Travelling around Ireland for two weeks gave us experience of living in a small campervan - but also of cooking on two plates. So, what was served in our tiny campervan as we travelled around Ireland? That's what we're going to show you today. Maybe you have some more good suggestions for what to do when cooking on two plates?
Cooking and living in a small motorhome
There is quite a difference between living in our Freedom motorhome and living in a a small 5.40 metre plateand one of the biggest differences is the cooking. In the Freedom we have three hobs, an oven and also a grill.
So cooking there is much like cooking in a normal home, with the possible exception that you have a little less surface area. However, in the little tin can we drove around in Ireland, we only had two hobs, and no oven or grill.
Cooking on two plates
But when you only have two hobs, what can you cook? During our two weeks at Ireland we aimed for simple and reasonably cheap food that wouldn't generate too much dishwashing.
After a few days, we discovered that it was very easy to cook rice cooked directly in a bag - one bag was just enough for two, and the bag meant no washing up at all. So there was a lot of rice! There was also a lot of asparagus, because asparagus was very cheap. We varied between the following dishes:
- Fresh pasta with tomato sauce and vegetables (or with chicken, vegetables and just a little oil).
- Rice with all-in-one stew (chicken, vegetables and any ready-made stew base)
- Rice with breaded fish, a vegetable and a ready-made cold sauce.
- Rice with minced lamb steaks/pancakes, hummus and some vegetables
- Rice with pork cutlet/chicken and ready-made coleslaw
- Powdered soup with bread and cheese (lunch)
What do you cook in your motorhome or caravan?
If you have a motorhome or caravan, what cooking facilities do you have? What do you usually cook? Or do you have experience cooking on two plates from somewhere else?
Elisabeth says:
I do most of the cooking except for slow cooking, but then there's Ellen.
29 May 2018 - 6:13
Helena says:
In a large motorhome you have pretty good cooking facilities 🙂 .
29 May 2018 - 11:04
Lennart says:
Prefer a slightly larger motorhome as we stay in it for quite some time.
29 May 2018 - 6:17
Arne Lindh says:
We like NZ Craft Pies which we buy frozen from the manufacturer in Katrineholm (where we often go). Super good, we heat them in our little oven when we are on electricity.
29 May 2018 - 6:53
Helena says:
Sounds good! 🙂 In our regular motorhome we have an oven (gas), but in the rental motorhome in Ireland we only had these two plates 😉 .
29 May 2018 - 11:05
Mr Zlatko Schneberger says:
I fry schnitzel and boil potatoes, you buy sauce in a glass jar, gypsy sauce and as a salad you have Puszta salad and brown beans, it's easier to live abroad because such things are not available in Sweden, unfortunately.
29 May 2018 - 7:05
Helena says:
It sounds like you are finding a lot of goodies! Good if you know what to look for in different countries I think 😉.
29 May 2018 - 11:06
Anonymous says:
Bagged rice is also included in our range. Great!
Fresh stuffed pasta with ready-made tomato sauce and maybe some broccoli cooked in the pasta is perfectly fine, ready in 5 minutes.
Then we like to pack some matjessill for a couple of dinners from home, it tastes wonderful on a hot day.
Now in Germany it's asparagus time; yummy...
29 May 2018 - 7:44
Helena says:
Many good ideas! I would also consider buying fresh stuffed pasta. Herring is also good as a variation, good summer food!
29 May 2018 - 11:07
Mr Bo Pettersson says:
We have a pressure cooker and so we also cook veal stew etc. Otherwise chicken, steak, sausages, puddings etc. We live 8 months/year in the country!
29 May 2018 - 8:07
Helena says:
Maybe pressure cookers are smart? I have not tried ...
29 May 2018 - 11:13
Emma, sun like sun? says:
Smart idea by Bo Petterson above with the pressure cooker! You boil up, cook the time you need and then remove it from the plate while the pressure drops. Then the plate is free to be used for other things if you need to. It generates some dishes, of course ... The saucepan can be used as a regular saucepan, by the way.
