No Oven? Our Ultimate Guide To Motorhome and Campervan Cooking Without An Oven

How do you cook good food without an oven? This is a question we see you ask repeatedly on motorhome forums and campervan facebook groups. Because when you head off on your road trip you look forward to the simple pleasures of life on the road: outdoor living; great views; and, of course, fabulous food with family and friends. However, many motorhomes, caravans and campervans have very limited cooking facilities. Maybe 2 or 3 gas rings. And cooking a big variety of dishes without an oven can be a challenge. But this need not restrict what you can eat, as there is a lot of choice of cooking equipment designed to help you recreate your favourite recipes as you travel.

Everyone has their own personal favourites when it comes to camp cooking. What we have done here is give you a round-up of all the different alternatives, and hopefully at least one will be right for you. There are some really innovative options available, so whatever you want to cook, you won’t miss your oven on your next big adventure. With one or more of these you can cook and bake anything you want.

When you come to narrow down the best oven alternative for you, then there are a few major considerations:

• Do you mainly use Electric Hookup (EHU) – in which case one of the electically-powered options may suit you best
• How much space have you got? Smaller options will obviously be better if there are only 2 of you and storage space is limited
• Are you looking for an indoor or outdoor cooker? It’s probably worth getting two options. One for when it rains – or you are staying on an aire where you can’t cook outside. And one for when you can cook outside – which is definitely the best way to cook when you can!
• What is your budget?
• How many people will you be cooking for? Two or a crowd?

Cook Off Grid Without An Oven

Let’s start by looking at the most popular off-grid options. No electricity is required for these cooking methods.

• The Cadac is a highly versatile barbecue system that does much more than just grill sausages – and is available in a range of sizes and options
• The Safari Chef is a compact options for couples or a small family, the Carri Chef is the most popular option for a larger family
• The Cadac Modular System caters for a wide range of cooking methods and styles
• By using the different modules you can have traditional barbecues, grilled vegetables, stir-fry, smoked fish, paellas, teppanyaki, do baking and even pizzas
• Also it is possible to cook 2 or 3 different dishes on your BBQ at the same time
• Many different tops and accessories available
• Easy to swap one for another
• You can use a gas barbecue where charcoal grills are not allowed. Each Cadac has a stand which keeps it off the grass too.
• After trying practically every outdoor camping option available, this is our favourite! Versatile, easy to clean, quick to heat up, it just works
• Read more … Cadac BBQs at Amazon

• The Cobb is an innovative and versatile BBQ system fuelled either by their own Cobble Stone or loose briquettes
• You can use it to bake, grill and cook vegetables in the moat. Also use it for stir-fries and baking pizzas
• With smoke chips you can smoke food too
• The Cobb Cooker is simple to light and takes about 15-25 mins to be ready (or just 4 minutes with the Cobblestone)
• Depending on the fuel used the Cobb will provide cooking heat for up to 3 hours
• The Cobb has a dome made with stainless steel and heat-resistant handle. The holes in the Dome ensure even ventilation throughout the cooking process creating an oven effect
• It has a grill grid with an easy to clean non-stick coating for grilling meats and kebabs etc
• The Cobb has a stainless steel moat which catches all excess fat. The moat can also be used for cooking vegetables.
• All packs up into a bag for easy transportation
• Read more about the Cobb BBQ on Amazon

• Portable all in one camping grill
• Very similar to Cadac … but a lot cheaper
• Integrated grill, griddle and stove cooking options for a range of cooking styles including roasting
• Fully adjustable power 2000 W power
• Water compartment for grease collection and easy cleaning
• Piezo ignition for convenient lighting
• Different sizes available, so you can buy the right one for the space you have available and number of people you want to cook for
• Read more … Campingaz Party Grills on Amazon

• Cook fast and save gas. Perfect for stews, soups, in fact anything you can do in a slow cooker
• Also good for roasting a whole chicken (brown it first then cook on trivet or balls of silver foil
• Cheap and versatile means of cooking
• Forget any thoughts of old-fashioned war-time cooking and overdone veg. A pressure cooker is fantastic for curries, pulses, beans, vegetarian and vegan food
• Also great for cooking more than one thing on one hob with veg baskets etc (depending on model and accessories
• We love pressure cooking at home and on the road… that’s why the pressure cooker is one of our 15 essentials for a small kitchen
• See a complete range of Pressure Cookers on Amazon

• Put all the ingredients in the inner pot, bring to boil then reduce to simmer
• Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes (depending on the recipe instructions)
• Once the simmering time is complete take the inner pot, off the stove and put it into the outer pot.
• There is no need to use a power cord. The food cooks via “thermal cooking process” using the retained heat.
• After the required time (e.g. rice 30 min; chicken stock 2 hrs; beef brisket 3.5 hrs), just open the outer pot, and meal is hot and ready
• Energy Saving (no external energy required after initial cooking) and Safe (no power cords etc)
• Convenient: no supervision or monitoring. Food can be cooked while you are travelling.
• Healthy: Entraps flavour, minerals and vitamins; generate less odour, grease and smoke in the kitchen
• User Friendly: Never over cooks and cleans up easily
• Read more and buy at Mr D’s Thermal Cooker

• Very similar to Mr D’s, the Wonderbag is a simple but revolutionary, non-electric portable slow cooker
• Boil your food, simmer, then place in the Wonderbag. It slow-cooks without additional power
• Healthy: keeps the moisture inside your food and nutrients don’t boil away
• Slow-cooking in The Wonderbag tenderizes meat, keeps vegetables firm, allows flavours to develop so meals are tasty and delicious.
• Lovely to look at: Wonderbags are designed and made in attractive fabrics that are easy to wash, wipe and clean.
• Portable: The Wonderbag is perfect for transporting meals to picnics and to friends, ready to share and eat. Plus, can be used to cook while you are driving
• Insulates: Hot and Cold – The Wonderbag keeps things cold too, so it’s a great farmers market or supermarket companion to keep your groceries cold and frozen while travelling
• Versatile: The Wonderbag is not just a slow cooker, can be used to make yoghurt, cook rice, and prove bread dough
• Nice to know: for every Wonderbag bought a donation is made to The Wonderbag Foundation who distribute Wonderbags to families in need in Africa
• Read more and buy at Wonderbag World

• The Omnia Stovetop Oven is essentially an “oven” you place on your hob
• With an Omnia you can serve freshly baked breads and tasty casseroles cooked on your hot plate
• Almost everything that can be heated, baked or cooked in a fixed, domestic oven can be baked in an Omnia
• It has a 3-part system that uses the heat from the hob to generate both top and bottom heat
• A circular aluminium food container with centre hole sits on a matching stainless steel support that is placed over the heat source. The heat spreads along the bottom of the food container and as it rises the specially designed lid with ventilation hole diverts the heat over the top of the container.
• Not widely available in UK, but you can read more and buy the Omnia Stovetop Oven on eBay

• The Kampa Roast Master is an absolute beast … it is a full-on portable cooker, and a great option if you have the space to transport it!
• It has two hobs and a conventional oven, which run off a portable gas cylinder
• The hob with two powerful, fully adjustable, brass burners – up to 1.5kW each
• Matchless ignition you just turn the control knob to ignite hob or oven
• The lid and windshields protect burners in windy conditions
• It has a large oven, with a powerful 1.0 kW oven burner with flame failure safety device (FFD)
• The oven temperature is fully adjustable up to 300C, and it has an oven temperature gauge
• Porcelain enamelled oven interior so easy to clean
• There is a glass viewing window in door
• The oven has 2 removable chrome plated shelves
• Dual carrying handles
• Works from most popular gas cylinders with the appropriate regulator
• Overall size: 54cm x 31cm x 46cm (W x D x H)
• Oven size: 41cm x 27.5cm x 21cm (W x D x H)
• Weight: 15kg
• Read more about the Kampa Roast Master at Amazon

Electrically Powered Options

What if you know that you will mostly camp with electric hook-up? Then you have more options. Here are some very popular oven alternatives for use with EHU. Or, if you live in a small flat/bedsit without an oven one of these solutions may be perfect for you too.

