When your river trip crew pulls into camp at the end of a long day on the water, dinner is often top of mind. Here are three crowd-pleasing make-ahead camp dinners that you can prepare days or weeks in advance, freeze, then heat in camp and serve less than an hour after you’ve tied off the boats.Â
As we’ve outlined in Time-Tested Guidelines for Raft Trip Meal Planning, the trick to fast, delicious dinners is prep work in the days or weeks leading up to your river trip. Cooking and freezing the entree—such as a curry, chili, or pasta sauce—is our go-to dinner strategy for several reasons:
- Main dishes can be cooked and frozen days or weeks in advance, cutting down on last-minute meal prep when you’re on the river.
- Frozen entrees help keep your cooler cold, especially if you vacuum-seal the meal before freezing. Plus, you incur less risk of food-borne illnesses. (At this point in my river-running adventures, I prefer not to bring raw meat on the river.)
- To prepare the meal in river camp, simply cook up some rice or pasta, heat the main dish, and serve.
- You can create dishes with significant craftsmanship, flavor, and complexity in your home kitchen without incurring the stress of trying to work that magic on a Coleman stove with a battered pan and 16 hungry river runners staring you down.
Tips for Make-Ahead River Trip Dinners
- Choose a main dish such as curry, pasta sauce, or chili that can be cooked days or weeks ahead of time, frozen, and reheated on the river.
- Freeze the food in gallon-size zip-locks or vacuum-sealed bags and lay them flat in your freezer at home so you can stack them in the cooler without wasting space.
- Layer the frozen food in the bottom of the cooler, which also keeps your freezer packs colder.
- Thaw the food completely before you heat it up in camp to prevent burning.
- Don’t throw away the zip-lock bags or vacuum-seal bags as you can use them for leftovers.
As much as I love heat-and-serve dinners for all the above reasons, I appreciate that when you have a layover day and plenty of time, nothing beats a slow-cooked Dutch oven masterpiece. Here are some hard-earned Dutch oven camp cooking tips if you want to try your hand.Â
For now, let’s get to some core make-ahead dinners that are in regular rotation on our trips: Two chilis that are different enough that they won’t seem redundant even if served back-to-back, and a delightfully punchy curry that works with nearly any kind of protein so you can satisfy meat eaters, vegetarians, or pescatarians.
Black Bean and Golden Corn Chili
A staple in my family for the past three decades, this black bean and golden corn chili gets a tangy lift from green chiles, heat from serrano peppers, and an extra shot of protein from chickpeas.
I prefer to start with dry black beans, cooked in a slow cooker until they’re just done but not mushy. Although you can certainly add ground turkey or hamburger to this chili, it stands on its own without any meat at all. And if you have happen to have any leftovers, it makes a terrific starting point for breakfast burritos the next morning.
Click here for the Black Bean and Golden Corn Chili recipe
Curry Rice Bowl with Cashews
This curry rice bowl with cashews is hearty and satisfying, whether you make it with beef, shrimp, chicken, or tofu. If I’m cooking for a crowd with varying diets, I make the base curry first, then divide it into different pots and add different proteins. Then I label each variety and put it in a separate zip-lock bag or vacuum-sealed bag for freezing.
This approach means you’ll need an extra pot in river camp to heat the varieties separately. On trips where we have just one two-burner stove, I handle that by cooking the rice first and setting it aside to rest. Then I heat up the two varieties in a couple of pots.
Click here for the Curry Rice Bowl recipe
White Bean Chili
This white bean chili, adapted by Audrey Crockett from Alexandra Caspero’s version at Delish Knowledge, is presented as vegetarian, but it’s absolutely delicious with chicken, too. The white bean base lets the cumin, oregano, and clove spices shine.Â
This chili pairs very well with cornbread, so go ahead and break out the Dutch oven if you have time.
Click here for the White Bean Chili recipe
Make-ahead dinners are the core of my crew’s river trip meal planning because we want to spend less time over the campstove and more time hiking, fishing, and playing guitar. With this approach, we can save time on food prep while still serving up dishes that are creative, complex, and completely satisfying.