Small items should be great too: ham, sausages, vegetables in sticks and chunks, cheeses, bread, wine... No pots to wash, just a plate, a knife and a cutting board. If you want something hot, you can also make/heat a soup (perfect in the pressure cooker).
I understand that you have to rethink things sometimes. I have the confusion of having a small fridge, where you sometimes have to prioritise what should or should not be there. And it's not possible to buy a week's worth of refrigerated goods in one go.
29 May 2018 - 9:07
Helena says:
Small picks are both nice and good sometimes! Not least when it's hot 🙂
29 May 2018 - 11:14
Mr Nils-Åke Hansson says:
The only thing we miss is the oven from before the car. But there is no difference in the cooking. We make kalops, dill meat, I buy whole chicken and ribs and put them in the pressure cooker. Fry fish and other things in the pan. Whip up the sauce! The bag of rice is just right for two people, but so are potatoes and pasta,
We now have only two plates.
29 May 2018 - 9:19
Helena says:
I have heard several people using pressure cookers, interesting! We miss the oven a little when we don't have it, but of course it works anyway.
29 May 2018 - 11:16
Ama de casa says:
TWO tiles? What a luxury! When we were tent camping in the beginning, we had a primus kitchen with one "plate" and had to cook on the ground... But at least we didn't have to live in a shoe box on the motorway... 😉 😀.
Many good suggestions for food there 🙂
PS: The shoebox thing is from a Monty Python sketch in case you didn't recognise it 😉.
29 May 2018 - 9:40
Helena says:
Haha, well everything is relative 😉
29 May 2018 - 11:17
Ruth in Virginia says:
Primus kitchen, but usually there was a picnic table at the
the campsite. Husband was phenomenal at cooking
at Primusen because, as a geologist, he was often out on fieldwork,
where there was no accommodation other than tents.
Our first accommodation as a married couple was a studio apartment, i.e..
ONE room, where we had an electric plate with two hotplates. and
pressure cooker went very well. Could even make meatloaf. 🙂
(also had a "Murphy bed", one of those things that disappears in the
wall during the day)
29 May 2018 - 12:34
Mr Steve says:
Well done on two discs and tastefully presented as always.
29 May 2018 - 10:26
Helena says:
Everything tasted good anyway! 🙂
29 May 2018 - 11:19
Anonymous says:
For chicken soup you only need one plate. But a little chopping of the vegetables you want to add. Like peppers, leeks, mushrooms, etc. Boil a can of coconut milk with 5 dl of chicken broth. Add the vegetables. Buy a grilled chicken thigh and shred the meat. Season with green curry and sambael oleak. Finally, add some glass noodles. Tasty and simple / Ginger
29 May 2018 - 10:53
Helena says:
Good tip! Soup is delicious and can be filling if you make it a little more substantial. And as I said, just one plate is enough! 😉
29 May 2018 - 11:22
Role o Carina says:
Boiled potatoes in a tin with boiled ham in a tin and a good salad is delicious and easy with a good salad too!
Preferably rice in a bag and good meat from home that just needs to be heated!
There's no need to make things complicated......
29 May 2018 - 11:13
Helena says:
Great tips! I agree, you really don't need to make things complicated!
29 May 2018 - 11:19
The shirt says:
Boiled potatoes in a tin with boiled ham in a tin! Wow what memories you got here 🙂 Caravan holiday with the parents about 40 years ago.
29 May 2018 - 12:14
Kalle Åmark says:
We only have 2 plates in our motorhome but also a gas oven that we hardly use. On the 2 plates, it is excellent to cook sausage stroganoff and cook rice at the same time, We manage perfectly well with 2 plates but pick up the grill sometimes as well.
29 May 2018 - 12:26
Helena says:
Rice and sausage stroganoff is a perfect dish on two plates. We have an oven in our regular motorhome and we use it a lot, to warm bread and for fish cakes, potato cakes, jacket potatoes, lasagne and a lot more 🙂.
