Camping in your motorhome in winter. It can be charming and cosy, but somehow cooking feels more difficult. You want hearty, delicious meals that might require an oven or long cooking times. And those things are difficult in an RV. So we’ve put together a collection of amazing winter recipes to keep you warm this winter with hardly any fuss.
French Onion Soup
We love to make onion soup in the camper because it makes the camper smells fabulous, it’s easy to make, and you can have leftovers for days.
Start by cutting loads of onions is small (half) rings. Sauté those with some butter and garlic and slowly soften them up for about 10/15 minutes. Add some more butter if needed, and then add one or two spoons of flower. Bake this for a few minutes, then add your choice of stock and let it simmer for about 30/40 minutes. And tada, your onion soup is done! We eat it with bread with melted cheese. You can add precooked rolls with cheese to an oven if you have one, or add slices of bread in a pan and add cheese on top.
Ravioli Lasagne With Spinach and Ricotta
Making lasagne is a lot of work and requires an oven. This version can use an oven, but you don’t need it. And it is such great comfort food!
Get your choice of fresh ravioli. We prefer the one with spinach and ricotta. Cook this like the packaging says. Defrost some spinach or bake some fresh. Heat up storebought pasta sauce and add the spinach to it.
Get a big pot with a lid (or an oven dish if you have an oven). Make layers with the pasta sauce, ravioli and ricotta cheese. End with some normal cheese or parmesan. Put the lid on the pot or put the dish in the oven (180 degrees Celsius) and heat for about 15 minutes.
Risotto
I love to make risotto! You can add just about anything to the rice and cheese, and it will taste good! So here is the basic recipe. See what you have left over in your fridge that you might want to add to it.
Get a good amount of stock. About half a litre per person. Finely dice an onion. Sauté the onion, and add risotto rice (about 120 grams per person). After a few minutes, add a liquid. You can add a bit of (white) wine if you want to, but we normally just use a bit of the stock. Wait for all the liquid to be sucked into the rice. Add some more liquid. Repeat this process for about 20/25 minutes. Every time wait until the liquid is gone before adding new one. Don’t stir it if you don’t have to.
Check to see if the rice is cooked. If so, add some grated cheese (parmesan). If you want to add something to the risotto, this is your moment. We love adding spinach and mushrooms (don’t forget to bake them before adding them). If you don’t add anything, or if what you add does not add any liquid, add a little bit more stock to make the cheese dissolve.
And that is your risotto!
Potato Soup
Another hearty recipe is potato soup. Let’s be honest, it might not be the healthiest soup in the world but it tastes so great! I love the creaminess of this.
Bake some bacon (because who doesn’t like bacon??). In the grease, saute some chopped onion. Add garlic after a few minutes, and then a few minutes later, add some flower (about a tablespoon). Add diced potatoes. Ensure the pieces are about the same size, so they all cook evenly. Add chicken stock, milk, and cream and don’t forget to season. Let this sit for about 10/15 minutes until the potatoes are cooked.
Smash to make the soup about as smooth as you can. If you have a blender, you can use that, but I would recommend not adding all to the blender then but about half (so there are some bits and pieces at the end in the soup). Chop up the bacon and add it to the soup, as well as sour cream and cheese.
Let it simmer for a bit longer, and your potato soup is ready to be served!
Kofta (Meatballs with Rice)
There are several versions of kofta, but the one we loved to eat is meatballs with rice. This Egyptian recipe is originally made with lamb, but we use ground beef for the meatballs. We learned this version of this recipe from OhMyFoodness.
We make the meatballs by adding onion, garlic, parsley, nutmeg, and salt and pepper to the meat. We also add bread crumbs and mix that all together to get meatballs. We can then bake these balls in some oil or butter.
While we do that we can cook some rice as well.
Once the meatballs are almost cooked, we add diced tomatoes and zucchini to the pan. We bake those for a bit too. Then we add tomato paste, cumin, garlic powder, paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper and a bit of stock and let the balls and sauce simmer.
Once done, the meatballs, zucchini and rice are served together.
Goulash
Another favourite of ours is goulash. Ok, this DOES need to stay on the stove for quite a bit, but you can use it to heat the camper while you are at it.
Get some beef that is meant for stews, like flank steak. Cut this up into pieces. Chop up onions and bell peppers.
Add butter to the pan and sear the meat. It doesn’t need to be done, but it needs to be browned on the outside. Then remove the meat from the pan. Add the onions. Not much later, add the bell pepper. Once those are soft, add some tomato paste, paprika, and cummin. Add the meat again, and then add stock and bay leaves (don’t forget to remove those at the end). Add the lid to the pan and let this sit for 2 or maybe even 3 hours. If the sauce gets too thick, add a little bit of water.
Finally, season with salt and pepper and serve with mashed potatoes or rice.
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