Easy River Camp Meals for Every Kind of Eater

Planning meals for a large river group? Here’s a plan for easy river camp meals that will satisfy any type of eater.

Anytime you serve up a meal to more than one person, you need a different twist on your dish to accommodate the carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, allergy-prone, dairy-intolerant, gluten-intolerant, sugar-avoiding, and other discerning river trippers.

But it’s not that hard to satisfy every type of eater, even on the river.

The trick is to have a base dish that satisfies the most stringent requirements, then offer sides that check the other boxes. To make sure all the cook teams know the ground rules for food preferences, start with a survey—either an informal email poll or an out-and-out survey for longer, more complicated trips. (See our Grand Canyon food planning tips if you’re planning a long trip.)

1. Start with allergies, since failing to accommodate these could cause dire health consequences. Avoid including any foods any group member is allergic to in the community meals in order to avoid confusion or mistakes, especially with nut allergies and soy. ThatdDoesn’t mean that individual river trippers can’t have their own stash of nuts, but leaving them out of the group meals reduces stress for the allergic people and their loved ones. 
2. Make the main dish vegan—for example, a hearty bean chili or pasta sauce. 
3. Add appetizers or side dishes that include some meat, some dairy, veggies, and fruit.
4. Keep dessert super simple, or skip entirely. A bar of great chocolate is always welcome. 

Here’s a three-meal plan for breakfast, lunch, and supper that gives everyone at least something to eat without forsaking their personal A-game style of eating. (And for more details on how to plan river meals in general, check out Time-Tested Guidelines for Raft Trip Meal Planning.)

River camp breakfast: make-your-own breakfast burritos

Breakfast burritos are infinitely customizable with just a few ingredients. Again, if you have people who need to avoid soy, added sugar, or other ingredients, check all your jars and cans before the trip. Assemble the following ingredients in separate dishes: If you have one frying pan, cook the potatoes first, then transfer them to another bowl and cover with foil. Then cook the eggs in the same pan. Heat the beans in a separate saucepan. Nothing else in this plan needs cooked or heated.

• Pan-fried potatoes (dice and cook in olive oil with salt and pepper)
• Scrambled eggs (use olive oil instead of butter, and skip milk so they’ll be OK for the dairy-intolerant)
• Black beans 
• Whole wheat tortillas 
• Pico de gallo
• Smoked salmon or pre-cooked, shredded beef or pork
• Shredded cheese
• Salsa verde 

Set all the ingredients out, and let everyone assemble their own burritos according to their preferences. Even Paleo people can get in on these by doing a no-tortilla breakfast bowl with eggs, meat, pico, and salsa. Hot tip: If you serve our black bean chili for dinner the night before (and make plenty), you can use the leftover chili as the base for the burritos and skip most of the spice elements above.

You could also pre-make burritos but we find that these are impossible to cook right on the river unless you have a nice, hot bed of coals in your firepan. Too often there’s either a fire ban or no one wants to mess with a fire in the morning. And attempts to heat them on the stove have proven unsuccessful in our experience. Plus, everyone seems happier to be able to make their own custom burrito.

River lunch stop: grain salad (tabbouleh) wraps 

Lunch is one of the easiest meals to prepare for multi-disciplinary eaters because this is often a pot-luck affair anyway. But if you are responsible for lunch for all, take a modular approach as advised above for breakfast. Start with a hearty grain salad that satisfies the most stripped-down requirements, and build from there.

The building block here is a grain salad that keeps well in coolers for days, and is compact but filling. This grain salad recipe is based on the Mediterranean flavors of tabbouleh, but deviates somewhat from the traditional dish. You can find excellent grain salad recipes all over the internet, but here’s the way we do it (with plenty of garlic, which probably helps its longevity): Check out our Colorado Tabbouleh Grain Salad recipe for all the details on this bright, fresh salad that has been a major player in our river trip menus for years.

Here’s how to use the Colorado Tabbouleh grain salad as the star of the show at lunchtime. Simply set out:

• Colorado Tabbouleh Grain Salad
• Whole-wheat tortillas
• Pickled veggies such as carrots, beets, and asparagus (here’s a great how-to, “How to Pickle Every Vegetable and Fruit”)
• Mixed fruits: Sliced apples, whole grapes, strawberries  
• Protein bites (a low- or no-sugar mix of various nuts, cocoa, and Medjool dates that you combine in a food processor and form into balls, then freeze—here’s a good version)
• Smoked turkey or other pre-cooked meats
• Bibb lettuce
• Chocolate bars
• Cookies

Carnivores can make wraps with tortillas, smoked meat, tabbouleh, etc. Paleo and gluten-intolerant folks can use the lettuce for wraps rather than tortillas, add some pickled veggies, pile the meat high, and chow down on protein bites. Vegetarians and vegans have endless options with this spread.

River camp supper: hearty black bean chili

A hearty chili works well for supper because if it’s packed with enough interesting beans and veggies, even the carnivores won’t really notice the lack of meat, especially if you offer a deluxe appetizer spread. The evening’s menu:

• Appetizer-palooza
• Black bean chili
• Tortillas, corn bread, or sourdough
• Salad
• Berries with whipped goodness (dairy or coconut)

Here’s a link to our Make-Ahead Black Bean and Golden Corn Chili, which is the star in this show.

Once you hit camp, thaw and heat the chili in a large stock pan, continuing to stir frequently so the bottom doesn’t burn. While you’re waiting for the chili to heat (don’t forget to stir frequently!), set out the appetizers:

• Tortilla chips
• Salsa
• Guacamole (pre-made or just dice an avocado with some salsa on the spot)
• Assorted crackers (include some non-wheat versions)
• Summer sausage
• Assorted cheeses 
• Pickled veggies
• Olive assortment 
• Hummus 

When the chili is heated, serve with tortillas, corn bread, or a good sourdough loaf. Set out the salad (bring a good bag of pre-washed mixed salad and dump in a bowl). After supper, set out some fresh berries (blueberries keep fairly well), and both a dairy and coconut or other non-dairy whipped topping in a can.

 

All appetites satisfied in river camp

This three-meal plan for easy river camp meals for every type of eater is just a starting point: You can riff on these themes endlessly. Again, the game plan is start with a base main dish that is vegan and offer a separate meat offering. Then other types of eaters can fill in with the side offerings. Everyone can eat the way that feels right for them, and everything will taste more delicious on the banks of the river anyway. 

Here are a few more essential river meal planning posts to check out:

• Time-Tested Guidelines for Raft Trip Meal Planning
• Game-Changing River Camp Kitchen Gear
• 9 Food Packing Tips for Camping on River Trips
• Dutch Oven Cooking for River Trips

More about river trip meals

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Make-Ahead River Trip Camp Dinners

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9 Food Packing Tips for Camping on River Trips