Vegan Campfire Dinner

This is one of my most favorite dinners ever! It's always a big hit. Campfire dinner is a combination of potatoes, veggies, and veggie sausage cooked in a foil packet. The name came from the old days when there was not yet a barbecue grill at our cabin and we cooked over an open fire in the fire pit. My grandpa started by cooking potatoes wrapped in foil, but then later it evolved into putting everything right in there together to make a whole meal. I think my mom is the one who came up with the idea of putting everything together in the packet, but I'm not sure. At any rate, my mom who gets credit for the version I am sharing here (except for my additions to make it more spicy, of course).

Campfire dinner is a great way to use up what you have left in the fridge, in your CSA (community supported agriculture) box or from a farmer's market haul. When we first got a CSA share from our local farmer and I didn't know what some of the vegetables were or what to do with them, I found this to be an excellent way of combining them all together.

One of the great things about this meal is that you can easily customize it for each person since each person gets their own individual packet. I like a lot of greens, so I usually put extra swiss chard, spinach, kale, or whatever greens I have available in my campfire dinner. In my husbands, I put chilies, jalapenos, poblanos, etc to make his more spicy. If we are totally out of peppers, I use ground cayenne or crushed red pepper on his. If you are really on a budget, this can be a great recipe because you can use whatever vegetables are on sale or cheap at the time.

Ingredients:

Cooking Spray (or oil)
Potatoes, sliced
Onions, sliced
Diced Vegetables of your choice (bell peppers, carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, green beans, zucchini, root vegetables, greens, cabbage, herbs . . .)
hot peppers, optional
Vegetarian Sausages, Sliced or Chopped (my favorite for this are Field Roast or Tofurky Italian), optional but recommended
Earth Balance Buttery Spread (or oil or cooking spray)

Seasonings
Salt
Pepper
Curry Masala for chicken (it's vegetarian - available at an indian store) or garam masala, curry powder or your favorite seasoning, optional
Cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper, optional

Method:
1. Get two sheets of foil paper, about 2 feet long each and place one over the other in the shape of a plus (+) sign. (This is for each dinner so if you are making 4, you'll need 4 of these.)

Lay out your foil.

2. Spray the foil with cooking spray (or drizzle with a little oil) so that the food doesn't burn.

3. Put a layer of sliced potatoes and sliced onions. Season. Put a little cooking spray (if using).

4. Add on your veggies, a couple pieces of the sausage. Season. Spray with cooking spray.

Layer potatoes, onions, vegetables, and sausage slices

5. Add more potatoes and onions. Season. Spray. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as needed.

6. The top layer should be the veggie sausages, some of the hot peppers, more seasoning and some Earth Balance buttery spread or a drizzle of oil. The sausage infuses a lot of flavor into the dinner. If you decide to skip it, you might want to add more seasoning.

Add more seasoning, cooking spray, vegetables, and seasoning.

7. Seal up your foil packet. See pictures below.

Grab the long sides of the inner foil.

Pinch together.

Fold a small flap, then keep folding all the way down.

Now take the open sides and fold them up like you are wrapping a gift.

This is how it will look after you fold up both of the remaining sides.

Now repeat for the outer layer of foil.

Use a marker to label the finished packets if they are different.

8. Cook on the barbecue or on the embers or hot coals of a campfire for approximately 45 minutes. OR cook in a 400 F oven (205 C) for about 45 minutes - 1 hour. When you start to smell them, they are probably done. If the potatoes are tender, it's done. Be careful opening! Steam might burn your hands.