There’s just something wonderful about a good meal at the end of a long day in the saddle, and although any food tastes good when you’re hungry, it’s fun to go all-out once in a while.
Last weekend, we did just that. Together with some friends, we each took responsibility for a dish and between us, we turned out some truly fantastic camp food. The best part is that it’s all so flexible. This meal is vegetarian, but could easily have meat if you prefer, and most of the ingredients should be available in most countries, or easily substituted.
First up: corn fritters with sweet chilli sauce, and served over a salad (this was our dish). Just mix a 300g can of corn (drained) with 2 eggs, 1/2 cup flour, 1 tsp baking powder, salt, pepper and 1/4 cup grated cheese. Fry with a little oil in a non-stick pan (a small non-stick frying pan and spatula are part of our standard bike-touring kitchen).
Serve over salad, with a bit of Thai sweet chili sauce.
Next, Simone & Trevor got chopping and working on the main course. They had a good selection of vegetables: onions, green beans, red and yellow peppers and carrots.
Simone tipped a bit of coconut milk and Thai green curry paste into one pot and stirred, adding the vegetables a bit at a time.
She saved some vegetables for a second main dish: a sweet ‘n’ sour vegetable mixture. To this dish, she added a can of pineapple as well as the vegetables, and a bottle of sweet ‘n’ sour sauce.
This was all served over rice, and was fantastic!
After all this goodness, we barely had any room left but we still had desert! Alicia made this course. She picked a sweet number with coconut milk, sugar, bananas and lychees. It’s really simple. You just heat the coconut milk with a bit of sugar (brown sugar is nice).
Then add in some chopped bananas and a drained can of lychees.
It was super sweet, and would be a great energy-booster and warming desert on a chilly autumn night. We enjoyed it in the summer too, but it would be especially nice in cooler temperatures.
What great bike touring meals have you made? We’d love to see your recipes and ideas for going beyond the typical pasta and tomato sauce that fuels so many cyclists.