Coming up with quick, hearty lunch options is tough but essential for river runners and campers. It’s easy to default to nuts and protein bars for speed and convenience, but that approach can leave your crew under-fueled for the activities on the agenda. Here are three easy river trip lunches that you can prep before a river or camping trip and quickly assemble at the lunch stop.
These three wrap-style options deliver plenty of veggies, protein, and easy swaps to accommodate vegans, vegetarians, and meat eaters. All work well with tortillas, lettuce leaves, or pita pockets. Or you can serve them as scoopable salads on crackers for ultimate portability and convenience.
Although designed for multi-day river trips, these wraps also make excellent camping lunches, picnic lunches, and road-trip meals. For essential river trip meal planning guidelines, check out Raft Trip Meal Planning Made Easy.
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Make-ahead tips for river trip lunches
My top tip for simple, satisfying river trip lunches is prepping the ingredients for the trip, and taking care in packing the components in the cooler so everything stays crisp and fresh until you’re ready to assemble the wraps.
- Dice or chop veggies before the trip, and pack ingredients with similar moisture content in airtight containers in the cooler.
- Pack the protein separately, leaving tuna in the can until you’re ready to serve and packing pre-grilled chicken or tofu in a separate container in the cooler.
- Preserve the crunch element of the wrap filling, such as nuts or roasted chickpeas, by packing it in a separate container so it doesn’t get soggy.
- If you’re using homemade dressing (all the lunches here include a dressing recipe), make it at home, vacuum-seal it, and freeze before putting in the cooler. This trick works for both citrus- or vinegar-based dressing and for yogurt-based dressing. Another option is to bring small store-bought containers of dressing and leave them sealed until the lunch stop.
- Bring different wrap options to accommodate folks who are watching their carbs or are gluten-free. I like to bring whole-wheat tortillas, romaine lettuce leaves, and cheese wraps. Sandwich bread is my least favorite option as it always ends up smashed in the dry box.
- When mixing the wrap filling, go light on the dressing to accommodate those who prefer minimal dressing. Set out the remainder of the dressing for those who want more.
With some before-trip prep and attentive food packing, you can have a no-fuss, hearty lunch that comes together quickly, provides a hearty mix of nutrients, and provides a welcome departure from trail mix. For more river trip food prep guidance, check out 9 Food Packing Tips for Camping.
What makes a great river trip lunch?
Over time, I’ve observed that the best river trip and camping lunches deliver a good mix of protein, carbs, and fat while staying fresh in the cooler for several days and being easy to serve and eat. Whether you’re assembling lunch at a scheduled stop or doing it on the fly while you continue floating, the process should be as easy as combining a few ingredients and setting out some wraps. With some fruit, nuts, and cookies to round out the meal, everyone gets what they need to fuel their afternoon rowing, paddling, or hiking.
Here are the essential elements of these river trip camping lunch wraps:
- Flavor mixes that work well with at least two different types of protein, such as chicken and tofu, to accommodate meat eaters and vegetarians.
- Dressings that keep well in the cooler: For the most part, I recommend vinegar- or citrus-based dressing because those hold up for days. When I use a yogurt-based dressing, I vacuum-seal and freeze it beforehand so it stays cold.
- Using colorful vegetables not only makes the wrap filling look appetizing but also ensures that you’re delivering a good mix of nutrients.
- Nuts, croutons, wheat berries, or roasted chickpeas are crucial to give each bite a satisfying crunch.
- Lunch wraps with minimal ingredients and easy assembly are essential for river and camping trips.
Why these lunch wraps work well on river trips
These recipes include all the essential elements for a midday meal that you’ll turn to over and over on river trips:
- Ingredients stay fresh in the cooler for days. These wraps incorporate sturdy vegetables, primarily citrus- or vinegar-based dressing, and pre-cooked or shelf-stable protein.
- Easy assembly at the lunch stop: Simply pull out the ingredients, dump them all in a bowl, and set out the wraps.
- Easy vegetarian substitutions: Each of these recipes can be easily adapted for vegetarians with protein swaps such as crispy roasted tofu or hard-boiled eggs. (Another great recipe for vegetarians is our Colorado Tabbouleh, a light and fresh grain-based salad that can be the base for a wrap or served as a side.)
- High protein: Chock-full of protein with chicken, tofu, tuna, and nuts, these wraps will satisfy the hungriest paddlers.
- Easy assembly, serving, and clean-up: These come together in minutes at the lunch stop, and minimize dirty dishes.
With these tips, you can put together your own catalog of go-to river trip lunches or try one of ours.
Essential river trip lunch prep tools
Over time, we’ve collected some indispensable tools for speeding prep time and preserving food freshness on river trips. Here are our top tools.
- FoodSaver vacuum sealer: We vacuum-seal all the river trip food we can because that approach saves space in the cooler and keeps the food fresh longer. We love the FoodSaver for its ease of use and ability to custom-size your food bags.
- GSI Rakau knife set: Compact and high-quality, this nifty knife set comes with a small cutting board. We keep it front and center in our dry box so it’s accessible for lunch stops.
- Vermi silicone food storage containers: These are ideal for river trips because they collapse to save space and have airtight lids. Different sizes have different colors, so it’s easy to keep your food organized in the cooler.
Spicy tofu (or chicken) curry wraps
These protein-packed curry wraps are one of our favorite make-ahead camping lunches. Filled with crunchy vegetables and a creamy curry dressing, they’re equally delicious with roasted tofu or grilled chicken.
These are easy to prep at home: You just grill, vacuum-seal, and freeze the protein beforehand. If you’re with a crowd that is spice-shy, you can go light on the curry and keep some on hand for anyone who needs more heat.
Check out the tofu (or chicken) curry wraps recipe
Kale and smoked salmon salad
This hearty salmon wrap combines smoked salmon, kale, hard-boiled eggs, and wheat berries into a cooler-friendly camping lunch that stays fresh for several days.
Although we typically serve this salad in wraps for lunch, it’s a terrific dinner salad as well. If you’re accommodating vegetarians, you can set out the smoked salmon separately. The vegetarians will still get plenty of protein from the hard-boiled eggs. The surprise ingredient is wheat berries, which give these wraps a lovely nutty flavor.
Check out the kale and smoked salmon salad recipe
Mediterranean tuna wraps
Canned tuna is a great building block for protein-packed lunches, and of course doesn’t take up room in the cooler. This make-ahead no-cook tuna salad recipe is easily adaptable: You can switch out the tuna for chicken, add hard-boiled eggs, play with different types of peppers, and offer different types of cheese as optional toppings (feta works particularly well).
Check out the Mediterranean tuna wraps recipe
Fuel up with easy, hearty river trip lunches
A midday fuel stop is essential on any river or camping trip. With these easy, make-ahead lunches, you’ll have the best combination of flavor, convenience, and satisfaction.
