Camp Cooking: A Well-Balanced Dinner

I’m about to give you the formula for the best camping dinner ever. It’s so tasty I even cook it at home. And it’s so easy, it’s possible to make even after a seriously long (like, 17+ miles long) hike, with only your camp kitchen gear. And a bonus: it’s fast too.

Allow me to introduce: A Well-Balanced Dinner, Camp Edition: Juicy Sausages with sautéed Chard and Lemony Couscous.

The really neat thing about Couscous these days is that it comes in perfect portion sized boxes, with a great assortment of seasonings and flavors, and Near East Couscous only takes 5 minutes to cook. You can’t beat that when you’re camping and ravenous! Add a little fresh chopped parsley and lemon and the mild flavor of the couscous is punched up a notch, and you get a good bit of carbohydrate from the semolina to help recharge your trail-worn body. Now pair that steamy couscous with the chard and garlic you chopped up and marinated before your trip, and just sautéed to perfection…Fresh flavor, fiber and minerals for your blood and bones! and then…

Over the skillet brown a few tasty, fully-cooked spicy sausages like Aidell’s Chorizo Chiken…And voila! In 10 minutes you have a complete, tasty meal for you and your buddies, in camp or at home. So easy, so tasty, and so balanced, camp cooking doesn’t get any better than this.

What You’ll Need

Couscous*:

  1 Box of Couscous flavor of your choice
  1 cup water
  1/4 lemon
  1/4 cup parsley, chopped (I like to do this at home before heading out to camp, and I store my parsley in a bag with a paper towel and any other fresh herbs and citrus I plan on using)

Chard:

  1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  1 tablespoon good aged balsamic vinegar
  a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper
  3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  1 bunch of fresh chard, chopped (Same as the herbs, I prep my chard and garlic beforehand and store it in a ziplock bag, marinating in olive oil and vinegar, salt and pepper)

Sausages:

  1-1 1/2 sausages for each person in your party

First, cook the couscous according to the directions on the package. Keep it covered while you sauté the bag of chard, garlic, olive oil and vinegar for 5 minutes. Cover the chard and cook the sausages until each side is browned, turning them often, about 5 minutes. If you have a two-burner stove, or two stoves, each of these steps can overlap and save time and fuel. Then combine the ingredients on a plate, dust the couscous with parsley and lemon, and enjoy!

*Pro Tip:

To minimize the space the Couscous takes up in your pack beforehand, tear the directions off the box and put them along with the couscous and seasoning in a small ziplock bag.