Easy River Camp Meals for Every Kind of Eater

Michele Crockett

Updated on:

Food PlanningOrganizing
Cooking dinner in river camp

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 (like a Grand Canyon 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. Doesn’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 runners at camp waiting for dinner
Carnivores, vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, and the lactose-intolerant gather at the river and wait for dinner

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. 

Note: 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.

Cooking in river camp
Cooking up chili or curry before the river trip makes meal prep easy, so you have more time to enjoy camp

River lunch stop: 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.

River lunch stop
Lunches based on wraps (tortillas or lettuce) can satisfy a variety of tastes

The building block here is tabbouleh, a grain salad that keeps well in coolers for days, and is compact but filling. You can find excellent tabbouleh recipes all over the internet, but here’s the way we do it (with plenty of garlic, which probably helps its longevity):

Colorado Tabbouleh (Vegan)

  • 2 cups bulghur (check for soy if you’re buying from bulk bins; Red Mill has a non-soy version)
  • 3 cups boiling water
  • 3 tsp salt
  • ½ cup lemon juice
  • ½ cup olive oil  
  • 2 cups grape tomatoes, sliced lengthwise
  • Cilantro leaves from one bunch, chopped
  • 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 bunch green onions (use whites and a little of the greens), chopped
  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed 

Put the bulghur in a casserole dish, add boiling water and salt, cover with tight lid, and let steep for 20 minutes. When the water is completely absorbed, add olive oil and lemon, and mix. Add remaining ingredients, mix well, and chill completely before packing in cooler. 

At lunchtime, set out:

  • Tabbouleh
  • 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.

Green beans and sourdough loaf in river camp
Plainly cooked veggies and a good loaf of bread can hit the spot for many river runners

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)

Endless veggie chilis are available online, but here’s a recipe that never fails for us (plus, you can use this as a base for the breakfast burritos in the morning). 

  1. Cook a crock pot of black beans (takes 6-8 hours on high) with 2 tsp salt
  2. Brown medium yellow onion (diced) and 4 cloves of garlic (minced) in a skillet and add to crock pot
  3. Add large can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
  4. Add two cans of drained yellow corn 
  5. Add 2 cans of diced green chiles
  6. Dice 1-2 serrano peppers and add to crock pot

Cook on low for about an hour to mingle flavors. Let cool, then decant into one-gallon freezer bags, and place flat in freezer. Freeze completely solid (at least 24 hours). Pack on the bottom of food cooler, over dry ice if you’re going on a hot summer trip. 

Chili thawing in a large stock pot in camp
Pre-cooking chili, freezing in one-gallon bags, and thawing and heating on the river is an easy way to whip up a hearty meal

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.

River camp appetizers
Tortilla chips and salsa are a classic part of the river camp appetizer spread

 

All appetites satisfied in river camp

This three-meal plan 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. 

River Trip Meal Time
River trip meal with spectacular views

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