5 Easy Vegan Camping Meals

When camping, planning what to eat is important! But packing vegan meals can make this even easier AND cheaper - with simple ingredients and short cooking times.

By Jackie Bastianon

What better way to get out and enjoy the summer than to go camping? Last week my boyfriend and I packed up his car and drove out to the Bruce Peninsula - an absolutely stunning part of Ontario, with Lake Huron on the one side and Georgian Bay on the other. We decided to spend our five nights camping in Sauble Falls National Park, and just do day trips up and down the Peninsula.

I was in charge of planning our meals. Since being vegan I've been camping (car and backcountry) a few times and I've always found it to be even easier AND cheaper than it was before. Vegan food is generally cheaper, especially when it comes to the basics (we only spent $50.00 on food each for the week), things like soy milk last a while out of the fridge and vegan food often doesn't actually need to be cooked, so the cooking is very quick, and in an emergency all the food can be eaten without a stove or fire. So I thought I'd share with you what we ate to help give you some inspiration for your next camping trip!

Breakfast

We had access to a stove, so on a few of the slower mornings I made oatmeal ( I love a hot meal in the morning). The recipe for this is in our ebook, but it's simply a combination of oats, chia seeds, soy milk and some salt cooked over a pot and topped with brown sugar, chopped apples and almonds (10 minutes). On the days it was overcast or we had activities to get to, I just stuck to a simple peanut butter and blueberry jam on toast (2 minutes).

Lunch

We kept it super simple with our lunches and just made bagel sandwiches, with the "lunch meat" slices from Yves. We got the turkey, ham and salami (my favourite) and paired these with some lettuce, dijon mustard and Hellman's mayo (yes, they have a vegan version - available in all grocery stores). These sandwiches were easy to prep in the mornings after breakfast and just put in a container to take with us on all our adventures.

Dinner

Meal 1 : "Beef" Tacos (Full recipe in ebook)

I love this recipe so much, and it was a great thing to have on the first night of camping since the veggie ground round we used was still chilled from the ice! All we had to do was heat up the ground round in some oil for a few minutes on the stove, mix it with some pre-packaged taco seasoning and voila! We just put this on tortilla wraps and topped with a few veggies and hot sauce. We buy veggie ground round in bulk so it evens out to only $2.50 per package, which is enough to feed us both for a meal, and since it's made of plants it only needs to be heated up, not actually cooked.

Meal 2: Gnocchi with Pasta Sauce

This meal is just 2 ingredients! All you'll need for this recipe is a package of gnocchi (pasta made from potatoes and a can of your favourite pasta sauce. Just get some water boiling over your camping stove, add in the gnocchi and wait for them to start floating to the top - that's how you'll know they're ready. Then drain the water and add your sauce! Easy peasy.

Meal 3: Veggie Hot Dogs / Sausages

A camping trip would not be complete without some fire-roasted hot dogs. PSA: the veggie hot dogs from Yves taste EXACTLY like other hot dogs! This is an exceptionally easy swap for vegans and the veg curious alike. If you're not a hot dog fan, trying cooking up some vegan sausages instead! I'd recommend the new Spicy Italian Beyond Sausages which just recently became available at grocery stories across Canada.

Meal 4: Thai Soup/Ramen

There's nothing I want more on a cold or rainy camping day than some hot soup. I just bought some pre-packaged soups from Thai Kitchen (and a couple vegetable Mr. Noodles) and we just boiled some hot water & poured it over.

Meal 5: Vegan Chilli

For this last meal, I bought some canned chilli from Amy's which is a plant-based, organic company that does all kinds of healthier canned goods. We just heated this up and served it with some bread we toasted over the fire. Optionally you could make a chilli recipe in advance (we've got a yummy one in our ebook), freeze it and bring it along if this is one of your first meals.

Vegan or not, these camping meal ideas are great to try on your next trip! Tag us in your photos and let us know what your favourite camping meals are.