When you’re camping, it can be hard to replicate a hearty meal on a camp stove. Especially a meal that doesn’t feel overly greasy or processed (love a good instant ramen but let’s try to be better).
I recently made a beef and broccoli stir fry for the first time at home, and was surprised to see how easy it was considering how gourmet it felt (I’m a simple girl). I thought to myself that if some meal prep was done beforehand, this would make a killer camping meal. I was right.
So if you don’t already know, beef and broccoli is exactly as it sounds. It’s broccoli stir fried with thinly sliced beef and seasoned with a simple stir fry sauce. The whole thing comes together in less than 30 minutes which is perfect for people who don’t want to focus on cooking and more on enjoying an outdoor meal with good company.
Camping Prep Tips
To make this meal camping friendly, I pre-mixed the sauce at home (minus cornstarch and hot water). I also sliced the steak beforehand since it’s easier to slice while slightly frozen, and I’m not so big on handling raw meat while I’m camping. I just sliced the beef, stuck it in a freezer bag, and froze the whole thing so it would keep in my cooler longer. Just remember to defrost it before you cook.
I also discovered recently that rice is a great thing to take camping! If you can look past cooking it on the camping stove stovetop instead of a rice cooker (lot’s of people get snobby about this but c’mon, we’re camping), it’s a great camping meal life hack. Rice is cheap, it’s filling, and it’s easy to make a lot at once to feed a large group of people!
Anyways, here is the recipe exactly how I prepped it for camping! Most broccoli and beef recipes cook the broccoli first, then remove it from the pan and cook the steak and sauce separately. For the sake of keeping this easy I decided to keep this a one-pot meal (minus cooking the rice). Hope you enjoy!
PS: Funny story, I actually made this at 9pm in a caravan park after a 10 hr road trip. It tasted all the more amazing because of this, but I didn’t take any good pics since it was dark! If you want a visual step by step, check out the TikTok video I made of it here.
Easy Camping Meal – Broccoli & Beef Stir Fry
Equipment
- pot for cooking rice
- fry pan for sautéing broccoli and beef
Ingredients
- 1 cup white rice
- 1 lb flank steak
- 1 lb broccoli florets
- oil for pan
- sesame seeds for garnish optional
Stir Fry Sauce Prep
- 1 tsp fresh ginger grated
- 2 tsp garlic grated
- 6 tbsp soy sauce
- 3 tbsp packed light brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch packed for camp
- 1/2 cup hot water add at camp
Instructions
Prep at home
- At home, freeze the steak slightly so it's easier to slice. Slice into thin strips, no more than the width of a coin. Pack the sliced beef into a freezer bag and pack it in your cooler for camp (I like to keep mine frozen and defrost it at camp, this helps keep the cooler cold for longer).
- In a small bowl mix together all the stir fry sauce ingredients EXCEPT the corn starch and hot water. Pour into a container that you can pack in your cooler. This mixture should also last several hours at room temp.
- Pre-measure the corn starch and sesame seeds and pack it to use at the campsite.
At the campsite
- Defrost the steak if you chose to freeze it beforehand.
- In a pot over the camp stove add 1 cup water to 1 cup of rice. Bring to a boil then cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the rice is fully cooked and the water is absorbed. Set aside.
- Finish off the stir fry sauce by adding in 1/2 cup of hot water and the cornstarch.
- Over the camp stove or a hot fire, add broccoli to a greased fry pan and cook for about 2 minutes. It will continue to soften over the next few steps.
- Add in the sliced beef and cook for an additional 4 minutes or until the beef is cooked through. Pour in the sauce and simmer for 3-4 minutes. The sauce will thicken while it cooks.
- Scoop the rice into bowls and top with the beef and broccoli stir fry, and the sauce remaining in the pan. Garnish with sesame seeds if you're glamping (half joking here). Enjoy!