Winter Hot Picnic Ideas
This blog is now 4 years old and this is still the most epic hot picnic picture EVER!
A picnic is for life, not just for Summer…
Is it just me, or do winter picnics feel so much more exciting than Summer picnics?!
I think it’s because it bucks the trend. EVERYbody has a picnic in the Summer, but during Winter? Well, I can tell you from experience, if you rock up on top of a mountain with a blummin’ flask full of hot chilli. Well, you’ll be the envy of everybody there! (Because they’ll probably be eating a soggy, squashed and slightly frozen cheese sandwich (no shade on a cheese sandwich… love ‘em!)
But it doesn’t have to be a mountain picnic. Oh no. The hot picnic will happily bring the novelty factor to ay winter-based adventure. So. Upon updating this blog for the fourth year now…. (Happy birthday hot Picnic blog)….
I’m going to share our best and favourite, tried and tested hot picnic recipes.
And I’ll tell you, some may surprise you.
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A classic winter picnic sitch. But I forgot the picnic blankets didn’t I!
Find yourself a great insulated food pot ….
Well DUH! I hear you say, but this is so key to a great hot picnic and my word have we tested these.
First things first. I am not sponsored, I am not running an Ad, I am not in any way shape or form telling you something that hasn’t come purely from our own testing of these pots. Pots bought with my own money. No affiliate links here guys, just a LOT of years of testing.
And over the years we have gone through a few brands…. Chilly’s, Hyrdro Flask and Thermos. Hydro Flask and Thermos are both still in circulation and have been for a couple of years now, so winning on the longevity front.
But the winner in the category of just keeping the food the hottest is…. DRUMROLL…. the good old trusty Thermos.
Yes, they are a bit of an investment. But in my opinion, you get your money’s worth!
Grab yourself a good waterproof picnic blanket…
We absolutely LOVE our Pacmat Solo blankets. They pack down to a teeny tiny size, which is great when you are lugging around a rucksack load of food, plus they are waterproof. Now this is a must during winter, because even if it’s super sunny, it’s damp. So grab a picnic blanket, lay it over a rock, or log …. or wherever you choose to sit, and VOILA, no soggy bums! (And in the inevitable situation where they get muddy…. they are machine washable too!)
A controversial hot picnic choice, but bear with me on this one…
Some top tips for hot picnics
Don’t add hot food into a cold pot. If you read no further than this, you will literally have read the most important thing about preparing a hot picnic. Genuinely, not a step to miss out.
If you add hot food to a cold pot, you will instantly have lukewarm food.
Instead, boil a kettle, fill the pot with water for a good 5-10 minutes with the lid slightly closed and then immediately before serving the food, pour it away and fill the now hot pot! That will help the contents stay warmer, as it is inevitable that some heat will be lost in-between the making and the eat time.
Also, make sure your food is PIPING hot when it goes in.
Err on the side of caution. The less saucy your food is, the faster it will cool, so the saucier the food the better, as it will stay hotter for longer. I am always paranoid about things containing chicken, so I wouldn’t leave longer than 2 hours between the putting in the pot bit and the eating bit. I’m a bit more relaxed about other things like pesto pasta etc. but after 3-4 hours the food tends to really be firmly into the cooling phase, so eating it sharpish is better!
2 hour window for the win.
For more storage tips, you can check out the food hygiene website.
Enjoying a tasty Winter picnic food favourite!
Hot picnic recipe suggestions…
Now it’s time for the BEST BIT! The eating!
And here are some of our favourite recipes ranging from the downright easy, to the OOH never thought of that one!
I think we’ve probably tried things that we’d never thought we’d ever try! Mainly because, we don’t just use these for hiking, a hot picnic is for life when it comes to juggling a massively busy after school schedule and of course WORK!
So believe me, we’ve tried everything!
Pasta Anything: Oh so easy! This one is for the last minute ‘grab something from the cupboard/freezer because we are going on a picnic NOW’ situation. Filling, classic. Therefore…. always a winner with the kids.
Stuff we love? Tuna, sweetcorn and cheese will be my kid’s absolute FAVOURITE, closely followed by Pasta Bolognaise (always good if you have some left over in the freezer), Pasta Pesto and Pasta Carbonara.
TOP TIP: Pasta does keep expanding and cooking after it’s come out the pan. I tend to cook it very al-dente to allow a bit of extra cooking time. Pesto/ Tuna pasta will also cool at a quicker rate because of the lack of sauce, so unless you want lukewarm pasta, eat within that magic 2 hour window.
Pasta with a view of Raydale in the Yorkshire Dales
Soup. A classic. One of the easiest things to take, as you’ll either have some stashed in the freezer OR (if you’re like me and NOT at all organised) in the cupboard in a handy can form!
It doesn’t require any cutlery, let’s not try to be fancy here! Whack in some bread too to clean the pot out and fill up those tummies. Winner.
Hot Dogs. Ok. Welcome to our absolute staple of hot picnics.
The slightly fancier than humble, hot dog.
