What go to recipe will I make today on my travels? It’s a question I often ask!

When you travel, you cannot eat out every meal – though it might sound nice! Apart from being expensive, your health can suffer from over indulging in different foods. This is why having a go to recipe – or two, or three –  to make while travelling is a must. I’ve asked some other travellers ‘what is their favourite go to recipe’ to make while travelling. And this is what they’ve said plus, provided the recipe. So now you know you will never starve with these fabulous go to recipes. Bon Appetite!

Spanish Omelet with Fresh Salad

Spanish Omelete

A Spanish Omelet with a fresh salad was a favourite meal on my road trip around Tasmania in Australia. Along with my tent, I packed a few cooking essentials and stocked up on fresh, local ingredients while I was away. The campsites had great kitchen facilities and often provided utensils and pots & pans.

A Spanish Omelet is quick and easy to make. The eggs provide protein and keep surprisingly well without refrigeration.

Ingredients:
Red Capsicum
Shallots or onion
Potato – finely diced
2 – 3 x eggs (per person)
Olive oil
Grated cheese (optional)

Finely chop the vegetables and preheat a frying pan.  Cook the vegetables in a splash of olive oil with moderate heat l. When the potato is soft add the lightly whisked eggs. Sprinkle the grated cheese on top and cover the pan with a lid until cooked.

Serve with a fresh salad

This Favourite Go To Recipe – Spanish Omelete – provided by Linda from Muy Linda Travels

Couscous Salad

Coucus Salad with Tofu

A big, healthy, and filling couscous salad is one of my favorite things to prepare when I’m traveling as it’s so quick to throw together, doesn’t require much in the way of kitchen equipment, and is cheap to make! I sometimes bring my own dried couscous from home, but it can be found in most grocery stores too. Then, for the fresh ingredients, you just need some seasonal vegetables and herbs – whatever you can find at the local market or produce store. To bulk it up, I sometimes add in some fried tofu too, but this is optional and you could replace it with your favorite protein, or just leave it out altogether. It’s seasoned simply with a little olive oil and some fresh lemon juice, giving it a wonderfully zesty flavor. All up, it’s ready to eat in 15 minutes, which is perfect for enjoying more time exploring your destination, and less time in the kitchen!

This Go To Recipe provided by Nadine from Two City Vegans

Meatball Soup

Meatball Soup

One of my favourite dinners to make after a long day of sightseeing or exploring is Latin American-style meatball soup. Not only is sopa de albondigas a hot, satisfying, and low-carb meal, but it requires just a handful of easy-to-find basic ingredients (eight plus whatever fresh seasonal veggies you choose to add). This recipe for sopa de albondigas (meatball soup) is especially delicious when served with fluffy white rice and slices of fresh, crusty bread from your favourite local bakery.

While this soup is typically served with a Mexican or Guatemalan hot sauce such as Valentina or Picamas, you can top your bowl of steaming soup with whatever local hot sauce you come across on your travels. Ready in around 30 minutes, the leftovers of this soup even do double-duty as lunch the next day. And more good news? It’s a one-pot, stove-top meal with no special utensils needed so there’s minimal clean-up.

Recipe provided by Michele from A Taste for Travel

More Soup recipes can be found here.

Vegan Bolognese

Vegan Bolognese

I can find the ingredients to this inexpensive recipe anywhere! It’s lightweight and easy to throw into a baggie, making it one of my regular backpacking meals. All I need is my trusty backpacking cookset. It’s easy to make this a gluten-friendly option with a substitute of noodles, and is vegan! Packed with 40 grams of protein and 580 calories, this will keep me full and recovered enough for tomorrow’s adventure!

Ingredients:
85 grams spaghetti, broken into 2 – 3 inch pieces
½ cup TVP
5 sundried tomatoes, minced
paprika – 1 tbsp
dried basil, oregano, thyme and parsley – 1 tsp of each
garlic powder – 1 tsp
onion powder – 1 tsp
Salt & pepper
1 – 2 ketchup packets

Boil 2 cups of water, and stir in contents. Cover and let sit 15 minutes, stir in ketchup from packet, and enjoy! Serves 1.

Recipe provided by Kaidon from Planes, Trains and Karcz

For you non vegans here is another Bolognese recipe with meat.

Italian Tuna Pasta Salad

Italian Tuna Pasta

This Italian tuna pasta salad is a simple, healthy and delicious pasta salad with a citrus dressing we often make while travelling. A quick and easy, simple throw together salad bursting with flavor, we can usually make some version of this salad.

You will need a stove and pot to boil the pasta, a knife and a board for chopping and a fork for eating. Tuna, some veggies and pasta are usually easy to find at grocery stores all over the world, substitute the variety of cheese, tuna, olives and tomatoes for whatever kind is available, they all taste great after a long day on the road!

