25 Van Life Kitchen Essentials for the Ultimate Van Chef

Perhaps the most important addition to your van life gear is a 12-volt compressor fridge. Having the ability to keep things cold while traveling is a true game-changer when it comes to your van life kitchen. We know from experience.

We traveled through South and Central America with a 12-volt thermoelectric cooler. It was ineffective and inefficient. We found that we stressed out over keeping cool more than we should have.

We have also traveled with a cooler and ice before, and again it is more stressful than it’s worth trying to plot ice melt and food spoilage.

A camp stove perhaps is the second most important van life kitchen essential that you need unless you’re planning on chowing down on cold beans every night! If you plan to spend as much time cooking for yourself as we do, then deciding on a camp stove may be a tough decision. How many burners? How many BTUs does each burner have? How big is the camp stove, can you fit two large pans on it? These are all of the things that you should consider when deciding on a camp stove to take with you.

In the US, we absolutely loved our Camp Chef Everest Stove. In Australia, we have been enjoying our Companion brand high-heat extra-wide cooker.

Water storage is an obvious addition to your van life kitchen essentials list and one that should be considered during your van build. It is best to carry a minimum of 5 liters per person to last you a week, but personal preferences and space should be considered when assessing how much water you should carry with you. If you plan on showering regularly, you may need more. If you plan on being out in nature without access to a water supply for regular refills, you may also need to carry more than you would if you stuck to more traveled areas.

If your van life kitchen does not have a built-in sink, then make sure to pick up a bucket for your travels. We have traveled with a collapsible sink and a non-collapsible sink. Both have their pros and cons when it comes to storage and durability, so just choose the one that is right for your setup and space.

A quality cast iron dutch oven doubles as two cast iron pans and provides a versatile way to cook using your stove. Stews, casseroles, soups, braises, pasta, risottos, everything tastes better in cast iron and a dutch oven gives you the possibility to a wider variety of meals on the stove.

From boiling water to cooking up pasta and rice dishes, a decent saucepan with a lid is an essential component to the van life kitchen.

Having at least one high-quality sharp knife in your van life kitchen is going to be a little luxury worth its weight in gold. There is nothing more frustrating than prepping a meal with a blunt knife.

This one seems obvious, but we find that we always leave home without at least one of these basic kitchen cooking utensils that we need/would like to have. A shortlist of our go-to’s for our van life kitchen essentials are:

Unless you want to be forever guesstimating quantities you need for your van life recipes, we recommend grabbing a silicon measuring cup.

Sturdy cutting boards are a must. We use our cutting boards for the obvious and as additional platters and plates when serving up a large feed or enjoying a cheese platter with our wine.

We have our own long-running argument over whether plastic or wood is the way to go, but either way, a couple of sturdy, reliable cutting boards are essential!

While you can probably get by without one, a colander will make your life a bit easier for cooking pasta, potatoes, and more. We carry around a collapsible colander for ease of storage, and we use it regularly.

A zester simply elevates your cooking experience and this is why it deserves a spot on the van life kitchen essentials list. We use our zester for ginger, garlic, limes, lemons, and cheese.

Can’t take fine china in the van but don’t want to eat off plastic plates either? Enamelware is the solution and has been the solution for camping gear for a while. Enamel tends to hold up better and can withstand the bumps of the road without becoming damaged. Plus, enamel plates just class up the joint a little.

Unless you’re planning on eating with your hands, a set of utensils is a must! We carry three of everything just in case we have a visitor (rare) or we lose an item along the way. Our van life kitchen essentials eating utensils include:

• Knifes
• Forks
• Spoons
• Teaspoon
• Steak knives

Once you have faced your first mouse in the van (and while I pray it doesn’t happen to you, it will), you will thank me for adding food storage containers to your van life kitchen essentials list. After our first mouse encounter, we scrambled to find enough milk jugs in the car and empty containers to mouse-proof our supplies while we tried to catch the little bugger (which, in a hilarious 3-day romp à la MouseHunt, turned out to be a family of mice).

Our routine is to make meals that will result in enough leftovers for at least another meal or two, so making sure that we have reliable Tupperware is important to us. We absolutely love our collapsible Tupperware and recommend every van life kitchen includes these clever containers. We have a range of four different sizes, from 250 ml to 1 liter, and we use them all regularly.

Probably not the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about a van life kitchen essential list, but beeswax paper is a great addition. Beeswax paper helps keep your vegetables fresher which is vital when living in extreme climates that your vegetables will face being kept in a vehicle all of the time. It can also be used to wrap sandwiches or other perishable foods.

Probably one of the most important additions to our van life kitchen essential list is the Bialetti Moka Pot. We literally do not go anywhere without ours and teared up a bit that time someone stole our Bialetti Moka Pot in Ecuador.

The Bialetti Moka Pot makes a mean morning brew and comes in a variety of sizes. Choose from smaller easy-to-store pots to the jitter-inducing 12-cup pot. If you are a coffee fan(atic) like us, make sure your van life kitchen essentials list includes one of these!

If you don’t love strong coffee, the Aeropress travel coffee maker is also a great option for life on the road!

One (if not two) bottle and wine openers should be included in your van life kitchen essentials. If you lose one, you definitely want to have a spare!

An easy item to forget is a quality dishtowel and dishcloth. Making sure you don’t skimp on these van life essentials is important if you plan to be cooking and, by extension, washing and drying a lot on the road. We use a washable dishcloth for the washing up and a quality absorbent, dark-colored dish towel for drying.

While not something you necessarily consider for your house kitchen, when your stove is so close to your bed, your car, and all your worldly possessions, having a fire extinguisher in your van is imperative. We have used our extinguisher once to put out a fellow camper’s fully ablaze kitchen and cannot stress enough how important packing one of these is!

Not a van life kitchen essential, but a manual coffee grinder will elevate your van life kitchen experience for weekend brunches. We only pull ours out on the weekend and enjoy some freshly ground coffee as a treat from our everyday van life experience.

You may think that you do not have enough space for a knife sharpener, but if you can fit it in it, keeping your knives nice and sharp is an easy van life cooking hack.

Sure, you COULD drink your wine from the same mug you use for water, coffee, and everything else in between, but how elegant is that?

Packing away a couple of stainless steel or plastic wine glasses makes it feel less like a camping trip and more like a real home.

Definitely an optional van life kitchen essential, but one that we absolutely love. Freshly ground spices are always better than their pre-packaged ground counterparts. If you are looking to spice up your van life cooking, then definitely grab one of these manual spice grinders before heading out!