6 Easy Trekking Recipes

6 easy and delicious trekking recipes you don’t know yet

You know it: tasteless oatmeal and convenience foods every day. But eating on the trail doesn’t have to be monotonous and boring. You don’t have to lug around an oven to prepare delicious food on the go, either. We’ll show you how!

Kieran Creevy has put together a few recipes for us that are easy to prepare and simple to recreate on the trail with just a few ingredients. In addition, they are much healthier and much cheaper than ready-made food.

Kieran is an expedition and private chef and International mountain leader with more than 20 years experience cooking and leading in a wide variety countries and on vastly differing terrains and climates around the world.

These are our six favorite easy, healthy and delicious outdoor recipes:

• Flatbread recipe
• Apple, oat and Fontal cheese flapjacks
• Polenta, pistachio, orange, yoghurt and olive oil cakes
• Blueberry, almond, walnut, date, and orange energy balls.
• Ricotta, lemon, rocket and hazelnut risotto
• Chicken Avgolemono

Flatbread recipe

Ingredients:

• 200g white/rye/wholemeal
• 1/3 teaspoon sugar
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 60ml olive or rapeseed oil
• Water
• Chopped chives

Simple version:

• In a drybag or bowl combine the dry ingredients.
• Add the oil and knead briefly
• Add enough water to make a stiff dough.
• Expel the air from the drybag, close then knead for 2-3 minutes until you have a smooth,
  elastic dough.
• Heat a dry pan to medium/hot.
• Break off a golf ball sized piece of dough, flatten with your palms, dusting with additional flour as needed, until you have a thin disk.
• Press in some chopped chives

Cook for 2-3 minutes each side on the pan.
Serve warm.
And now, we give you these 4 simple recipes, inspired by the Italian Alps and Dolomites:
 

Apple, oat and Fontal cheese flapjacks

Ingredients – makes 6 bars:

• 100g porridge oats
• 1 apple, cored.
• 40g fontal cheese, grated
• 100ml milk
• 1 egg
• Pinch sea salt

Method:

• Heat the oven to 160c
• Puree the apple in a food processor/blender.
• Add the egg, milk, salt and edam cheese and pulse.
• Add the oats and pulse again until all elements are mixed well.
• Spoon the mix into silicone bar moulds.
• Cook at 160c for 20-25 minutes until a skewer or sharp knife inserted into the centre of a bar comes out clean.
• Allow to cool and remove from moulds.
• Store in a cool place or refrigerate.
• Freezes well

Polenta, pistachio, orange, yoghurt and olive oil cakes

Ingredients: Makes 10 small cakes

• 150g fine polenta
• 100g gf flour
• 50ml olive oil
• 50g coconut sugar
• 50g pistachios, shelled, and crushed
• 50g live yoghurt
• 5g baking powder
• Juice and zest 1 large orange
• 2 tbsp honey

Method:

• Heat the oven to 180°c
• Heat the olive oil, half of the orange juice, orange zest and 1 tbsp of honey in a pan until the honey dissolves completely then remove from the heat.
• Stir in the polenta, flour, and baking powder and mix well.
• Add the yoghurt and pistachios and mix well.
• Spoon into small silicone cake molds and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until a skewer/toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
• While the cakes are baking, pour the second half of the orange juice together with 1 tbsp of honey into a pan and heat until the honey dissolves.
• When the cakes come out of the oven, prick them all over with a toothpick and pour the syrup onto the cakes.
• Allow to cool, refrigerate overnight, then remove from the molds.
• Wrap in beeswax cloth or place in reusable container.
• The cakes can be stored in an airtight container for 3-4 days at room temperature.

Blueberry, almond, walnut, date, and orange energy balls.

Ingredients: Makes 5 balls

• 10 Medjool dates, stoned
• 3 tbsp toasted almonds
• 2 tbsp walnuts
• Zest 1 orange
• 2 tbsp dried blueberries
• 1/2 tsp sea salt

Method:

1. Pulse all ingredients in a food processor.
2. Roll into balls, and store in an airtight reusable food container.
3. Freezes well.

Ricotta, lemon, rocket and hazelnut risotto

Ingredients: Serves 2

• 100g carnaroli rice
• 1 yellow onion, finely diced
• 1 glass Italian white wine
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 100g fresh ricotta
• 50g toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped
• Large handful fresh rocket, dandelion, sorrel or lambs lettuce (washed and dried)
• 500ml vegetable stock
• 50g butter
• Salt and pepper
   

Method:

1. Melt 30g butter in a deep pan, add the onion and sweat until translucent on a medium-medium/high heat.
2. Add the rice and cook with the onion for 2-3 minutes, then add the wine, cook until absorbed.
3. Season the rice with salt and pepper.
4. Stirring all the time, add a ladle of vegetable stock at a time and cook until absorbed.
5. When the rice is al-dente, add the remaining butter, ricotta, lemon zest, and half the greens.
6. Mix well, turn off the heat and cover for 5 minutes.
7. Serve in bowls topped with the remaining greens and hazelnuts.

Chicken Avgolemono

Ingredients: Serves 2

• 3 chicken thighs, chopped roughly, bones reserved.
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 glass white or rose wine
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 cup long grain rice
• 1.5 litres chicken stock
• Juice and zest 1 lemon
• 2 eggs
• Handful lovage, parsley, coriander, or tarragon, finely chopped, plus extra for serving
• Salt
• Black pepper

Equipment

• Camping stove and 2.5 lite pot
• Insulated food flasks
• Spoons

Advanced prep at home:

• In a large pot, heat the olive oil gently
• Add the chicken thigh meat and bones, season with salt and pepper and cook the meat until just barely cooked.
• Remove the meat and leave to one side.
  Continue cooking the bones, add the spring onion, lemon zest and cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the rice, mix well, then add the wine.
• Cook for 2 minutes and add the chicken stock.
• Cover and simmer until the rice is cooked through, taste and season if necessary.
• Remove 2 cups of the broth and out to one side.
• Shred the chicken and add to the pot, turn off the heat.
• Add the chopped herbs
• Whisk the 2 eggs and lemon juice together.
• Slowly add a ladle of reserved hot broth to the egg mix, whisking.
• Add one ladle at a time, slowly until all the reserved broth is mixed in.
• Add the now warmed mix to the pot, which well to incorporate fully, then stir for 2-3 minutes.
• Allow to cool, then refrigerate overnight.
• Chill 2 or 3 x 500ml insulated food canisters.
• You’re using these so that the food stays at cold temperatures for the hike to your camp, thereby keeping your food fresh and minimizing health risks.

In Camp:

• Heat the soup until fully heated through, including the rice.
• Serve in bowls, topped with fresh herbs.