Healthy campsite food

[Slowroad]

Whilst one reason I go touring is to test out bakery products, as I get older I need to make sure I eat healthily. Evening meals are usually a pouch of beans or lentils, either Jamie Oliver or Merchant Gourmet, and coucous. These are generally, but not always, available in the smaller shops encountered on tour. I've sometimes had to resort to Supernoodles... Breakfast generally dried fruit and some variety of oat bar - but I really should go back to porridge as these bars are quite high in sugar. It's just carrying the weight.
Lunch is always more hit and miss, just depends on what village shop I come across, and whether they do any veggie sandwiches. The times I had a cheese and onion pasty every day are long gone!
What do others do to eat healthily on tour but still enjoy it?

[Ron]

Whilst happy to cook for myself every day at home, I have never been a camp cooking enthusiast, it's all just too much of a scutter. Eating out, which I almost never do at home was an enjoyable part of the whole cycle touring experience which I didn't grudge paying for, also the rest that comes from sitting on a proper chair at a proper dining room table for an hour after a day in the saddle is well worth paying for and left me fit and ready to burn off the meal with a walk around the local attractions before lying down in the tent.
This system gave me a varied diet of the quality and quantity needed to sustain myself in a healthy condition with a degree of weight loss, which was welcomed.
I did of course carry what I termed emergency rations to get me over the odd day when I found myself stranded far from commercial eateries.
My touring was mainly outwith the UK, and I had a feeling that eating out could have been more expensive here in the UK.

[Psamathe]

Does catering depend on how long you are going for? Long weekend and diet is less of an issue (just calories) but 6 months and diet might be a bit more important.

Ian

[simonineaston]

Whilst one reason I go touring is to test out bakery products, as I get older I need to make sure I eat healthily.
What do others do to eat healthily on tour but still enjoy it?

Know what you mean about bakery
That’s an interesting conclusion to come to… I might take the view that having made it to my [insert relevant number]th decade, I would jolly-well eat what I like!
I used to address the second Q. by the straightforward tactic of cycling mainly in rural France, but that’s not quite the guarantee of good grub that it used to be, one way or another…

[gbnz]

As above, learnt that cooking on a camp stove isn't worth it (Nb. Reserve it for tea). As to food, tend to drop into something like an Aldi in passing, bulk purchase of fruit, wholemeal, limited meat/cheese, c/w baker stops enroute, bought meal very occasional

Last run was typical, bakers in Newark, Aldi by Lincoln, bakers by York & probably a Lidls/Aldi stock up prior to heading up the Vale. Have always found Aldi, Penrith a superb stocking up point, whether heading into the Lakes, east across the Dales, N.E over towards Berwick upon Tweed. Have never enjoyed paying several times the price for a battered apple of whatever, in the Lakes. Occasional abroad, have always had the same approach, seems to work

[jackt]

Good topic for a thread. I find it quite easy to get in to some bad food habits that I'd never consider while at home. Result can be coming back from a tour feeling a bit washed out, tummy trouble, mouth ulcers.

The more we learn about the effects of ultraprocessed foods and takeaway fare, the more it makes sense.

A few things I do to improve the quality of my camp food is to:

- fresh esp green vegetables (broccoli, french beans). Slice finely and drop into a boiling pot of pasta or noodles towards the end of cooking.

- boiled eggs

- tinned sardines. Esp like the Tesco Finest North Atlantic range - particularly the paprika and tomato one

- apples, bananas and nuts instead of chocolate and flapjacks and the like as snacks while riding

I sometimes make up a sauce at home to carry with me to spice up plain noodles - from a recipe from Fuchsia Dunlop's book Every Grain of Rice. It's chilli oil (home made), tamari sauce, Chinkiang vinegar, sesame oil. https://www.copymethat.com/r/N7yjg674s/ ... ght-noodl/

Cheese, while not especially healthy, is a good way to bring a bit of flavour to an otherwise dull dish.

I miss my home fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, though I suppose I could l pack a bit and carry it with me.

Realise that this is all very much my own tastes, but I'd be really interested in hearing other people's favourites and tips.

[pwa]

I'd reserve the stove for boiling water for coffee and tea. Any food I'd probably have as a salad of some sort, and include bread bought along the route. I like cold food every bit as much as warm food.

