Looking for vegan food that doesn’t need refrigeration? We were too when we went on a long, long road trip with our kids!
In this blog post, I’ll share the vegan road trip food that didn’t need a fridge that we discovered we could take with us.
I’ll share how we managed to have healthy road trip snacks and vegan packed lunches as we were travelling.
Our vegan road trip plan, and why we needed food ideas without refrigeration
In the summer we went on a week-long road trip to Europe in our Mazda Bongo with the kids. We drove 1700 miles from the UK through France, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium. We explored Amsterdam for a day, visited my husband Ben’s Gran in Germany, took an epic 10-hour drive to see many of the Delta Works in the Netherlands and stopped in Bruges before heading back home.
For two nights we camped in the Bongo in Amsterdam, we stayed at Ben’s uncles for a couple of nights in Germany and then an AirBnB whilst in Belgium. Our campervan is not converted, so it’s still an eight-seater downstairs which makes a great large bed for me and Ben. It’s a pop-top so the kids sleep up top.
We don’t have a fridge in the camper, so we had to come up with a whole list of non-perishable vegan food meals, packed lunches and snacks that we could eat on the go. All these plant-based meal ideas had to be made from as much dried food as possible. None of it could be refrigerated.
Of course, at Ben’s uncles and the AirBnB we were able to use a fridge and cook, but we had to get the food there without using a fridge, so we stuck to non-refrigerated food ideas.
Between Ben’s uncles and our AirBnB we had a whopping 10-hour drive, so we needed meals and snacks for this. We also had two nights camping in Amsterdam, so had to be inventive with vegan road trip food ideas here too.
Vegan food on the go (with no fridge)
If you’re wondering what on earth you can eat on a road trip as a vegan or when camping, without a fridge, then here’s a stack of vegan travel food and vegan road trip snack ideas.
We came up with as many ideas as we could to create a shopping list before our trip and took loads of food from home. That was a great benefit to driving and getting a ferry as we could really save loads of money on food and visit a UK supermarket before we left.best vegan road trip snacks
Here are loads of the best vegan road trip snacks and meal ideas:
Superfood bars are great travelling snacks!
- Celery and peanut butter – so long as it’s not sweltering in your car then celery will last a couple of days. Take some cutlery with you and spread some cupboard-friendly peanut butter on for a great energy-boosting snack.
- Rice crackers with peanut butter or marmite, or plain. Rice crackers are perfect to munch on as a snack or to make peanut butter or marmite cracker sandwiches! These are perfect for kids lunchboxes on the go. Marmite doesn’t need to go in the fridge so it’s the perfect road trip food to create tasty lunches and snacks.
- Wraps with peanut butter or marmite. Take an airtight container and you can store bread or wraps for a few days to make vegan sandwiches on the move.
- Cereal to snack on dry, or with water or long life plant-based milk. Cereal is perfect if you take bowls and cutlery with you. It’s so easy to make a bowl of cereal with some long life milk. Try and get smaller cartons or make sure you all eat cereal at the same time so you don’t waste any milk. If you’ve milk left over then the kids may want it as a drink as you venture on.
- Fresh fruit – some fruit will last a few days and doesn’t need refrigerating so take grapes, oranges, pears, bananas and apples to snack on. This is a great option for those looking for healthy road trip snacks which are non-refrigerated.
- Salad – the same applies to some salads. Tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and cucumber can last a couple of days out of the fridge, so you can snack on this or make your wraps or sandwiches more exciting for a couple of days at least. You can always plan to visit supermarkets whilst travelling to keep fresh salad and fruit topped up. Take a cool box to store it in, though the coldness will only last the first day unless you buy ice too.
- Dried fruit makes perfect on-the-go snacks and won’t spoil. We love apricots, prunes and raisins. Also Urban Fruit’s dried mango and dried strawberries are delicious.
- Bliss balls also known as energy balls are mostly made from dried fruit, nuts, superfoods and seeds so they last ages too and don’t need refrigerating. You can buy these from the shops, but it’s so easy to make your own with these bliss ball recipes.
- Bars, bars, bars! We love dried fruit, nut and seed bars of all different kinds these are some of the best vegan road trip snacks! There are Trek bars, Pulsin bars and Nakd bars to name a few. These are perfect to pack in bags when exploring to stop hunger in between meals and on long car journeys.
- Crisps – my favourite crisps are the Eat Real crisps and we also get the kids Organix crisps as they are organic and contain no sugar.
- Fruit pouches are great for kids and adults too! ‘Baby’ fruit pouches aren’t just for babies, but kids and adults too. The best thing is they don’t need refrigeration at all. These were great for adding some more fruit snacks into our packed lunches each day. The kids get really excited about a fruit pouch in their lunchbox and me and Ben had one every day in ours too. We love Ella’s Kitchen, Go-Go Squeeze and also the supermarket’s own brands such as Tesco’s own apple version is tasty.
- Breadsticks – nice and easy snack to hand out in the car when the kids are complaining they’re hungry!
- Fruit crisps – it’s amazing how many things are made from fruit nowadays! Dried fruit crisps satisfy that crisp crunch you might be craving, but they also provide a portion of fruit, so are much healthier than regular crisps.
- Popcorn is another great dried food snack that doesn’t need a fridge.
- Nuts and seeds will keep you going when you get peckish.
- Sweetcorn is one of my favourite things to eat out of a tin! It’s so refreshing and satisfies any sweet cravings. Most tins have a ring pull so it’s really easy to eat on the go. You just need a spoon. You can drink the remaining water too.
- Pineapple – another tinned item that is great for road trips. It’s another portion of fruit and you also get to have the juice! We love the chunks in juice and the kids use reusable straws to get all the juice out of the tin.
- Noodles and rice pots are a great idea if you have a way of heating up some water. We took a camping stove with us so we could heat up some water for noodle/rice pots and hot drinks. We enjoyed eating these when visiting the Kinderdijk Windmills in the Netherlands!
- Green tea is packed full of antioxidants and great to sip on each day, in the car and out if you take a thermal flask with you.
Final thoughts on eating vegan on the road
When planning our road trip, we thought we’d really struggle to come up with vegan food ideas on the road. We actually managed to think up so many ideas that we had plenty of plant-based and nutritious vegan food on the go, both for the car and camping, whilst exploring Europe.
We also discovered how important it was to organise our food efficiently for easy access on the road. We packed different types of food into separate containers, labelling them for snacks, meals, and drinks. This system made it simple to grab what we needed quickly, whether we were in the car, setting up camp, or exploring a city. It saved us time and prevented the frustration of rummaging through bags. Having a designated “food bag” or box for the car meant we always knew where to find essentials like fruit, bars, and crackers.
One unexpected benefit of sticking to non-refrigerated vegan foods was how much money we saved. By preparing meals and snacks ourselves, we avoided relying on expensive roadside cafés or restaurants. We also had control over the nutritional value of our food, ensuring it met our dietary needs and preferences. Additionally, discovering vegan-friendly supermarkets and local markets in each country became part of the adventure, giving us a chance to sample regional plant-based options and stock up for the next leg of the journey.
Related blog posts
- Tips for moving to a plant-based diet
- Understanding your basic nutritional needs when vegan
- Why I’ll never eat meat again
- Getting your 5-a-day does not make you healthy
- Tips to stay sane and healthy on long drives
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