• The Remoska is a compact cooker which cooks wonderfully and is very thrifty with electricity, so it is ideal for easy on the road due to the low power requirement
• A Remoska is essentially a compact electric oven invented in the Czech Republic in the 1950s as a super-efficient replacement for everyday ovens
• It’s energy-efficient so economical to run, it uses hardly any electricity (only 400W), perfect when you are using electic hookup
• Small enough to stow away in the tiniest kitchen or motorhome
• Comes apart, you can carry the pan to the table to serve whatever food you’ve just made
• Versatile, it can be used to roast, bake, fry even cook pizza and reheat ready meals
• There’s only one pan to wash up and it has an easy to clean non-stick coating
• Heats up quickly and has excellent heat conductivity
• Cooks anything you can cook in an oven including: roast chicken; baked potatoes, pizzas, casseroles, you can even bake cakes so really extends your cooking repertoire on holiday
• 2 litre capacity
• Find out more about the Remoska Cooker at Lakeland

• Very energy efficient, low wattage
• Make delicious succulent stews and soups, plus pot-roasts and jacket potatoes
• Simply get your ingredients together in the morning, go off and do whatever you want in the day, come back to a lovely meal (and smell)
• We have even heard of people running these off their inverters while they are driving to their next destination (obviously put the slow cooker somewhere secure like the sink for this one!
• Nice and easy to use and clean, one-pot cooking
• Read more … Morphy Richards Slow Cooker On Amazon

• Halogen ovens can be used to roast, steam, fry, boil and bake
• The Andrew James one comes with a high grill rack and a low one, a baking tray, steaming tray and a toast rack (perfect for breakfast)
• Only really suitable for use with Electric Hook-Up. If you get a 10 amp hookup that should be more than adequate. People report using them through the UK, France and Spain etc. You might struggle more in Italy where the EHU is often 3A
• Halogen ovens can cook food up to 40% faster than a standard oven with no need to preheat, so fast and economical
• Digital controls make it easy and accurate to control
• This Andrew James one has a self-cleaning function … which does sound very appealing
• Find out more … Andrew James Halogen Oven

• If you like the idea of a Pressure Cooker but are a bit unsure then the Pressure King is definitely worth a look, as it makes pressure cooking much more automatic
• Cooks up to 90% faster than conventional methods so you can make meals in minutes rather than hours at the touch of a button
• The Pressure King has 12 pre-programmed settings to make cooking simple: Meat, Rice, Stew, Soup, Pasta, Fish, Steam, Delay Timer, Fast Re-Heat, and dual Keep Warm/Slow Cook setting, so if you have never used a pressure cooker before you will find this very straightforward
• Also features a 24-hour Delay Timer so you can set it in the morning and your dinner will be ready when you want
• You can also cook from frozen, for example you can cook a whole chicken straight from the freezer in just 60 minutes
• Very good value for money
• You will need an electric hookup
• Read more about the Pressure King at Amazon

• If you have a bit more to spend, then an alternative to the Pressure King is the Heston Blumenthal the Fast Slow Cooker Pro … which is a bit more than just an electric pressure cooker
• This is a “Fast Slow Cooker” means you can choose between pressure cooking and slow cooking with one appliance so you can have the best of both worlds
• It has a 6 L capacity, and the Sage Fast Slow Pro can pressure cook, slow cook, steam, reduce, sauté and sear with the press of a button
• There is an interactive LCD display to tell you when it’s building pressure, cooking and releasing steam
• There are dual sensors at the top and bottom which monitor ingredients for more accurate temperature and pressure control
• A hands-free steam release automatically varies across foods to maximise flavour and texture
• 12 smart menus and eight pressure levels range from low (10 kpa) for delicate foods to high (80 kpa) for extra fast cooking
• There are 8 smart programs and 3 heat settings to allow slow cooking from 2-10 hours and it automatically switches to keep warm at the end of cooking
• The Fast Slow Pro has a stainless steel construction with three-way safety system – safety locking lid, hands-free auto steam release and safety valve
• It requires 1100W for so needs to be used on EHU
• Read more about the Fast Slow Cooker Pro on Amazon

Well, that’s a very complete list of cooking gear that can be used, one way or another, to reproduce your favourite roasts, stews, soups and more on the road.

Have we missed any out? And which is your favourite. Do let us know!

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