Ingredients – canned tuna in olive oil, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese, black olives, cucumber, red onion, fresh parsley, thyme, salt and pepper. 

Zesty Dressing – 3 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp lime juice, salt, pepper

This salad is very easy to prepare. Cook your pasta just past al dente. Chop up all the vegetables and cheese. Make the vinaigrette by mixing olive oil, lemon juice and salt. Simply throw together all the salad ingredients and sprinkle with the lemon dressing and toss well.

Recipe provided by Campbell Louw from Making Salads

Chilli

Chilli – A favourite go to recipe of many

Whether I’ve just completed a day of hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park, beach hopping in Mexico, or backpacking in Southeast Asia, I always find myself turning to one simple recipe at the end of the day- chili! It’s super versatile and generally, pretty easy to source the necessary ingredients, no matter where you are in the world. You basically need a couple of types of beans, a few types of peppers (I prefer a green pepper and chiles, but you can get creative if you need to, depending on where you’re shopping), an onion, garlic, diced tomatoes, and spices, like chili, cumin, and red pepper. You also can also be creative about how you cook the chili- whether stewing it in a pot on the stove or baking it in a casserole dish in the oven. Beyond just how flexible the recipe is, it’s also packed with protein, relatively healthy, super easy to make, and best of all, cheap!

Ingredients:
Beans (red kidney or other)
Peppers (green)
Chillies
Onion
Garlic
Diced tomatoes
Spices

Chop everything up. Put in pot or baking dish and when cooked, serve.

Recipe provided by Jessica from Uprooted Traveller

Here’s also a cheats Chilli Recipe that use a tin of beans, a tin of diced tomatoes, pre-made spice and some mince.

Vegetable Curry

Vegetable Curry

One of the easiest things to make when you’re travelling is a vegetable curry with coconut cream. All you really need are vegetables of your choice, a can of coconut cream (can be substituted with regular cream if needed), some sort of curry paste (can be substituted with curry spice if needed) and some rice.

In Asian countries this will be a very easy meal to make although a good curry paste can be tricky to find in other places around the world. Luckily, curry spice is far easier to find and the outcome will still be delicious. You can choose any type of vegetable or maybe even some pineapple, chickpeas or a meat of your choice. Super easy, cheap and versatile.

Fry your vegetables with spices and add in the coconut milk after a while. You can even cook your rice in coconut milk to make it extra creamy. Enjoy!

Recipe by Victoria from Guide Your Travel

Toasted Sandwiches

A go to favourite toasted sandwich

After a long day of adventures, I’ll often come back and make a few toasted sandwiches for a no-thinking required dinner.

Wherever you are in the world, you can usually find bread, tomato, and pineapple (sometimes canned) which I use as the base. But you can add whatever you like. Perhaps you could add the local meat of choice to keep it interesting.

In a perfect world, I’ll add avocado and use a toasted sandwich maker to seal the sandwich. If not I’ll toast the bread before making the sandwich.

With only a handful of ingredients, this isn’t the healthiest of dinners, but it’s certainly not junk food. Combine that with the short prep time, local cost and minimal dishes, this is one of the easiest dinners I have on the regular.

Recipe provided by Jub of Chur New Zealand  

Paella or Savoury Rice

Paella – a favourite go to recipe

I first discovered Paella when I visited Spain. I noticed it was on every menu in every restaurant I went to. Of course I wanted to try it. And I did and I was hooked. I soon discovered, when you are innovative it is a quick meal to make while travelling. 

Paella is made from rice, flavourings and local fresh ingredients of prawns, chicken and chorizo sausage. The traditional way of making Paella is in a Paella pan. As we can’t all travel with a paella pan and fresh ingredients here is my Paella recipe you can make in a pot or pan.

Packet flavoured rice (I’ve cheated and used a packet of pre-flavoured rice I found in the supermarket. Otherwise I use half a cup of Arborio rice.
chicken breast
10 slices chorizo sausage
Prawns (about 10 if available)
small brown onion
handful of frozen vegetables (optional) or fresh vegetables of your choice

Read instructions on packet. I used the stove top option. Chop any vegetables and meats you want to include in Paella. In a saucepan, add a tablespoon of oil or a knob of butter and fry onion, chicken, chorizo and vegetables. When cooked set aside. In the same saucepan boil the rice as per instructions. When just about ready add the fried ingredients and mix. Serve.

Recipe provided by Sharyn from Live Work Play Travel

What’s your favourite go to recipe to make while travelling?

Sometimes you need to be innovative while travelling to ensure you eat well and keep within your budget. If you have a favourite go to recipe to make while travelling I’d love to hear in the comments following.