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Campfire meals: outdoor cooking ideas

Campfire meals: outdoor cooking ideas

Some meals are just made to be cooked over and eaten around a fire. We bring you the ultimate campfire meals that will make you a very popular chef on your next trip!

Campfire specials 

We have made a selection of what we like to call ‘campfire specials’. These are meals that you can of course make a home, but are just perfectly suited for around the campfire and just taste a little bit better when cooked over the fire. These campfire meals will definitely bring you that great camping feeling when you are eating it together around the fire. 

1. Hot dogs:

Campfire Meals

Has a sausage ever tasted better than when it has been grilled over a campfire? Maybe this can only be topped by adding bread also grilled over the campfire, some sauce and delicious toppings to make the best campfire hot dogs! You can use any type of sausage (also vegan ones), any type of bread, sauce, and of course any type of toppings you like for your hot dog! You can use fried or raw onion for toppings, or maybe some pickles or other types of pickled or roasted veggies. You can also make a thick veggie sauce with beans, onions, or any other veggies you like. You can make it anything from a simple hot dog to a gourmet hot dog. The best thing is that you build your own hot dog, so everyone can get a hot dog just as they like it! 

2. Burgers: 

The same principle goes for a camp burger! You can decide to make them sloppy style in a pan or just grill the patty (meat or not) and add in some fresh and/or roasted vegetables! Just like hot dogs, burgers can also easily be adjusted to different tastes and diets so this is a safe bet! You just need the bun, the patty, the veggies and the sauce and you can be sure to have happy tommies all around the campfire! If you like some fries or potato wedges with your burgers you can always make them in a foil boil - just remember they need to cook longer than the burgers, so put them on the fire some time before the burgers ;) 

3. Tacos:

Tacos can be done in much the same manner as hot dogs and burgers. Grill the soft taco shells over the fire and on a pan (or a foil boil) you can roast the veggies and meats that you like in your taco! This is another finger-food that you can easily eat around the fire. And as it is also very much a build-yourself kind of food it’s very well suited for people with different diets and/or likes. You can also have different sauces so people can decide if they want spicy tacos or not ;) 

4. Nachos and pizza:

Campfire Meals

Other delicious finger-foods that you might not think you can make over a campfire, but that really make good campfire foods are pizza and nachos. Both dishes can easily be made in a cast iron skillet (or a dutch oven). Nachos you just make the same way you would in an oven: add the corn crisps, the cheese and any meat, beans, salsa and/or other toppings that you like heated (you can make it in layers so you avoid having only chips without anything on the bottom). Then you cover the cast iron with the lid and place it over the fire and when the cheese is melted you have the most delicious campfire food! You can then add any cold toppings or sauces, or just have it on the side so people can take what they want.

To make the pizza dough just use flour, water, oil and some dry yeast - you can also add a bit of salt for the taste, and sugar to help the yeast get started. Then like with any bread, add the yeast and sugar (if using) to the water, let it sit for a bit till you can see the yeast starts working.Then add the flour and salt, knead it a bit and let it rise for about half an hour. If making your own dough seems a bit too much, then you can also use a store-bought one, or even make your own from home ;).

After shaping it you bake it in a cast iron with a bit of oil to prevent it from burning and sticking to the pan. First you bake it on one side until it’s golden, then you turn it over and add your sauce and pizza toppings and bake it on the other side - to prevent the dough from burning you can take the cast iron off the fire while you flip the dough and add the toppings. When placing the cast iron back on the heat, bake the pizza covered for the first half so your cheese will melt, then uncovered for the second half to let the steam escape and avoid a soggy pizza. It’ll need about 3-5 minutes on each side. If you have a pie iron then you can also make the pizzas in that and make them in a calzone style which is also amazing! 

5. Campfire specials: Desserts

Campfire Meals

The ultimate campfire dessert is of course smores, no one can deny that. S’mores are a very simple dessert, yet a great campfire classic! You grill the marshmellows over the fire and put it in between a couple of biscuits and you basically have a s’more. You can then spice it up by adding some chocolate (or chocolate spread), peanut butter, or whatever sweet thing you fancy. You can make it as sweet and mouth watering as you like. 

No matter how much we love s’mores it’s also nice to mix it up a bit, and what better way to do that than with a little hand pie? Just by using store bought pie crust, some oil, sugar, and some sweet pie filling, you can make these little treats on your next camping trip. You just roll out the pie crust and stick it out with a glass so you get small round pieces of dough. Now you add the pie filling in the middle of one circle before covering it with another one and closing it by pressing the edges together with a fork from both sides of the pie. Then they are ready to be cooked in a pan with a few centimetres of hot oil until they are golden brown on each side. When they are cooked and have rested on some paper towels you can choose to coat them in sugar or just eat them as they are. How delicious does that sound? 

Which campfire meal is your favourite? If you still need a bit more inspiration then have a look at our easy camping snacks, breakfast, lunch and dinner ideas. If you are not a master of campfires we have also made a guide to help you light one

You can also check out our camping hacks blog if you are new to camping.

Disclaimer: 

As a company and platform, our mission is to make nature accessible to everyone in a sustainable way. Part of this is encouraging conscious interactions with nature and an awareness of the impact of outdoor activities.

Many like to combine camping with campfires – for keeping warm, creating atmosphere and cooking. While we’re aware of the many joys associated with campfires, it’s our responsibility as outdoor advocates to warn our community about the dangers they pose to the environment and your own physical health. As you may know, fires produce harmful gases that, like many things in our modern world, contribute to global warming. These gases also include fine particles that affect human health.

If you decide to light a campfire while at a campspace, please consider its impact on the environment, your own health, and that of other guests.

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