Making ember roasted vegetables is in my opinion the best way to cook vegetables. They also call ember roasting caveman grilling.
WHAT ARE EMBER ROASTED VEGETABLES?
Ember roasting is ideal for all foods, from eggs, fish, meat, but the best is with vegetables. Onions, pumpkins, artichokes, potatoes, peppers, eggplants are placed directly on the embers with their peel or possibly wrapped in aluminum foil.
The vegetable is cooked when its appearance is completely deflated and its consistency very tender. Under the charred surface will hide a tender flesh, with a really special taste offered by the fumes and intense heat.
CAMPING MEANS GREAT VEGETABLES
The camping season is usually at the same time as the period of fresh vegetables. A small stop at a farmers market kiosk is the source of one of the best vegetarian feasts you will ever experience in your life.
Here are a few vegetables that will keep 2-3 days no worries: potatoes, carrots, leek, beets, sweet potatoes, cabbage, onions, rutabagas, daikon and turnips.
If you’re camping, space is an issue. Since vegetables often take up a lot of space in the fridge, preference is given to either vegetables bought on the road the same day or vegetables that keep well at room temperaturefor a few days.
WHAT TYPES OF VEGETABLES ARE BEST EMBER ROASTED?
You want to use vegetables that have a relatively thick skin. The vegetable cannot be thin skinned like a tomato for example. And you want it to have a high humidity content.
Vegetables that can be cooked in embers:
- Onions
- Garlic head
- Potatoes
- Sweet potatoes
- Squash and pumpkin
EMBER ROASTED RED PEPPERS
Raw peppers are good, caramelized peppers are better. Here are a few tips to roast them.
It is said that the skin of the pepper is hard to digest. So how do you get the skin off?
The campfire is the perfect place to do it! Simply place the whole peppers directly on a nest of embers. Turn the pepper as the side in direct contact with the embers starts to blacken until you have gone around the whole pepper.
Even if the skin bursts in some spots do not worry your ash is clean! 🤣
Once the peppers are well chard on all sides, pack them in aluminum foil or in a paper bag and let them sweat for about ten minutes before peeling.
Note: I am talking about red, orange and yellow peppers here because I have as a theory that green peppers are an invention of mean gardeners who did not want to wait for their peppers to be ripe and edible. Did I tell you that I hate green peppers?
MY FAVORITE EMBER ROASTED VEGETABLES
I have a few favorite ember roasted vegetables: potatoes, carrots, rutabagas. But I have to say that my absolute favorite ember roasted vegetable type is the squash family.
When fall comes around and it’s close to the end of campfire season I know it’s going to be time for squash.
Everybody knows about pumpkins. They are great for Halloween but that is pretty much all we know about the squash family.
There are literally hundreds of types of squash and they all taste great oven roasted. But you know what is even better than oven roasted squash? Ember roasted squash. And it’sone of the easiest things to do in embers.
Last fall I rented a house in Brittany, France with my mom. It was a beautiful little farm house. But you know what was the best part and the reason why I chose that house and not another? I had an actual open fireplace in the kitchen, my dream!!
Needless to say that fire was going all day!
I cooked lots of squash in there. Super easy: when you have a nice fire going for a long time you get lots of embers. Just bury your squash in the embers and leave them in there until they are skewer tender or even touch tender. You can’t go wrong!