How to Pack a Week’s Tomato, Onion and Garlic Base Without Filling Your Ammo Crate With Tins
Planning camp meals often creates a packing problem.
Many easy camping dishes start with the same three ingredients:
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
To cook these meals the conventional way, you may need several tins of chopped tomatoes, a bag of onions, a bulb of garlic and possibly a tube or tin of tomato paste. These ingredients take up valuable space, add weight to your ammo crate and create extra preparation work at the campsite.
A jar or two of Red Gold Concentrate gives you a much simpler option.
Red Gold already combines fire-roasted tomatoes, oven-roasted onions and roasted garlic in a concentrated cooking base. Instead of packing the same bulky ingredients separately for every meal, you take one compact base that can be used in several different dishes.
The Camping Problem With Tinned Tomatoes
Tinned tomatoes are convenient, but they are not particularly efficient camping ingredients.
A tin contains a large amount of liquid, and you must carry the full weight until you use it. Empty tins also become rubbish that must be cleaned, stored and taken home or placed in a campsite bin.
Fresh onions and garlic create their own problems:
- They take up space in your food crate.
- Onions can be crushed or damaged while travelling.
- Garlic skins and onion peels create waste.
- Both ingredients must be peeled and chopped.
- Their smell can remain on your hands, knife and chopping board.
- Chopping ingredients becomes inconvenient when it is dark, windy or raining.
Red Gold Concentrate removes most of this preparation because the tomato, onion and garlic have already been roasted, cooked and blended together.
One Jar Replaces Several Separate Ingredients
Red Gold is not simply a tin of tomato purée.
It is a concentrated flavour base made with:
- Fire-roasted tomatoes
- Oven-roasted onions
- Oven-roasted garlic
- Olive oil
- Apple vinegar
- Lemon juice
- Salt and pepper
The ingredients have already been cooked down, so you do not need to start every meal by frying an onion and garlic before adding tomatoes.
You simply spoon the amount you need into the pot and build the rest of the meal around it.
Depending on how strongly you flavour each dish, one jar can provide the base for several camping meals. Taking two jars gives you more flexibility for a longer trip, a larger family or tomato-based meals throughout the week.
What You May Be Able to Leave at Home
Your exact packing list will depend on your menu, but a jar or two of Red Gold may allow you to leave the following behind:
| Conventional ingredient | Red Gold alternative |
|---|---|
| Tins of chopped tomatoes | Spoon Red Gold directly into the meal |
| Fresh onions | Onion is already included |
| Fresh garlic | Roasted garlic is already included |
| Tomato paste | Red Gold provides concentrated tomato flavour |
| Onion and garlic seasoning sachets | Often unnecessary |
| Large chopping board | A small board may be sufficient |
| Extra preparation knife | Less chopping is required |
| Containers for leftover onion | No half-used onion to store |
| Multiple empty tins | Only the finished jar needs handling |
The benefit is not only the space saved before the trip. You also have fewer loose ingredients to organise inside the tent, caravan or camp kitchen.
A Better Base for Several Camp Meals
The same jar can be used in different ways during the week.
Add Red Gold to:
- Mince for spaghetti bolognese
- Boerewors or sausage smoor
- One-pot pasta
- Chicken stew
- Shakshuka-style eggs
- Baked beans
- Curry
- Rice dishes
- Soup
- Braai relish
- Pizza or jaffle fillings
- Leftover meat and vegetable dishes
This means you do not need to pack a separate sauce or flavour sachet for every meal.
Red Gold becomes a common base that works with whatever protein, starch or vegetables you have available.
Camp Recipe: One-Pot Red Gold Sausage Pasta
This recipe works on a gas stove, induction plate or campfire grid with a stable pot stand. It uses one pot and requires very little chopping.
Serves
Approximately 4 people.
