Review: The Clever Camper Cookbook

Disclosure: We received a free copy of this book for this review. We did not receive any payment and were not required to write a positive review. Links marked (Amazon⇒) are affiliate links. This means I get paid a small commission if you buy something after clicking on the links. This money helps to pay for the running of the website.

Cooking on the road is always a bit of a compromise, especially if you’re in a smaller van. But it’s surprising what’s possible with a small store cupboard of go-to ingredients and a little thought.

The Clever Camper Cookbook is the latest twist on this theme. Authors Megan Winter-Barker and Simon Fielding spent several months exploring Europe in their VW Camper, Pip (a Danbury conversion of a Mexican T2 model, judging from the photos).

They used this time to hone their small-space cooking skills and build a menu of simple tasty meals for van life. This isn’t a huge book — the recipe count is limited to 21 recipes, divided into Breakfast, Main Meals, On the Side, and Something Sweet.

There’s also a shopping list section and a useful guide to the equipment required. Each recipe comes with a graphical key that shows how long it should take to prepare and what type of ingredients are required.

Tasty and surprisingly ‘do-able’

So… the recipes. There are some standard crowd pleasers like The Best Breakfast Sandwich, Pasta Carbonara and Potato Salad. But there are also some more ambitious recipes such as Curry with homemade Naan Bread and Sticky Salmon & Egg Fried Rice (this is a good weekday dinner at home, too, we found).

The book is packed with useful tips to help you make new meals from leftovers (Whatever’s In The Fridge Risotto) and avoid waste (Waste not, want not salad dressing). Many people seem to find this kind of slightly improvised cooking difficult, so these suggestions should be useful.

All in all, The Clever Camper Cookbook is a solid effort and stands well among its rivals. If you balk at taking a bag of flour or a pot of spices on holiday this might not be for you, but I’d argue that it’s well worth the small effort required, given the results which can be achieved in less than an hour.

The Clever Camper Cookbook goes on sale on 13 March 2018. Available to pre-order on Amazon.

Title: The Clever Camper Cookbook

Authors: Megan Winter-Barker and Simon Fielding

ISBN: 978-1911026419

Publisher: Dog ‘n’ Bone