Photo Martijn.Munneke from Netherlands, CC BY 2.0.jpg){kind=link}
One pot meals
Hot food from one pot, with what keeps in a pack and what to do when the fire is only coals.
What you need
- One pot with a lid, two litres or so, and a bail or a gripper
- A long spoon and a knife
- A base: rice, pasta, couscous, potatoes or split peas
- A protein: tinned meat or fish, sausage, dried beans, jerky, or the day's catch
- Flavour: an onion, stock cubes, salt, pepper, curry powder, a bit of fat
- Water you have made safe, and more than you think
How
- Get the fire down to coals or the stove to a low steady flame. A roaring fire burns the bottom and leaves the middle cold.
- Fry the onion and any meat in a little fat first. That one step is the difference between food and fuel.
- Add the base and water. Rice wants twice its volume, pasta wants enough to cover and stir.
- Bring it up, then pull it to the edge of the coals and let it tick over with the lid on.
- Add anything dried early, anything tinned or already cooked at the end.
- Take it off while there is still a little liquid. It thickens as it sits.
- Wipe the pot out with bread or a bit of water and drink it. Nothing is wasted and there is less to wash.
Do and don't
Do
- Soak dried beans or peas in the morning in your water bottle so supper is not two hours of fuel.
- Cook a bit more than you need and eat the cold rest for breakfast.
- Keep a small bottle of oil. Fat is calories and it stops everything sticking.
Don't
- Do not cook in your tent or in a closed porch.
- Do not leave the pot, the scrapings or the wash water near where you sleep.
- Do not measure water by guess on rice. Burned rice welds itself to the pot.
Watch for
Danger
- At a boil, a pot on a rock ring can tip. Set it level before you fill it.
- Altitude and wind make everything take longer. Judge by the food, not by the clock.
- Fish and tinned meat left out at camp in the warm goes off fast. Cook it the same day you open it.
Notes
The reliable pattern is fat, onion, base, water, protein, seasoning. Swap the parts and you have a different supper every night from the same pack.
A lid halves the fuel. Bring one, even if it is only a piece of foil.
Updated 2026-09-20
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