Three Square
In a camp cooking rut? From juicy berries to fresh green herbs and hearty beans, here are three unique and healthy meals to fuel summer adventures
Tahini Date Butter With Fresh and Roasted Berries
Nothing says summer quite like fresh berries. Hey, even bears agree. This breakfast might sound complex, but it comes together in minutes at camp. Tahini is a sesame butter (or paste, if you prefer) readily available in most grocery stores. It’s nutty and rich and velvety smooth. Blended with dates, it’s a sweet, salty foundation for this vibrant breakfast.
- 8 ounces tahini
- 6 dates, pitted
- 1 pint strawberries, quartered
- ½ pint blueberries
- ½ pint blackberries
- ¼ cup granola
- Sea salt to taste
- At home: Prepare the tahini date butter by blending the dates, tahini, and a pinch of salt in a food processor until smooth. Store in an airtight container for up to a week in advance.
- At camp: Heat a cast-iron or carbon-steel pan over medium heat on a camp stove or carefully over a fire. Add half of each kind of berry to the pan with no oil. Cook the berries for about five minutes, until they start to give up their juices but aren’t breaking down entirely. Remove from heat, set aside.
- Spread the tahini butter on a plate or bowl. Top with the roasted berries, then fresh berries, granola, and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Cauliflower Wedges With Fava Beans and Green Allium Relish
This healthy, light, colorful lunch is designed to use nothing but a grill—no pots or pans. All you’ll need for cooking is a small fire and a grill grate. Allium, the Latin word for garlic, is a plant genus that includes garlic, onions, scallions, and leeks, among other vegetables. Green garlic is immature garlic that can be found in stores with good produce departments. It’s typically available in spring and summer and looks like an overgrown scallion with a bulb that’s white and pink. When it’s time to pop the fava beans from their tough skins, fill a bowl with them and plop down next to the campfire. Favas need to be extracted from their pods, like edamame, but each individual bean also has a tough skin that needs to be removed. You can get them out of the skin by squeezing one end with your fingers.
- 1 cauliflower head, quartered
- 2 ounces tahini
- 4 lemons, halved
- 1 pound fava beans (about 25 beans)
- 1 bunch scallions
- 1 bunch green garlic
- 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
- ½ cup olive oil
- Fava flowers, or your favorite edible flowers, as needed
- Drizzle the cauliflower, scallions, and green garlic with a dash of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and place on the grill grate over a medium fire. The scallions and green garlic should go over the hotter section of the fire, the cauliflower over a cooler section so it cooks slower. Roast the scallions and green garlic until lightly charred—but not black—on the outside. The cauliflower should be nicely browned and tender around the stem.
- On another section of the grill, add the lemons cut-side down over the fire and char until dark brown. At the same time, add the fava beans and roast until the shells blister on both sides.
- When the favas are properly blistered, remove them from the heat and let cool slightly. Remove the beans from the pods and give the pods a light squeeze from one end to pop them out of their tough skins. The pods should have helped steam the beans so they are easily removed from their skins.
- Rough-chop the charred scallions and garlic and combine with the cilantro and fava beans in a bowl. Add the juice from the grilled lemons, the rest of the olive oil, and a pinch of salt. Mix well to make the relish.
- Spread the tahini on a plate and top with the cauliflower. Spoon the relish over the cauliflower, top with the flowers, and serve.
Dutch Oven Charred Summer Vegetable Stew
Eating canned stew heated over an open fire is a camping tradition for lots of folks. Often that stew is a rich and salty concoction of beef, carrots, potatoes, and gravy. Nothing wrong with that, but for those who’d prefer a healthier meat-free version, this stew offers the same kind of stick-to-your-ribs goodness with beans replacing the meat and fresh seasonal veggies in place of the soggy potatoes and carrots. Dried beans that you’ve precooked are the ideal choice here; you can keep them in their liquid in a mason jar to concentrate their flavor. Or, if you’re in a time crunch, canned beans will work just fine. Pick your favorite bean variety—there’s no wrong choice here.
- 1 cup rice (a variety that cooks within 20 minutes is best)
- 1 pint beans, precooked (or substitute one can)
- 2 quarts water
- 2 red onions
- 1 bulb fennel, save frond for garnish
- ½ head green cabbage
- ½ bunch scallions
- ½ bunch green garlic
- 2 ounces sherry vinegar
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 dried chilis of your choice
- Place a cast-iron Dutch oven over a medium-heat fire or a camp stove. Add the beans, the liquid, water, chilis, and rice. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rice is starting to become tender.
- As the rice cooks, char off the cabbage, fennel bulb, scallions, and green garlic over the fire, or in a separate pan. Don’t overcook the vegetables; the idea is to give them a bit of color and enhanced flavor. Once cooked, rough-chop the vegetables and add to the pot with the rice and beans. Add a pinch of salt.
- Add the honey and vinegar to the pot and simmer for another 10 minutes to meld the flavors and allow the vegetables to soften. Add salt to taste and serve in bowls with fennel frond as garnish.
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