camp meals

Grill Grate Quesadillas

Feeds a crowd fast, uses the fire you already built, forgives everything.

calories
560
weight
7 oz
cal / oz
80
protein
22 g
serves
4, scales
prep
10 min
cook
12 min
total time
22 min
water
none
cost
$$

Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.

  • Lunch
  • Dinner
  • Grill grate
  • Campfire coals
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Vegetarian
  • Real dishes
  • Grab and go
  • Needs a cooler
  • Basic

Ingredients

Flour tortillas 8 large
Shredded cheese 3 cups shredded at home, it clumps less than pre-shredded
Black beans 1 can drained
Pepper, onion, corn 2 cups total sliced at home
Butter or oil 3 tbsp
Salsa and sour cream to serve

Method

  1. Get the vegetables softened first in a skillet on the grate, then set them aside.
  2. Butter one side of a tortilla and lay it butter-down on the grate.
  3. Cheese, beans, vegetables, more cheese, second tortilla on top, butter-side up.
  4. Three minutes a side. Flip with a spatula and a fast wrist.
  5. Cut into wedges on a board and start the next one while people eat this one.

Quesadillas are the correct group camp lunch because they cook in three minutes, everyone can customize, and the failure mode is a slightly burnt tortilla rather than a ruined dinner.

Cheese on both the bottom and the top is what glues it together. Filling in the middle with cheese only on one side comes apart on the flip.

Variations

  • Leftover dutch oven chili from the night before, which is the best use of the leftovers.
  • Chicken and pepper jack if the vegetarian constraint does not apply.