Trangia recipe with edible plants from the beach

When you bring your Trangia to the beach, you open the door to a world of exciting culinary possibilities. In spring, there’s a wealth of delicious herbs and plants that are fun to include in cooking.

Here you get a super easy and uncomplicated recipe, perfect to make on your Trangia, or any other camping stove if you’re out at the beach.

This recipe includes two edible plants that grow by the coasts, taste good, and are easy to find already here in April.

This isn’t a fancy gourmet recipe, but it’s easy to make, tastes really good, and the whole family liked it, both husband and child!

We had our daughter, almost 6 years old, with us; she loves fishing, but it’s not always fun to come home empty-handed. That’s why it’s fun to learn about (especially edible) plants we can find on the beach, since there’s a 100% ‘catch’ guarantee, unlike with fish.

What we went for in this recipe was sea kale and orach. Both tasty, easy to identify, and really good this early in the year.

The dish with edible plants from the beach is made on a Trangia camping stove. It’s easy for us to bring the Trangia set on outdoor trips since it’s lightweight and can be packed compactly so it doesn’t take up much space.

The recipe for the Trangia dish is very simple, and so is the ingredient list, no fancy stuff here 😉

You will need the following to make the dish with edible plants on your Trangia set (we were 2 adults and 1 child that day):

• 1 bag of powdered mashed potatoes, of course you can easily make your own, but this is easy!
• 1 - 2 packs of bacon
• 1 onion
• 1 - 2 cloves of garlic
• Peas from frozen or fresh shelled
• Butter
• Salt and pepper
• Edible plants from the beach 👇

Edible Plants from the Beach:

Sea kale:

Sea kale is quite easy to recognize. It grows in the area between the beach and meadow, peeking up with its small purple shoots, and is unmistakable.
The taste is like cabbage, and it’s clear that sea kale tastes best when it’s young. So definitely go hunting for them now. However, pick gently from each plant, as it needs its leaves to catch the sun’s rays and grow big and strong.

Sea purslane:

Sea purslane is also easy to find now, and there’s plenty of it! It stands with its small, yet strong leaves, growing in dense rosettes.
It is both soft, salty, and a bit bitter in taste at this time of year, and tastes fantastic. Pick a little again from several different sea purslanes so the plant is not overharvested.

If you want to read even more about what you can forage on the beach this spring, read more on our blog here 👈

Back to the food! Now we’re going to make easy and delicious food on the Trangia! It’s pretty simple, but I’ll still give you a little step-by-step here 🙂

Here’s how to do it:

The dish was prepared on our brought Trangia set. 

Start by ‘preparing’ the mashed potatoes according to the instructions on the bag.
We brought water in a Water container. 

Additionally, we had a Sierra cup with us. We use the Sierra cup for many things, but here we used it to measure water. 

Mix the mashed potatoes together in one of the pots in your Trangia set. Instant mashed potatoes get a dollop of extra butter, so it somewhat (very slightly) resembles homemade.

Fry bacon on the Trangia pan at not too high heat – you can easily control the heat on your spirit burner on the Trangia by adjusting the sparring on the spirit burner.
Chop onions and garlic meanwhile.
When the bacon starts to release some fat into the pan, add onions and stir occasionally.

When the onions are clear and tender, and the bacon is cooked, add peas and garlic.
Let it gently fry/simmer for about 5 minutes.
Finally, fold in the tender sea kale shoots and sea beet tops.

And the food is ready - it’s that simple 😊

So next time you plan a trip to the beach, why not bring your Trangia and explore the many edible plants and herbs the coastline has to offer? With Trangia, you can prepare the most delicious and flavorful meals using nature’s ingredients while enjoying the sun, sand, and sound of the waves. 

Bon appétit and happy beach cooking!

If you want to know more about what the beach has to offer in terms of delicious, tasty free food, I highly recommend the following books: