Outdoor recipes: cooking outdoors made easy

Are you looking for outdoor recipes? For longer tours, you probably plan out your meals very carefully.

If weight is less of an issue and you’re planning a shorter adventure, then these recipes are for you.

Pumpkin soup with snake bread

Pumpkin soup with snake bread (dough wrapped round a stick and ‘baked’ over the fire) is an absolute classic of outdoor cooking – especially when the weather turns cooler again. The best way to do this is to hollow out the pumpkin. You can use the shell for carving and the pulp to make a delicious pumpkin soup. It tastes particularly good with coconut milk, carrots and ginger. Snake bread goes perfectly with this dish.

Backwards Älplermagronen (shepherd’s macaroni)

The most difficult thing about cooking pasta outdoors is usually the draining, plus the cooking water, which always means more weight. This problem is easy to solve – for example, you can take the beloved mountain dish Älplermagronen (shepherd’s macaroni) and cook it ‘backwards’. It’s best to start as normal by sautéing the onions and bacon. Then add the uncooked macaroni to the pot followed by diced potatoes. Only then do you add the stock, let all the liquid boil down and finally add some alpine cheese and, if you want, a splash of cream or a thick dollop of milk powder. Simple but clever!

Potato gratin in the Dutch oven

Always thought potato gratin takes too much time and effort? Not at all. You can generate plenty of top-down heat by putting charcoal on the lid of a Petromax Dutch oven. And it takes less charcoal than you think. It might take some time for the pot to warm up, but the heat will last longer. Perfect for making a super-creamy potato gratin by slowly and evenly simmering it. Tip: don’t mix the ingredients until you’re ready to cook.

Fried potatoes with bacon and onion

It smells good, it’s fun to cook and it’s also extremely popular: fried potatoes with bacon and onion. This recipe is pretty simple – you can cook it over a fire or gas stove and modify it to include olives, sun-dried tomatoes, chives or whatever else you like.

Baked apples stuffed with dried fruit

Of course, no proper multi-course outdoor meal is complete without a nice dessert. Here we’re doing the classic ‘chocolate bananas’, but not in the embers as usual but on the grill or in the pan over the gas stove. All you need to do is cut the banana in half (note: don’t cut it all the way through) to make room for the chocolate.

Grilled peach halves and baked apples are the perfect accompaniment. Simply halve the peaches, brush them with a little honey and place them in the pan or on the grill. For the baked apples, cut off the top quarter of the apple like a lid, hollow out the core (do not pierce it all the way to the bottom) and roast it evenly on all sides. Alternatively, you can also wrap it in tin foil and put it in the fire. Roasted kernels and almond slivers combined with chopped dried fruits make a good filling.

Muffins baked in hollowed out oranges

The great thing about the outdoor kitchen is cooking a delicious meal using whatever nature provides. There’s the wood you gather for fuel, but also some clever tricks when it comes to preparation. For example: hollowed out oranges are ideal as moulds for muffins baked over the fire. Pour the liquid batter into the hollowed out oranges, wrap them in tin foil and place them in the embers.