[foxyrider]

I've eschewed proper cooking when cycle camping for as long as i've done it. I have on occasion heated tinned food either directly on the stove or in my pan/kettle (its a folding job with a wide top which can be used as either) But more usually the kettle gets used for boiling water - i usually carry packet noodles/soups as 'emergency' food, preferring to dine in local eateries if possible or buy salad stuff if thats what takes my fancy.

I usually carry sliced 'black' bread and a suitable spread which gets topped off with either sliced cheese or meat for breakfast/supper, supplemented by a pot of joghurt. If available i may use fresh rolls/croissants instead of the black bread, small containers of jam or other spread are sometimes acquired too giving a sweet alternative. I find the bread will keep for at least a week, if kept in airtight containers the meat/cheese etc will go for several days even if its quite warm, even the joghurt will go a couple of days unrefrgerated. Most times the 'emergency' rations survive the whole trip but much like spare inner tubes, they are there if i need them

Is it healthy? Well its certainly cleaner than cooking, i don't need multiple pans, sharp knives etc and it takes up little space. When i budget for a trip i do allow for the dining, even on the most cash strapped adventures i've managed to eat fairly well without resorting to 'fast food' (i will admit to the occasional hotdog during the day!) Clearly things would be different if i went in for wild camping or more exotic destinations but this has worked well for me in the UK and northern Europe.

[axel_knutt]

I don't camp, but I do self-cater at youth hostels. The longest I've been without fruit & veg is about a month, they just aren't calorie dense enough to pay their way, and apart from the space and weight, they aren't worth the mess if they gat damaged either.

[Cyclewala]

Breakfast: Porridge made with water. I take the exact amount for the number of days plus two extra portions as emergency (somewhere remote without shops).

Lunch: bread/baguette with cheese, tuna or tin of soup.

Evening: pasta (usually tortollini as it has a filling) and pasta sauce. Occasionally, grilled chicken and veg if I’m feeling extravagant. Occasionally eat out if there are options near the campsite.

Tend to pick up next meal whilst travelling and before I get to destination.

[Bmblbzzz]

I tend to use cous-cous or bulgur wheat as a grainy base, because they just need soaking in boiling water, rather than actual boiling themselves. Then some veg, cooked in the pot, and maybe some sauce or canned beans or similar. I'm not sure this is really healthy but it does at least include fresh veg.

[st599_uk]

I've got a small folding titanium firepit from AliExpress and a chopped up grill from my local pound shop.

Nothing beats a campfire and some grilled protein.

[pjclinch]

I've got a small folding titanium firepit from AliExpress and a chopped up grill from my local pound shop.

Nothing beats a campfire and some grilled protein.

"grilled protein" eh? you certainly know how to make stuff sound appetising!

Pete.

[Galactic]

I tend to use cous-cous or bulgur wheat as a grainy base, because they just need soaking in boiling water, rather than actual boiling themselves. Then some veg, cooked in the pot, and maybe some sauce or canned beans or similar. I'm not sure this is really healthy but it does at least include fresh veg.

I'm with Bmblbzzz on this, base carbs plus fresh veg and some bean or other legume based protein plus herbs/spices see me right, even over long tours of several months.

Cous-cous is ever so handy (pasta works, too, and some kinds of rice can cook in a thermos during the day - just pour boiling water in at breakfast time and it'll be ready by lunch). I also like the baby-muesli type stuff you get in Germany and other countries. Basically it's ground up muesli (oat flakes and dried fruit and seeds). Because it's ground up it's very compact compared to normal mueslis and makes for a handy, space-saving breakky.

Beans/pulses can be bought ready-cooked in cans or jars and are added at the end of cooking to warm up. Otherwise hummus, tofu, quorn etc along with nuts are other sources of protein that I use during the day (breakfast, tea, snacks).

Fresh veg, if it is to be cooked, is often the most difficult element in one-pot Trangia cooking. The thing that really maximised my fresh-veg intake while on tour was a small grater. Root veg and fruit like carrots, beet, apples, fennel root etc can be grated into the pot and are cooked through in just a minute or two. The grater itself is big enough to use easily, but small enough to fit into the top of my Trangia when I pack it away. Highly recommended!

[Bmblbzzz]

Ooh, I hadn't thought of a grater! How big is it? Do you have a link to something similar so we can see what you're talking about, size wise etc?