Palaveritos | Road Trip Recipe

If you’ve watched our new film series South Australian Outback Adventure you’ll remember that on the last night of our trip it was Sara’s job to make dinner using whatever ingredients we had left in our food tubs.

After 20 days on the road and most of it in remote Outback SA our food stores were well and truly depleted so her mission was to come up with something amazing – and she came through with flying colours.

In the process I think we’ve ‘invented’ a new camping dish that we’ve made at home since we arrived back and will definitely add to our road trip recipes for future trips.

For as long as I can remember in our family we’ve used the word ‘palaver’ to describe a dish that consists mainly of beans, tomatoes, capsicum & onions – there is no specific recipe but it’s generally something you’d throw together and have with eggs, toast etc. for breakfast.

Since Savanna became a vegetarian a couple of years ago it’s become a more regular part of our menu, especially on Sunday mornings.

I know the word ‘palaver’ means something different but I think we adopted it when I was whipping it up once and Jen asked me ‘what’s in it’ and I told her . . . beans, tomatoes, capsicum, onions and all that palaver . . . and it just stuck.

So anyway, fast forward to the last night of our trip when we were in the Gammon Ranges and by chance we have beans, tomatoes, capsicum & onions left over, some wraps and a bag of rice.

Sara threw them all together in the frying pan and added a bunch of other things including a can of sweet corn and some flavours and we used the wraps and rice and made burritos which were absolutely delicious.

As we were serving them up I said to the girls . . “so these are ‘Palaver Burritos’ then”, and Savanna being the genius that she is, came up with ‘Palaveritos’.

And that’s the story of where ‘Palaveritos’ came from.

Now the good thing about Palaveritos is that you can make them using virtually all non-fresh ingredients which is handy when you are camping and away from supermarkets.

Below is our basic recipe but look at it as a general idea rather than a specific recipe – use whatever you have available and whatever flavours you like – spicy or not.

Palaveritos

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 2 onions
• 1 Large diced capsicum (or semi dried in a jar)
• 1 can of beans (kidney, 4 bean mix, baked beans, lentils even . . . whatever you have)
• 1 can of tomatoes
• 1 can of sweet corn
• 1 Cup of rice
• 8 flat wraps
• Grated cheese

Flavours:

Use whatever you like and have available – here are some ideas:

• Packet of taco or chilli con carne seasoning
• Vegetable cup a soup packet
• Vegetable, beef or chicken stock
• Miso paste
• Sweet chilli sauce
• Sriracha hot chilli sauce

Method:

Step 1 – Steam the rice

• Put the cup of rice with 2 cups of water in a saucepan, place the lid on and bring to the boil
• Once boiling, turn down the heat as low as possible and let it simmer for 10 minutes with the lid on
• Turn off the heat and leave it covered to steam for 15 minutes
• Once you start the simmer you must leave the lid on until after the 15 minutes steaming (so 25 minutes total) – You’ll have perfectly steamed rice that’s not gluggy and won’t stick to your pot

Step 2 – Cook the Palaver

• Dice the onions and capsicum and fry in a large frying pan, cooking pot or camp oven for a few minutes
• Add the flavours and cook with the onions and capsicum for a minute or two to release the flavour
• Add the beans & corn and simmer for about 5 minutes
• Stir in the tomatoes and simmer for another 10 minutes
• Add a bit of water if it gets too thick

Step 3 – Serve it up

• Lay out a wrap flat on a plate
• Add a big spoon of rice and flatten it out
• Add a couple of big spoons of Palaver on top
• Add grated cheese if that’s your thing
• Add some Sriracha hot chilli sauce if you love it hot like I do
• Roll it up and eat it!

I’s simple, delicious, healthy and quick to make.

Plus there’s hardly any dishes for the kids to wash . . . always a bonus!