Ingredients
- 500 g boerewors, pork sausage or beef sausage
- 250–300 g pasta
- 3–4 tablespoons Red Gold Concentrate
- Approximately 750 ml water or stock
- 1 tin of beans, optional
- 1 cup chopped peppers, mushrooms or mixed vegetables, optional
- Salt and pepper, if needed
- Grated cheese, optional
Choose No Burn, Mild or Hot Red Gold Concentrate according to the amount of chilli your family prefers.
Ingredients You Do Not Need to Pack for This Recipe
Because Red Gold already contains the flavour base, you can leave the following at home:
- One tin of chopped tomatoes
- One fresh onion
- Two or three garlic cloves
- Tomato paste
- Oil for frying the onion
- A separate onion-and-garlic seasoning sachet
You also avoid peeling garlic and chopping onions at the campsite.
Method
- Cut or squeeze the sausage meat into bite-sized pieces directly into the pot.
- Cook the sausage over medium heat until lightly browned. If the sausage contains enough fat, you may not need additional oil.
- Add 3–4 tablespoons of Red Gold Concentrate and stir it through the sausage.
- Add the dry pasta and enough water or stock to cover it.
- Bring the pot to a gentle boil, then reduce the heat.
- Simmer while stirring occasionally until the pasta is cooked. Add a little more water if the mixture becomes too thick before the pasta is ready.
- Stir in beans or vegetables during the last few minutes, if using.
- Taste before adding salt, as the sausage, stock and Red Gold already contribute seasoning.
- Serve as it is or add grated cheese on top.
Why This Recipe Works for Camping
- The recipe uses ingredients that are easy to transport and store.
- Dry pasta does not need refrigeration. Sausage can be used early in the trip or carried frozen to help keep the cooler box cold. Optional beans and vegetables allow you to stretch the meal when feeding more people.
- Most importantly, the tomato, onion and garlic preparation has already been done.
- There are no onion skins blowing around the campsite, no garlic to crush and no half-used tin of tomatoes that must be kept cold.
Suggested One-Week Red Gold Camp Meal Plan
A jar or two can help you build several different meals without every supper tasting the same.
Night 1: Boerewors and Red Gold Smoor
Warm Red Gold with a little water and serve it over pap and wors.
Night 2: One-Pot Sausage Pasta
Use the recipe above.
Night 3: Red Gold Baked Beans
Add a spoonful of Red Gold to baked beans and serve on toast, pap or baked potatoes.
Night 4: Campfire Shakshuka
Warm Red Gold with a little water, make spaces in the sauce and cook eggs in the pan with the lid on.
Night 5: Leftover Meat Pot
Combine leftover braai meat, vegetables, Red Gold and a little stock.
Night 6: Quick Curry Base
Add Red Gold to chicken, beans or vegetables with your preferred curry spices.
Night 7: Jaffles or Toasted Sandwiches
Mix Red Gold with leftover mince, sausage or cheese for an easy final-night meal.
Pack the Jar Carefully
- Although Red Gold saves space compared with several tins and fresh ingredients, it is packed in glass, so it’s reusable and recyclable.
- Place the jar upright in your food crate and wrap it in a dishcloth, small towel or piece of clothing. This prevents it from knocking against cookware or other bottles while travelling.
- The cloth is not wasted packing space because it can later be used in the camp kitchen.
- Once opened, follow the storage instructions on the label and keep the jar properly chilled where required.
Less Weight, Less Waste and Less Camp-Kitchen Work
Packing efficiently is not only about taking fewer items. It is about choosing ingredients that can do more than one job.
Red Gold Concentrate combines three of the most commonly used savoury ingredients into one ready-to-use cooking base. It can replace multiple tins, fresh onions, garlic and some of the sauces or seasoning packets that normally fill a camping food crate.
You still decide what to cook. Red Gold simply gives you a quicker and more compact place to start.
For a week-long camping trip, one jar may be enough when it is used as an occasional flavour base. Two jars provide more freedom when tomato-based meals, smoor, pasta and stews form a larger part of your menu.
The result is a lighter ammo crate, fewer ingredients to manage and more time to enjoy the campsite instead of chopping onions.