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This vegetarian spinach campfire lasagna is cooked in a cast iron Dutch oven, and is perfect for camping meals and cookouts.
Camping trips can leave you full of dilemmas.
You’re starving, you’ve been hiking all day, and yet just as you want one of the biggest, most filling meals ever, you find yourself without electricity, refrigeration, or even an oven.
What’s a hungry hiker to do?!
I’ll tell you what you’re going to do– you’re going to eat!
With a little planning and preparation, you can find yourself chowing down on some delicious camping meals, like this campfire pizza, camping fish curry, campfire pasta with vodka cream sauce, or (of course) this campfire lasagna.
This Dutch oven lasagna is vegetarian, simple to prepare, and delicious.
It’s also a fantastic way to eat a few more carbs than normal, especially before or after a big hike.
We devoured this tasty campfire lasagna while staying at Mather Campground, not once, but twice before hiking into the Grand Canyon.
The first time, we managed to eat the entire batch all by ourselves. The second time, we shared our lasagna with friends.
Meal planning for your trip? Check out more of my camping recipe ideas!
What Type of Dutch Oven Should I Use on a Campfire?
Use an non-enameled Dutch oven. Do not bring your pretty, expensive, enameled Dutch oven on a camping trip.
Ideally, use a Dutch oven made specifically for campfires. These specialized cooking pots have a flat lid (for piling coals on top) and feet (to raise it above the coals).
If you have a regular, non-enameled Dutch oven (without feet or a flat lid), you can use that instead.
How to Bake in a Dutch Oven
To use your Dutch oven as an oven, and not just a soup pan, heat a campfire with coals.
Arrange the coals into a ring a little smaller than your Dutch oven.
Set the pot (full of whatever you want to bake) on the campfire coals with the lid on.
If you’re using a regular Dutch oven, and not a campfire Dutch oven, set the lid on upside-down.
Use long-handled tongs to add some hot coals to the top of the Dutch oven, and bake according to your recipe directions.
If you want more tips for campfire Dutch oven cooking, check out one of my favorite camping cookbooks, The New Camp Cookbook.
Campfire Lasagna ingredients
You’ll need cheese for this recipe, which you can store in a cooler, or swing by a market after hiking to buy some. We use an Igloo BMX cooler.
Everything else in this recipe is shelf-stable, and will be fine waiting on you in your car while you explore nature.
I’ve used no-boil lasagna noodles here instead of standard noodles, because I didn’t want to deal with boiling noodles while camping.
If you have access to fresh pasta (I didn’t), or want to pre-boil your noodles– go for it.
The no-boil noodles worked very well for me in this recipe, however, and they’re easier. Just remember to add the extra liquid after putting the lasagna layers together.
Making Campfire Lasagna in a Dutch Oven
Begin preparing the campfire (or have your camping buddy do that part), and then start assembling the lasagna.
Mix together cheese with some canned spinach, spices, and salt.
Assemble the lasagna inside the Dutch oven. Layer the a third of the cheese mixture, pasta sauce and enough noodles to cover the sauce.
It’s totally fine to break the noodles as needed to fit them in the pan.
Next, repeat the process two more times with more cheese, sauce and noodles.
Add a little water to the pot and top the noodles with extra cheese.
If you like, you can add even more cheese than the recipe calls for. Because we all need a little extra cheese in our lives.
Set the lid on the Dutch oven, and then move it over to the coals.
Use long-handled tongs to move some coals to the top of the oven. We used about 15 coals.
Let your lasagna bake for about 25 minutes, and then carefully remove the lid.
There will probably be a little extra water in the lasagna.
Let it cook uncovered a few more minutes, until the excess liquid has boiled down.
Remove the lasagna from the heat, and let it cool down for a few minutes. Dig in, and enjoy your camping trip.
Campfire Lasagna (Vegetarian)
Equipment
- long metal tongs (for moving coals)
- pot holders
- mixing bowl
- mixing spoon
- measuring cup
- knife (for cutting lasagna)
- can opener (if cans aren't pop-top)
Ingredients
- 1 package no-boil lasagna noodles
- 15 ounce full-fat ricotta cheese
- 2 cups shredded mozzarella (fresh preferred), divided
- 15 ounce can spinach, drained (reserve liquid)
- 28 ounce jar pasta sauce
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons Italian seasoning or use your favorite herb mixture (such as Herbs de Provence)
Instructions
- Prepare Coals: Preheat campfire coals until very hot. Once coals are hot, set aside around 15 coals aside for easy access (you'll be setting them on top of your Dutch oven).Meanwhile, mix ricotta, 1 ½ cups mozzarella, spinach, salt, and herb mixture together. Taste and add more seasoning if necessary.Add ⅓ of the cheese mixture to the bottom of the Dutch oven and spread it out to cover the pot.
- Top cheese with ⅓ of the pasta sauce.Add one layer of lasagna noodles. Break noodles as necessary to fit into the round pot. Repeat twice with remaining spinach cheese mixture, pasta sauce, and noodles (you may have some noodles leftover).
- Pour reserved liquid from spinach can into a measuring cup, and add water until you have ¾ cup of liquid total. Pour liquid into lasagna along the edge. Top mixture with remaining mozzarella cheese.
