Beef Chili and Vegetables: Campfire Recipe
My family loves to camp … and we also love to still eat good food even when roughing it in the wilderness. I recently found this recipe for Beef Chili and Vegetables in a cookbook I picked up for my husband for Father’s Day at Market Hall Foods, one of our tour stops on our Rockridge Neighborhood Heritage Food Tour. Along with a camping dutch oven/skillet, Katy Holder’s Hungry Campers Cookbook was the perfect gift to give and get us ready for summer camping.
Now a big reason why I like this book is because it has an entire section of make-ahead recipes that really got my camping cuisine juices flowing, including this one for Beef Chili and Vegetables. Typically, my husband and I are finding ourselves with a full cooler of ingredients that need to be trekked up to Tahoe and utensils that need to be washed after we’re done prepping. No more, my friends!! Thanks to this book, I have no problem taking an evening before our trip to make and freeze a dish that all we need to do is heat up in our dutch oven … and right on the campfire at that! The food is better, we only have to load up a bunch of frozen tupperware containers and meals are so much for enjoyable to prepare.
I hope you enjoy this recipe. It was absolutely delicious and a great way to get our Foodie Toddler to get in some vegetables during our weekend al fresco.
Beef Chili and Vegetables Ingredients
Here’s what you need:
- 2 tbs. olive oil – again, we love the extra virgin at our tour partner Amphora Lafayette
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, crushed
- 2 carrots, peeled and grated
- 2 zucchini, finely grated
- 1 large re bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 2-3 small red chilies, seeded and finely chopped
- 1 tsp. ground cumin – we get this and all of our spices from our tour partner Oaktown Spice Shop
- 1 tsp. hot chili powder – see above
- 1 3/4 lbs. good-quality ground beef – you can find the best at Ver Brugge Foods in Rockridge or Diablo Foods in Lafayette
- 2, 14 oz cans of kidney beans, rinsed and drained
- 2, 14 oz cans of diced tomatoes
- 1 cup of tomato puree
- 1 tsp dried oregano – again, Oaktown Spice Shop
- 2 tbs. chopped fresh cilantro – for this one, we went to our own backyard herb garden
Instructions
- Heat the oil in a large heavy-based saucepan or casserole dish (or in your camp oven if you do decide to make it at the campsite). Add the onion, garlic, carrot, zucchini and bell pepper. Fry gently for about 10 minutes.
- Add the fresh chili, ground cumin and chili powder and cook for 1 minute, stirring everything together.
- Increase the heat to high and add the beef. Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring until the beef is brown. Add the kidney beans, cherry tomatoes, tomato puree and oregano. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
- Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for at least 1 hour. If you prefer your chili slightly thicker, simmer with the lid off for a further 15 minutes. Stir in the cilantro.
- Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Transfer to airtight containers and freeze.
- AT THE CAMP – allow the chili beef and vegetables to defrost in the cooler (although it can also be cooked from frozen) the reheat in a saucepan over a fire or gas cooker. Ensure it is piping hot before serving.
You can get more great campout recipes from Katy Holder and her Hungry Campers Cookbook. You can find it at your local bookstore (#ShopLocalFirst). If your only option is online, click this link to purchase it on Amazon via Book Movement , a fantastic book club website run by a teacher in NJ. She gets a portion of each sale to help keep her site going – and my personal book club very happy!
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