29 May 2018 - 20:09
Ditte says:
I only have experience from a motorhome in New Zealand and we didn't really cook in the car but ate outside. We organised breakfast and lunch but nothing was cooked. In the boat we had two plates but no oven, but a charcoal grill was used. And there was a lot of fresh potatoitis that was boiled and then fried or became potato salad. The small charcoal grill was perfect for salmon, fish and meat. Easy to put ashore or on deck - Rice in a bag was sometimes used, but the Swedish fresh potatoes were a favourite. Minced meat steaks were fried or put on the grill and worked well cold for lunch the next day. Fish soup/fish stew is also practical and good to make a double batch. I think you got it right, but if you have a small plot of land, many may also bring a grill. Then it is perhaps not everywhere it can be used.
I have hiked a lot in the mountains and then a flame has been used and a lot of freeze-dried food has been carried.
29 May 2018 - 17:04
Helena says:
Interesting to hear about your experiences Ditte! You simply have to adapt to the conditions!
29 May 2018 - 20:10
Annar Aas says:
Thanks for the tips. We don't go Plåtis but who wants to wash dishes in the heat. Right now 28 degrees in Colmar (F)
29 May 2018 - 19:08
Helena says:
Wow what heat! I don't know how hot we are, but I have windows and doors open at 20:00 in the evening 😉.
29 May 2018 - 20:11
Ann Rumbleinthearctic says:
When we car camp, we have two hotplates that run on propane, a coleman two burner. We also sometimes take our cast iron frying pan with us, it is so good when you fry in it. We cook everything between heaven and earth, the only limitation is that it takes a little longer. This weekend we made burritos with meat, beans and olives for one dinner, and pasta with sausage, tomato sauce and olives for another.
29 May 2018 - 19:24
Helena says:
It sounds like you cook good food 🙂 You just have to be a little inventive!
29 May 2018 - 21:17
Husis blog says:
In my house, food is cooked much like in the kitchen at home. If it is something that smells very much, such as fish, it is fried outside on the small gas plate.
The owners have been advised to vacuum pack food and then just heat it, but they haven't tried it yet, so we'll see what they think of it. It can then, for example, be ready-made meat sauce that is heated in the vacuum packaging in the hot water.
29 May 2018 - 19:24
Helena says:
Vacuum-packed food! Interesting, but I don't know about that.
29 May 2018 - 21:18
Anna / Boihusbil says:
We have three plates but have never used them all at once. Usually I only use one... I eat a lot of raw vegetables and for that you don't need a plate at all. But the dish that requires the most plates is probably Mujdarrah. (boil lentils, boil rice and fry onions and mix with spices). Otherwise there is a lot of grilling and we have a paella plate for the grill on which I like to make fried rice with vegetables. Then it is good to always have pasta and rice at home, and preferably a jar of pesto in the fridge and some pine nuts in the pantry. Then there's always food 🙂 I never use the oven... we have a gas oven, but I don't really know what to use it for, as I think it's too slow, I'll have to explore more.
29 May 2018 - 21:54
BP says:
That's the kind of luxury food you managed to make with just two plates. Great! On the other hand, when I think about it, we rarely use our four plates on the stove here at home, but mostly just two. Strange, I've never thought about it until now.
29 May 2018 - 22:49
Our Vantastic Travels says:
We have now had Our Vantastic for about 4 weeks and must consider that as you say a hob less no oven with grill. However, we bought an Omni oven that we have not yet used, also have a small electric oven, but it requires electricity. There is a lot of pasta with various pasta sauces that have a base consisting of frozen fish, chicken or minced meat which is usually prepared at home. It is important to have many different spices to vary the flavour. We think it goes better and better every time we go out. Next week our European tour starts and we hope that we will have a more varied cooking with suggestions for dishes from different countries. Otherwise, there will probably be a lot of restaurant visits, that's fine too!
30 May 2018 - 9:20