🍳 Van-life cooking hacks

Cooking in a small space requires some planning and getting used to.

Some meals are just too hard to cook, and keeping things simple is what we usually do.

That said, good food is all part of the fun of camping.

Campfire on the beach

Cooking outdoors on a hot day is always the most desirable option, whether it be on a campfire, BBQ, or gas burner/BBQ outside.

We are lucky as we have a 2-ring burner in the van, and when Dave had his van, he had another 2 rings and a small oven. If we traveled with a lot of children and set up camp for 2 weeks, we usually have some sort of outside space like the gazebo or drive-away awning and have a 2-ring hob with grill set up in there. (Nothing like choice!)

💡TIPS

• We find it’s a good idea to pre-cook your first night's meal before you go.

That way, once you’ve arrived on your holiday and set up, it's easy to reheat a chilli or stew on the stove for that busy first night

• 📋 PLAN YOUR MEALS before you go – obviously, for a longer travel, this may not work, but with a big family, I find it easier to plan the evening meals before we go to ensure we don’t take too much food and waste much-needed space.  We try to use packaged and canned foods to reduce the space used in the tiny fridge.

My weekly meal list may look something like this

-       Sunday arrival – precooked chilli and packet rice, warmed naan bread on the fire

-       Monday –evening meal BBQ

-       Tuesday –chicken curry / rice / onion bhajis or popadoms

-       Wednesday family meal out

-       Thursday –soup/hot dogs

-       Friday – mash/ sausage/ beans

-       Saturday – use up or chippy tea

Often when we're away, we will visit local shops and buy local produce, meaning there is always new food to try.

In essence, the advice is to plan your meals beforehand, then be flexible once you’re on holiday.

• 🍿HAVE A JUNK BAG - Whenever we've travelled with kids, we've found it helpful to have a bag full of grab food. Pot noodles, biscuits, crisps, nuts, oat pots, apples, etc, not always the healthiest, but it's hard work keeping up with the feeding demand of teenagers, and having something they can make themselves actually gives you a break.

  
  

• 🍏 BUY LOCAL and support local businesses – Part of the joy of travel is trying local cuisine, browsing local markets, and enjoying local coffee shops. We like to work on the idea that if we're not using a campsite and choosing to wild camp, then we can give back to the local area by purchasing something from a local business, even if it’s just a coffee.

Shell island

• 🔥 OUTSIDE COOKING - The best camping experience must be sitting around the campfire of an evening, but sadly, lots of campsites do not allow fires.

We have a folding BBQ that, after cooking, can be used as a small fire, and we have never had trouble using it because we also have a heat mat that stops any damage to the grass.

If a campfire is all you want and you're short of space, try this folding campfire, which folds up really, really small. I don't think it will last ages, but it's ideal for smaller camper vans.

However, if you want something to last and don't mind the investment, these Folding BBQ/Fire pits are designed to last and can take extreme heat without buckling. You can also buy a griddle for them here if you'd like the option to cook on top.

For hikes, we have this mini folding wood burner that was super cheap and great fun. It only needs a few twigs to get going and provides a nice little heat source whilst cooking your bacon.

Whatever you choose, of course, be mindful of safety. We feel it's good for kids to learn how to start and put out a fire, and having water nearby is wise. But any kind of campfire just makes a walk, camping trip, or relaxing by the river, an extra special memory .....especially if you take the marshmallows and chocolate biscuits for s'mores!

🚐 COOKING ITEMS WE USE IN THE VAN

Part-baked rolls in the SQ grill

• If you watch our channel, you will know the first item I’m going to recommend is our SQ professional grill (sometimes called the Durane grill )

               We use this piece of kit every time we cook in the van, and it is essentially an oven for a gas hob.

  We have cooked doughballs, pizzas, mozzarella sticks, cheese toasties, chicken goujons, bacon, sausage, and frozen chips. It’s a great size for a family or couple and is more versatile than the smaller ridge monkey, as it's larger. I have been told the pans actually come apart, but I have never tried it. To conclude, I can't recommend it enough.

store behind the driver's seat

In our T5, we used to store it just behind the driver's seat.

I promise that if you get one of these, you will never regret it!

Chips in the Omnia oven

•  We've recently purchased an Omnia oven, which is more versatile than the SQ because it can cook cakes, lasagne, and pasta bake from scratch, just like an oven, but on the gas hob.

It can run a little expensive though, if you want to buy all the extras for it, and it's rather large to store (I store mine in our microwave )

If I still had the T5, I'm not sure I could warrant the space it would take up in such a small van, but if you really love to cook and don't have an oven, this is fantastic.

Toast in the camper

•   For quick snacks on the go, this hob toaster is ideal. Cheap as chips, folds flat, making it easy to store and cooks 4 slices of bread, teacakes, fruit bread, or naan bread.

  
  

Note- For outside, these toasters are utterly rubbish, but in the van, they are excellent, and we use ours all the time. ( I think it's the lack of wind)

• Of course, depending on your battery setup, you could use an air fryer. This is great for most meals if you are on electric hook-up most of the time, but it does drain the battery quickly if not.

  Again, they are better for a larger van with more storage space – a good tip if you're off-grid is to eat your main meal in the daytime, or part-cook ahead, utilising the energy coming from the solar panel.

🥘 OTHER USEFUL KITCHEN ITEMS

Magnetic spice holders

•   If you love spices, these magnetic spice holders not only look great but also hold a good amount of spice within easy reach.

•   Collapsible washing-up bowl and collapsible containers are invaluable in a small space. Great for leftovers and lunchboxes, and easy to store.

• Water kettle – If you don’t have a water heater, as most smaller camper vans don’t, every time you boil water, pour any leftovers into a flask kettle for later use. This way, you're not wasting more gas for maybe washing up or washing hands.

•  Airtight containers for tea/coffee - The humidity of a camper van can mean that once opened, your dry produce goes off quickly, and you don't want to have to restock the camper van every time you go away. We found that these airtight plastic tubs are great for keeping food fresh even through a whole season of travel. They create an airtight seal and stop humidity from getting to your food.

💭OUR THOUGHTS

For us, food is a massive part of the fun of travel. We love cooking in the camper, especially now that we have an even bigger kitchen. And no matter how much we plan, we always end up buying something at a local market and bringing food back home. In fact, the teenagers actually help us unpack, briefly, to see if there are any "goodies " left over!

 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Whatever you decide, we hope you’ve found this article useful.

 Some links given are affiliate links, meaning if you take a look and choose to buy, I get a small amount of commission ( at no cost to you ), so thank you.

But most of all, we want to help others to enjoy the freedom that comes with campervanning.

🚐 Vanlife goodies - Escape While You Can! ☀️

#vanlifeUK #campervanCooking #VanLifeMeals #CampCookingHacks #VanLifeRecipes #RVKitchenTips #TinyKitchenHacks #NomadCooking #RoadTripRecipes #CampfireCooking #VanLifeEats