocolate ganache and a fruit curd for your birthday cake. That’s pretty showstoppery. Rice pudding - or a don’t-admit-it pot of pastry cream to eat by spoonful - would also be stovetop and much further along the cozy axis.

For stovetop meals that are not stunt cooking -
shrimp scampi. From frozen.
Spaghetti carbonara or cacio e Pepe.
Arbitrary-star-component curry with some of your rice collection.
Cauliflower floret-chunks and breadcrumbs sautéed in a more or less (but not exactly) dry pan.
Lamb sloppy joes (with rosemary and chevre).
Mussels or clams in white wine/garlic. Make garlic bread on the campfire if you can.
Grilled cheese and tomato soup. With Mustard/peanut butter/ham etc to taste.
posted by janell at 10:08 PM on January 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oh and one of my potluck-go-to vegetables Is a broccoli salad made by chunking up the raw broccoli in a heat proof vessel, then blooming cumin and some chili flakes in very hot oil. Add some sesame oil at the last second, then pour over the raw broccoli. Toss, wait 15 minutes, ta da!
posted by janell at 10:10 PM on January 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

My mind immediately went to Korean soups and stews. Extremely cozy, cooked in one pot with a lot of travel-friendly preserved ingredients for flavor, served alongside or on top of rice with lots of little side dishes of whatever you have prepped all nicely with seasonings. Doenjang jjigae is so savory and warming, and makes a great base for whatever star ingredient you have like maybe some beautiful oyster mushrooms or miniature bok choy or pork belly slices. janell’s broccoli would be a great side dish with this, so would things like marinated eggs, crispy pan fried scallion pancakes, Korean style potato salad, and of course any kind of kimchi or other spicy pickles.
posted by Mizu at 11:17 PM on January 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Oatmeal with apple pie filling from a can is super easy and very cozy. Vegetable noodle soup would make a nice hot lunch, and nothing warms me up better than a batch of red dal during a cold winter evening.
posted by mezzanayne at 12:18 AM on January 25, 2022

This 2-ingredient naan (self-rising flour & greek yogurt) is easy & tasty. Just mix everything together, flatten into the shape you want, and cook in a skillet on the stovetop. Depending on how runny the yogurt is, you may need to add a little more than the recipe calls for, so plan to have a little extra available.
posted by belladonna at 4:00 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Have a look at this web site The Dirty Gourmet - it is a cooking site devoted to Meals You Can Prepare When You're Camping. You can filter by the kind of camping you're doing (backpacking, car camping), by diet (vegan, vegetarian, omnivore), or even by season (summer, winter, 3 season, etc.).

The one camping trip I went on about 5 years go I brought the makings of their couscous coconut lentil stew and their 5-ingredient easy channa masala and both satisfied.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:12 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

This may not fit the "really cooking" brief, and is not even a real meal, but when we backpack somewhere cold, we always bring a bunch of miso soup packets. Just add boiling water and you get warm, salt-replacing, hydrating, comfort that you can sip on while preparing the rest of your meal.
posted by juliapangolin at 4:31 AM on January 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

I don't know that this is a *wow* meal, but this cauliflower soup was really lovely and literally got better every day, even without making the homemade broth - I just chucked everything in the oven for awhile, then added to the blender with some Better than Broth and the spices. I'm a big fan of soup as ice packs. :)

Similarly, not vegan, but this fish stew freezes well if you want to precook and really lean into the soup as icepacks thing (we did this for a group trip several years ago), but it would also work well for chopping the vegetables beforehand and cooking on site. I usually throw in some shrimp. It eats well with or without the rice.
posted by joycehealy at 5:38 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Not quite cooking, not quite a meal, but the most warming and comforting thing to eat, under a blanket. Take an egg, soft-boil it, shell it and put it in a mug with a good lump of butter, some salt and some (white) pepper. Chop the egg in the cup till you have just small chunks of white in a yellow cream. Eat it with toast. Guggy egg, or egginnacup.
posted by J.R. Hartley at 6:00 AM on January 25, 2022 [2 favorites]

Note that if you can get unwashed eggs they don't need to be refrigerated.
posted by Mitheral at 6:06 AM on January 25, 2022

This sounds so glorious, happy almost birthday!!!

Cooking three meals a day is not my idea of fun and I love fancy snacks so for lunches I would get a large variety of cheeses, cured meats, tinned fish, dips, olives and crackers.