- Place the lid on the Dutch oven. (If your Dutch oven is not a campfire-style oven with a flat lid, you'll need to set the lid on upside down so it can hold the coals.)Place Dutch oven directly on the main batch of coals. Using tongs, set reserved coals on top of lid, and let it bake for about 25 minutes.
- Next, remove lid, and leave the dutch oven on the fire uncovered for about 5 more minutes. The excess liquid should be boiled off. If needed, let it cook a few more minutes until any extra liquid has thickened.
- Remove Dutch oven from heat. Allow lasagna to cool slightly before serving.
This is GOLD! I’m planning a camping trip soon, and I am definitely going to be making these!
I did not know that about dutch ovens! How brilliant! I love using mine and this is an extra reason to love it more. You sure know how to camp, Sarah. This recipe sounds absolutely DELICIOUS! Even if I wasn’t camping, I’d have to try it out 🙂
As soon as I saw the words “campfire spinach lasagna” I thought “no she didn’t!” I’m so impressed right now. Can you be my camping buddy please?!
“Oh yes I did!” *snap snap* lololol… Sure thing! Next time we’ll tag team it 😉
I’ve actually seen a Dutch Oven made with a recess on the lid for the coals, so you don’t have to flip it over.
I’d only thought of using it for bread, though – lasagna is a great idea! Because you’re right – you need a hearty meal after a day hiking!
I’ve seen those! They’re super cool!
I love that you’re starting a section of Glamping recipes! I was just searching for some recipes as we are going camping next week and yours is just perfect for this! So making it!
Oh awesome!!! Enjoy!!
We love hiking and we are targeting one National park at a time. So far we have hiked at about 12 national parks and soon we will be doing Grand Canyon. I am just waiting for my 6 year old to grow up a little more before we conquer that. We have never camped but that is something we want to try out soon. We are always scared about the cooking part as we are vegetarians and we have very few friends who understand it. This recipe looks awesome and if I master this, we could literally eat just this all our camping trip 🙂
Aw that’s awesome! Yes it’s kind of hard to find good vegetarian camping recipes! Check out the other ones on my site (Go to Resources > Cooking Lessons > Glamping), and I should be posting some more this summer!
I love cast iron baking – we used to do it all the time camping as kids. Never for anything as fancy as a lasagna, but we did lots of homemade bread or brownies. We also did a lot of solar oven cooking with our DIY solar oven. Now I’m all nostalgic for my childhood camping trips!
I’ve never tried solar oven cooking! Bread and brownies sound awesome- I never make either so that would make me more nervous than pasta! Lol
I give you credit — glamping…. I’ve only camped on a handful of occasions and I can assure you that our meals looked nothing like that! Well done. I imagine I could make it in an oven as well… yes??? Spinach lasagna is one of my all time favorites, too!
Thanks Lisa! Lol- yes you could totally do this in an oven! I’d have to check the cook time and temperature beforehand (and I’d probably use more fresh ingredients). I’ll get around to posting that at some point! Lol
I love this post Sarah! We used to cook “Glampfood” when we went camping too! No hot dogs and canned beans for us! One time we even made king crab, Hahaha!
King crab sounds AMAZING!!
I love lasagne and I will need this recipe next time we go camping! Last week I made cookies in a dutch oven when we went camping. They turned out great! Next time I’ll try to make a lasagna.
I hadn’t thought about cookies! Maybe I’ll try that next time!
For the record, I want to go camping with you. We usually just have hot dogs and hamburgers and s’mores! but lasagna…girl, when do we leave?!
Those old cook pots are such an amazing vessel. I love that you’ve focused a meal totally around it. This read brings back childhood with fishing and camping, how much fun and what a great way to share a meal!!
I love how easy you’re making it to eat fab food whilst ‘glamping’! I’d never think of making this kind of food on a campfire, but I think I’ll have to up my camping food game now!
If you are making this with cooked noodles, do you still need to add the water as well? Just curious. We are camping this weekend and I am so excited to make this! Sounds delish and perfect for an easy meal while enjoying the outdoors!
You shouldn’t need the extra water if you’re using cooked noodles! BUT it also shouldn’t hurt anything if you use it, because you can just let it boil off at the end. It’s just to help the uncooked pasta cook 😁 Let me know how it turns out!
I made this tonight and my wife and I are definitely putting it in the rotation as it turned out perfectly. We are always in the market for a vegetarian dutch oven recipe, Next week we will try the Spiced Red Lentils and let you know how it goes.
Oh I’m so happy to hear that!! Thanks for letting me know, and I hope you enjoy the lentils also!
I made ours with Dairy free Ricotta as well as dairy free mozzarella and I switched the spinach out and put sliced zucchini in ~ it was really delicious and I’ve saved the recipe for future camping trips 🙂
That’s awesome that it worked so well with changing up the ingredients a little! Thanks for letting us know!
–Alisha at Champagne Tastes
Does the bottom burn and harden the noodles? We are camping with a total of 4 couples and sure want it not to turn out well. Wish I had time to do a test run at home first.
There’s a layer of the cheese mixture and a layer of pasta sauce under the bottom layer of pasta, so that keeps the pasta from getting hardened onto the Dutch oven. Hope you enjoy!
-Alisha at Champagne Tastes