Camping Cooking Made Healthy
It is possible! Those of you who follow my instagram know that I've been traveling through Hawaii the past weeks. I just arrived back at the farm on Kauai'i where I will be cooking ayurvedic food for the other farmers this coming month.
On our adventures around the island Errol (fiancé and super travel buddy) and I made due with a Jetboiler for our meals. It worked perfectly well. The key is to be well prepared and plan your meals in advance.
We have the larger version called SUMO. In the SUMO more fits on the bottom and it's easier to stir and not burn stuff, all though that also happened at one point...
When we hiked the Kalalau trail we packed ready bags containing two meals for us. That way we could just dump the bag into the cooking pot and add water, oils and the veggies with nuts, voila!
What we had at hand was the following:
Dry foods
- White organic basmati rice (grounding and nourishing after a long hike and it cooks quickly)
- Organic split mung beans (is the legume with the highest nutrition, is easy to digest and also cooks quickly)
- Pre-cooked and spices lentils and peas. Do your best to find organic ones. (Cooks in minutes and gives the meal a thicker consistency)
- Organic hummus mix (gives some thickness and a nice flavor to the meal)
- Müsli to cook in the morning
- Rock salt
- Powdered spices such as; cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper
- Whole seeds such as; brown mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel, fenugreek seeds
- Almonds, pecans, cashew- and macadamia nuts.
Fresh foods
- Fresh fruit for fruit breakfasts
- Fresh ginger (we didn't have any turmeric but that will definitely be on the list next time)
- Zucchini
- Carrot
- Avocados
- Sweet potatoes
- Beets
- Any other root vegetables or other foods you can think of, that stay fresh without a refrigerator
- Fresh herbs for the first day or two
- Fresh paneer, feta or goats cheese for the first day only
Oils:
- Ghee (learn how to make it yourself here)
- Coconut oil
Other usefull things:
- Coco hydro (coconut rehydration powder, real coconuts are obviously to prefer when available)
So there you go! As simple as that, and you're all set.
Below the recepe for my favourite meal cooked on our adventures, enjoy!
Simple camping kitchadi
Serves 2 people
You need;
- pinch of brown mustard seeds
- pinch of cumin powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cm fresh thin slices of ginger
- 2 tbs ghee
- 1/2 cup of basmati rice (1 dl)
- 1/4 cup of split mung beans (1/2 dl)
- 1-2 cups water (2-5 dl)
- two small handfuls of cubed sweet potato
- A handful of raw macadamia nuts
- 1-2 tbs of the hummus mix
- Some fresh cheese and lime to serve (optional)
Begin by adding brown mustard seeds, cumin powder, salt, slices of ginger and ghee to the jet boiler.
Turn it on and let it heat up. As soon as you can smell the aroma of the spices, turn the jet boiler off. There's no low setting on these boilers so pay attention and only cook the spices enough to wake them up and not burn. The jet boiler is originally made to boil water, not to cook food.
The add the basmati rice and the split mung beans and stir well. When covered in the oil and spices, add water to cover and an inch more.
Turn the Jetboiler back on and put the lid on.
Let it come to a simmer and keep the temperature as low as you can without it turning off.
Cook for 3-4 min, keep stirring!
As soon as it feels like the water steamed away and the texture gets thicker,
add more water and stir every few minutes.
Finally, add the chopped vegetables or nuts, in this case, the sweet potato and raw macadamia nuts. Cook until the rice and mung beans are soft, and the sweet potato so soft you can easily cut through it. Just before it's finished stir in the hummus mix.
Turn off the Jetboiler and leave the lid on for a few minutes before serving with a bit of cheese.
This way the prana (life force) can settle before we nourish our tired bodies with this whole, balancing meal.
If you pre-pack your meals in bags, you can replace the mung beans with the pre-cooked lentils and peas. That way the spices are already cooked into the legumes and you can just add oil, water, the veggies and nuts to the dry food. The rice then needs to be added in first with only water and salt to make sure it cooks long enough.
Let me know how you'll do and remember to share your camping photos with me,
I would love to hear from you and take part in your adventures!