Roasted Vegetable and Chickpea Camp Salad
Foil-roasted peppers, onion, and eggplant tossed with canned chickpeas and a jar-shaken lemon dressing.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 35
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 40 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.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Vegetarian
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Red bell peppers | 2 | cut into wide strips at home |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow bell peppers | 2 | |
| Zucchini | 2 | thick half-moons, thin slices turn to mush |
| Red onions | 2 | cut in wedges, keep the root end on |
| Eggplant | 1 medium | cubed and salted at home |
| Cherry tomatoes | 1 cup | |
| Garlic cloves | 3 | whole, skin on |
| Canned chickpeas | 2 cans (400 g each) | drained before you leave |
| Olive oil | 5 tbsp total | 3 for roasting, 2 for the dressing |
| Lemon juice | 2 tbsp | bottled is fine |
| Honey | 1 tsp | |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Sea salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Toasted pumpkin seeds | 1/3 cup | |
| Parsley and basil | a small handful, dried or fresh |
Method
- Build the fire early. You want a bed of coals and a grate, not flames.
- Toss the cut vegetables and the whole garlic cloves with 3 tbsp oil, the oregano, paprika, salt, and pepper. Split them between two doubled foil packets. Crowd them and they steam instead of browning.
- Set the packets on the grate over coals. Roughly 20 to 25 minutes, turning once. Open one to check: the onion should be limp and the eggplant soft through.
- Shake the remaining 2 tbsp oil, lemon juice, honey, and mustard in a small jar until it stops separating.
- Squeeze the roasted garlic out of its skins, mash it into the dressing.
- Open the packets, add the drained chickpeas straight in while everything is still hot, and pour the dressing over. Stir in the foil.
- Scatter the seeds and herbs on top. Eat warm, or let it sit and eat it cold at lunch tomorrow.
The original is an oven recipe with a bowl of leaves under it. Neither travels. Foil packets over coals do the same job the oven did, and the greens get dropped because they wilt into slime in a cooler within a day. What is left is the part that actually holds up: vegetables cooked until their sugar browns, beans for substance, and an acidic dressing to keep it from tasting flat.
Salting and draining the eggplant at home matters more than it sounds. Unsalted eggplant releases water in the packet and everything else poaches. The chickpeas go in off the heat because they are already cooked and only need to warm through and soak up dressing. Feta is left out of the base recipe on purpose. It is a cooler item and it is the only thing standing between this and a vegan dinner.
Packing
Cut everything at home and pack the vegetables in one bag, the drained chickpeas in another. Dressing ingredients go in the jar you will shake them in. Seeds ride separately so they stay crisp.
Variations
- Crumble 100 g of feta over the top if you have cooler space. That drops the vegan option and makes it not dairy-free.
- A handful of salad leaves stirred in at the end, if they survived the drive.
- Swap the chickpeas for a can of white beans.
https://blog.9jakitchen.com/roasted-vegetable-salad-mediterranean-recipe