Breakfast: shakshuka is delicious.

Fancy cozy dinner: my favorite lamb shanks are easy and impressive. I omit the almonds.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 6:28 AM on January 25, 2022 [3 favorites]

Couscous (with tofu or canned chicken and the veggie of your choice) is my camping choice.

Ice cream with berries, brandy, & wafer cookies is my go-to 5 minute, sophisticated desert.
posted by eotvos at 10:57 AM on January 25, 2022

Coq au vin, Boeuf Bouguinon, Chicken Marsala are fancy-ish dishes that cook in 1 pot and are delicious. I'd go for recipes that have shorter cooking times because things take much longer at altitude. Make extra broth- it's warming. In addition to ramen and miso instant soups, pack some good bouillon for a warm, not-caffeinated drink. Any 1 pot meals can be considered. Curries are an excellent idea.

You can buy pizza dough and use it to make flatbread.

Make rice on the next to last night. On the last night, make fried rice with plenty of oil, some peas and any leftovers. The sauce is soy, ginger, a little brown sugar, a little vinegar, some toasted sesame oil, and can be prepped ahead and stored in any pint container.

I like a hearty breakfast, and if you add the dry ingredients for pancakes to a clean mayo jar, you can add the milk, eggs, oil, at camp and it's easy. Add blueberries, make sausage. for the other breakfast, make hash browns and scrambled eggs, serve with salsa and bacon. alt-sausage can be quite good, too.

I love the idea of making soup/stew and using it as the freezer packs.

For lunches, I love wraps with beans, rice, cooked sweet potato, salsa, and wraps are easy to add stuff to, like leftover scrambled eggs or hash browns. Breakfast wraps are also popular.
posted by theora55 at 2:10 PM on January 25, 2022

I've been thinking for too long about this, and maybe it is too late for you now.
The thing is, the best, most festive food I would cook while camping might seem a little dull to someone who doesn't know it. On the other hand, it's good for dinner, breakfast and lunch. And little kids who were once picky eaters have been transformed into curious eaters by just one taste of this simple but delicious meal. True fact.
But here it goes, for two people:

a cup of dried Puy or Beluga lentils (if you have space issues, pack only what you need in a plastic bag and flatten it for easier storage.
olive oil or butter (or bacon fat left over from breakfast, don't bother to rinse the pan)
a finely chopped medium onion
a finely chopped carrot
a finely chopped stick of celery
(if you want, chop and bag the vegetables from home, flatten the bag and put it at the bottom of your cooler)
Crushed garlic to taste, salt, pepper and thyme to taste
water

two duck breasts

an orange and an apple
Gorgonzola or some other hefty cheese.

If you have a fire, a couple of spuds wrapped in foil would be great, put them in at the very beginning. Or add finely diced potatoes to the lentil stew along with the aromatics for a more filling dish.

Rinse the lentils in clean water. Dry brine the duck breasts by sprinkling with salt and pepper and leaving them to rest while you prepare the lentil stew.
Fry the aromatics in whatever fat you have, in your cooking pot, till the onions are translucent, add garlic and season gently (there will be more seasoning). Add the garlic and thyme, and stir for a few moments. Then add the lentils and stir, and then water enough to cover the ingredients plus half an inch. Let it simmer for twenty minutes.
This is good for camping because it doesn't require a lot to bring to a simmer, and even less to keep there for a while. Also, your ingredients are light to carry, but the meal is very filling.

After twenty minutes of simmering, test how the lentils are going. They will need more cooking, but do they also need more water? Adjust the seasoning, too.

Now it is time to cook the duck breast. If you can do this over a fire, it is amazing. Cook them whole on a grill, or cut them up into chunks and put them on sticks. Or just fry them slowly in a pan, starting with the skin side that renders fat which you can later add to your already delicious stew. Whatever you do, don't overcook them and give them time to rest.

While the duck breast is resting, check again on the seasoning of your stew, and then prepare a salad of thin slices of apple and orange, and crumbles of gorgonzola (or other cheese) in each plate. Your stew goes on top, and then the duck breast, either in stick roasted chunks or in slices. Honest camping food that can be eaten with a fork from a tin bowl, but for gourmets.

For me, really good chocolate would be a fine desert. An experienced polar explorer once told me that their favorite treat was a bit of dark chocolate and a shot of Scotch. But each to their own...
posted by mumimor at 4:21 PM on January 27, 2022