We take a classic smoked Bavarian hot dog sausage (that’s the fancy bit), boil them (the less fancy bit) and then keep them in the pot with all the water. This is HANDS DOWN the most reliably hot recipe there is. The hot dogs will always come out super hot as long as you’ve pre-warmed the pots and made sure it’s all piping hot.
Just remember the buns and ketchup!
Could there be a better view with which to enjoy a classic hot dog?
Bangers and Beans. Yum. This is one of my favourites, and obviously requires very little skill. Pack up some bread too, to make sure nobody’s left hungry!
TOP TIP: I literally shove the sausages in a more or less full pot of beans. This keeps the bangers toasty in the sauce, although if you’re not a fan of a soggy sausage… maybe not one for you…
Bonfire Chilli: a GREAT leftovers picnic, because I always make far too much chilli! I don’t know if your kids are like mine, and think that even the slightest hint of actual chilli is surely trying to kill them, BUT a little tip here is to swap out some of the hot chilli for bit of BBQ spice, which can be a bit milder, but still tasty! Take some cheese along to sprinkle on top, and there you go! A really hearty winter picnic!
TOP TIP: I’m SO paranoid about rice and food hygiene. As somebody who’s witnessed rice food poisoning first hand, it’s not something you want to encounter. So IMO, don’t risk it. Take a big bag of tortillas and happy days.
Bean Curry: Easy (but definitely not fancy!) Many beans, a prepared curry sauce and naan bread in foil. You can try to slice it up and keep it in the larger food pots if you can, but we’ve had varied success. It’s an eat sooner rather than later affair! And the naan is because of the rice reason above, I just won’t risk rice!
The surprise entry….
Chicken and Smoked Sausage Chowder: This is a Nigel Slater recipe that my kids love, and it is a great hot picnic contender. Check out his recipe, which contains, chicken, smoked sausage (we use smoked hot dog sausages, the same as the ones in the hot dog idea above), leeks, potato, sweetcorn, thyme, chicken stock and cream to finish it off! So yummy!!
This one also keeps really hot because of the liquid!
Top Tip If you’re batch cooking this for reheat purposes, take your reheat batch just before the potatoes are ready, so they have a bit of bite to them. Then, when you reheat, the potatoes won’t become mush and when you stash them in a food pot, they won’t disintegrate!
This is me being totally la-di-dah, but I’d also take the cream to finish separately and add at the eating point.
Totally unnecessary, but FLASHY! (Make sure you take a picture of that, just for utter hot picnic show-off status points!
Cheesy Bean wraps: For a picnic that creates some serious comfort food vibes…. take a hot pot of beans, an extra pot of grated cheese and wrap them up on the go!
TOP TIP: keep the wraps in foil to keep them soft, then use the foil to wrap around the bottom of the wrap to avoid bean based leaks!
Baked Potatoes: I KNOW! I wasn’t expecting that either! But in a last minute - ARGH I’m about to go to work, you need tea but in precisely 1.5 hours, not now and all we have is potatoes - moment, we stumbled across baked potatoes in the pot!
Obviously, this required a wide mouthed pot, we use our Hydro-Flask ones, but because potatoes have the innate ability to hold heat, this is an idea that WORKS!
I would recommend a hot topping (maybe the chilli, or definitely beans), I shove a cheeky bit of butter down the cut in the potato before heading out (Don’t blast it open, we’re talking a minimal surgical incision because the skin helps to keep the heat in) and then…. yeah.
Actual success. And one of the BEST things for a cold day out on an adventure.
The time we left it too long…
Stuff that really didn’t work that well….
Because, I’m here to give you the full story, not the curated one!
And that’s actually more helpful right?
Super Noodles
I am not accepting any eye-rolling here. Sometimes, we just wing it with what we have in the cupboard and if what you have in the cupboard is Super Noodles. Don’t do it! Absolutely terrible in a hot pot. YUK.
Chicken Nuggets
It’s a shady area of food hygiene and yes, we’ve tried it and it was actually fine. But, slightly soggy and if you do try it? I’d definitely pack ‘em tight in a hot food pot and eat them more or less as soon as you get wherever you want to be, because there’s no way I’m leaving them anywhere near as long as the 2 hour window!
Mac n Cheese
If you’ve been checking in for a while, you’ll have seen this as one of our recommendations, but after sticking with it, it’s just not actually that good. It’s really hard to get the consistency right on a fresh mac and cheese, let alone one you’ve packed and taken with you so…. yeah. Happy to consign this to the ‘we live and learn’ room.
Tuna Pasta after…
There is a cut off point where the food might be warm but it’s just not that hot and…. not that enjoyable. Our magic point is between 2 and 3 hours. Obviously anything before that and you’ll be laughing, but after that, no matter what the brands say, you’ll probably be left a bit disappointed.
Unless it’s soup or hot dogs. They’ll stay hot until 2056.
An after school, sunset hot picnic!
Mouth watering and raring to go out for that Winter Sunset picnic?! Don’t blame you!
Enjoy!
Fancy a kid friendly Yorkshire walk to go with that picnic?
We have nearly 100 family friendly walks in and around the Yorkshire Dales on our website!