When you’re a long-term traveler, food expenses can add up. That’s why it’s important to know how to cook. Even if you can’t, it’s super beneficial to familiarize yourself with few good solid dishes that you can make while your away from home. And because no one wants to eat pasta with tomato sauce all the time, I’ve piled a list of my favorite unconventional meal ideas that I like to prepare during my long-term travels.
The best unconventional meal to make on longer-term travel has to have a few key aspects. It’s important that it
- fills you up
- holds some nutritional value
- (ideally) lasts a few days
- and is versatile (I like to have some room for creativity)
NOTE: I can’t eat mammal meat of any kind, so this list is mostly lacto-ovo-pescatarian-friendly
1. Gnocchi
Okay, so maybe not the quickest meal to make, but gnocchi easy to prepare, it’s fun to do with a friend, you can make a lot from a little, and it’s so stinkin’ versatile.
You can have gnocchi with spinach sauce one night, alfredo the next, olive oil and garlic the night after, etc., etc.
TIP: After you’ve prepared your ball of potato dough, you can even freeze half some of it for later. Just make sure to let it thaw completely.
2. Curry
Another versatile option that’s easy to prepare, is budget-friendly and doesn’t take too much time to cook.
The best thing about curries is that you can pretty much put anything inside of them and they can always be prepared with rice.
I’ve had curry with broccoli, zucchini, carrot, ginger, shrimp, chicken, tofu, potato, onion, peppers, leeks, pineapple, mango, or whatever else I can find to throw in there at the time.
One ingredient that truly should not be missed in your curry: bok choy. This Chinese cabbage does something miraculous to curry.
If you want to up-level your curry game, I highly recommend investing a little money into a curry paste.
Like these here:
For the fluffiest and tastiest rice recipe check out my recipe here.
TIP: This is a great dish to prepare when you have leftover veggies that are on the verge of being thrown out or if you have a random selection of veg that you have no idea what to do with.
3. Lentil Soup
The easiest and most common lentil to be found while traveling is the brown lentil.
So if you’re traveling somewhere with slightly lower temperatures, brown lentil soup is an excellent option for a quick and budget-friendly dinner.
This soup is easy to make, it takes less than an hour to prepare, and it provides an excellent amount of energy for physical activities.
4. Menemen
If you know anything about menemen, you know that it is not a quick dish to prepare. Good eggs take low heat and longer cook times.
However, with this unconventional meal you can get plenty of protein, ingredients are cheap, it’s easy to make extra, and leftovers are delicious warm or cold.
To try your own menemen, check out this amazing and authentic Turkish recipe!
5. Chickpea, Zucchini, Spinach Sautee
I couldn’t think of a better, more creative name for this concoction, but these are basically the 3 main ingredients you need.
Personally, I like to add some onion and garlic, sometimes some extra protein to the mix, throw in whatever spices I’m feeling that day and voila! Easy, peasy, chickpea zucchini spinach dish-esy.
Plenty of room for your own creativity here.
6. Garlic & Tomato with Tagliatelle
Cheap and flavorful!
Can be prepared with any pasta noodle.
I prefer cherry tomatoes and lots, and lots, and lots, and lots of garlic.
7. Pasta with Tuna
Honestly, this combination really turned me off when I was first introduced to the idea of it, but now that I’ve had it a few times, it’s really not that bad and it hits all four key aspects I’m looking for in a meal to prepare when traveling.
Try this with different types of sauces to find your favorite combination.
8. Rice & Egg
There’s really nothing else to it. Except maybe salt, don’t forget the salt.
My grandmother always used to complain about the lack of salt on her eggs when I made them for her for breakfast.
I’d salt them – (lightly, because we had to always keep her salt intake in check), but this lady used to love eating handfuls of salt, so for her, my eggs never seemed to be salted the way they should be.
She’d say, “Christina, you know I can’t eat these eggs without salt, now. Nobody likes eggs without salt. Now, bring me the salt, wouldya?”
Really, though, Granny June was right, eggs aren’t eggs without salt. Don’t forget the salt!
9. Rice & Yogurt
Alright, this sounds strange probably for an American. I get it. We’re so used to flavored yogurts, sweet yogurts, breakfast yogurts…
It’s almost unheard of to have yogurt outside of the breakfast/brunch timeframe and setting. But I assure you, savory yogurt exists. And it’s much tastier than its counterpart.
In Turkey, for example, yogurt is an additional sauce that accompanies almost every savory meal.
They even have a special salted yogurt drink (Ayran) that takes some time to acquire a taste for, but I couldn’t ever imagine eating another doner without it.
(For info on the best doner in Berlin check out my post Where to Find the Best Berlin Doners.)
TIP: Make sure you get Turkish yogurt. Greek will work just as well, but not the typical Greek Gods yogurt you find in the supermarkets in the Midwest, USA. I’m talking GAZI (Turkish) and Milbona (Greek), for example. These yogurts will get you the flavor we’re looking for.
Make sure the fat percentage is a little higher. Then add some salt and voila! Quick and delicious unconventional meal under 5$.
Other Unconventional Meal Ideas
If you’d like to share any of your personal favorite travel recipes that are easy to make and budget-friendly, comment below!
