I love dishes that you can chop and throw in a pot, season and call it a day. This dish is all that plus a boat-load of flavor. You can easily sneak in five servings of vegetables in this bad boy.
I went camping over the summer with my husband in the very tippy-top of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. Now, this was no glamping situation at all. We stayed at a “rustic campground”. That means no electricity, no showers, no fancy bathrooms, only outhouses sprinkled throughout the park that were no fun to be downwind of.
I loved the idea of completely unplugging and “roughing” it. Well, roughing it as much as you can with a van full of delicious vegan food, an air mattress and pour over coffee.
Nevertheless, it was good to be in nature and keep my meals simple, healthy and delicious.
Michigan is an absolutely gorgeous state, especially in the summer. Northern Michigan is full of (salt and shark-free) great lakes, bucolic skylines, winding roads and farm stands. On the way up, we stopped at a bountiful roadside farm stand. These stands have produce grown by backyard hobby gardeners and professional farmers.
I have a hard time controlling myself around locally grown produce, so I left with a bit more than I needed for the trip. Sure enough, by the middle of the trip, I needed to use up the vegetables before they went bad. So, I came up with this amazing recipe to use up as many vegetables as I could.
Now, you can mix and match the vegetables that are in this, but these three vegetables are a must: Corn, Potatoes and Peppers. Cooking with beer might sound a bit weird, but don’t skip this part, either. It adds a really nice depth of flavor. If you can, find a nice, hoppy IPA beer.
I cooked this in a cast iron pan right in the fire. This made me feel like an even bigger badass, until I turned around and played music from my bluetooth speaker. What?! I need music at all times!
You don’t have to be camping and cooking over an open flame to make this. Feel free to use any pan with a heavy, tight fitting lid, like a dutch oven.
I served this over some beans and rice. Looking back on it, I probably could have cooked the rice right in the pan, then added the canned beans at the end. Give that a try and let me know how it works!
📖 Recipe
Beer Glazed Cajun Vegetables (Vegan Camping Food)
Ingredients
- 1 red bell pepper
- ½ red onion
- 3 small yellow potatoes
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 ears of corn (broken in half (or a cup of frozen corn))
- 6 white button mushrooms
- Handful of Green Beans or Asparagus
- ½ - 1 can beer (an IPA or a lager both go well)
- 1 tablespoon Cajun Seasoning
- 2 teaspoon Smoked Paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Roughly chop up all the vegetables
- Add vegetables to a cast iron pan with a heavy, tight fitting lid. If making at home, cook with any pan with tight fitting lid.
- Add beer and seasonings
- Place cast iron pan directly into a fire that you've stoked for at least 30 minutes. Make sure flames aren't too high and crazy. It's best to put it over hot coals that have low flames.
- Cook for 20 minutes. Check on it and add more beer if you notice it starting to stick to the bottom.
- Serve over white rice with black beans, or put the rice directly in the dish. If you do this, add a little more liquid.
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed. It should not be used as a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
Ben Schlatter
Great looking recipe! I’ll try it on my next trip outdoors.
Maria Rose
Thanks! Let me know how it turns out