One Pot meals for travellers – Backpacking tips

Simple one pot meals for travellers

We think many backpackers know the problem; you only have a small gas cooker with usually only one flame. The dish for lunch or dinner must be so simple or you cook everything one after the other, which can be quite time consuming with just one flame.
Of course there is the possibility to buy a bigger cooker with 2 flames. If you don’t want to buy another gas cooker, then you can find some pots which can be separated into two. If you buy one of these double pots, it works as the following. The bottom pot is heated by the flame; the upper pot is heated by indirect heat, good for cooking vegetables or heating sauces.
Nevertheless, a not to unimportant detail remains, the more pots and pans you use, the more you have to wash later.
To solve this problem, we've discovered the one-pot dishes for us. The system is simple, all ingredients in one pot at the same time, cooking, ready to eat. Here we want to introduce you to some dishes that we liked.

Recipe pasta with tomato sauce

Duration approx. 10 minutes

 

Things needed:

1 pot / pan

Difficulty level:

Easy

Ingredients:
pasta
1 tin of tomato sauce
oil
water
Salt

pepper
(Onions, spring onions, garlic etc.)
(Carrot, peppers etc.)

What to do

If you want to use onions and / or garlic, you should sweat them briefly (2-3 minutes) in a little bit of oil. Then add the noodles with the tomato sauce. Stir once and then fill up with enough water until the noodles are covered. If you also want to use vegetables, you can put this to the pasta. (The harder the vegetables, the smaller you should cut the pieces so that it has approximately the same cooking time as everything else.) Add some salt, pepper if you have a pinch of sugar (foods that have a certain acidity such as tomatoes, taste with something Sugar more intense!) Now you let everything cook with lid until the water is gone. In between, stir again and again. If the pasta is still too hard just add some more water. After about 10 minutes, everything should be ready and you can start eating.

 

 

Recipe for rice with coconut milk

Duration: 15-20 minutes

 

Things needed:
1 pan / pot

Difficulty level:

Easy

Ingredients:
1 cup of rice
400 ml (1 can) of creamy coconut milk
1 onion
2 cups of water
Oil
Salt

Pepper

Curry

What to do

Cook the onion in a little bit oil (about 3 minutes). Add the rice with any (e.g. 1-2 teaspoons) curry and deglaze after about a minute with 2 cups of water (simple rule: 1 part rice, double the amount of water). Add some salt, pepper or other spices and let it cook again. Just before all the water is gone try the rice, if it is tasty perfect, otherwise add some more water. If you add the coconut milk, the rice may still have a slight bite. Continue to cook until the coconut milk is reduced and you have a creamy sauce. Overall, the meal should take about 15-20 minutes to prepare and cook.

 

Vegetables which are super suitable:

Onions
Carrots
Paprika
Corn on the Cob
Mushrooms
Courgette
Pumpkin.

If you like it exotic you can also use fruit for curry and / or coconut dishes:
Mango
Pineapple
Tangerines
Melon
Additional you can use some nuts, which give extra bite again

Something different than pasta and rice

If you are bored with pasta and rice, try couscous! It is incredibly diverse and tastes great with all types of vegetables, even as a sweet variety with fruit.

Recipe for couscous

Duration: 5 minutes

 

Things needed:

1 pot

Difficulty level:

Extremely Easy

Ingredients:

1 cup of couscous
some oil
1 cup of water
salt

 

You bring a cup of water to a boil with a small dash of oil and then remove the pot from the flame. Then add 1 cup of couscous and a pinch of salt and let it stand for 3 minutes. Now you give some butter, Margarine or alternatively some more oil to couscous, stir everything and ready.

 

Questions, comments or another recipe

If you have more one-pot recipes, like our recipes, have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment underneath this article. Thanks in advance, enjoy your meal.