The wonderful world of train picnics
You cannot under-estimate how much my family enjoy a train picnic. We often have picnic breakfasts when we are getting an early start to go off and do a country walk, for example.
Or picnic lunches on the way up to Nanna and Grandad’s for half-term. Or picnic teas when we have been out for a long day trip and will be getting home with tired children who can then be put straight to be because they have already eaten. Some train picnics, like Thomas’ Christmas Dinner Sandwiches, to be eaten on a train to Manchester on our way to stay with my brother for Twixtmas have cult status, and their lack in 2020 was much lamented.
The Famous Five always declared that food tasted better outdoors – well, we think it tastes better on a train. These are some of our tried and tested family-friendly train picnic favourites, and some top tips for happy picnicking.
Breakfast
Banana Muffins
These stay delightfully squidgy, and only take a few minutes to throw together, so they can be made after school on a Friday already for kicking off Saturday morning with a train picnic on your way to the day’s adventures. They also freeze very well.
Ingredients
250g plain flour
100g sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarb
150g chocolate chips
125ml sunflower oil
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1 heaped spoonful natural yoghurt
Method
1) Mix the dry ingredients, including chocolate chips, in a large bowl.
2) Mash the bananas and stir the yoghurt into them.
3) Beat the eggs lightly, and add the oil.
4) Pour the mashed banana mix and the egg mix into the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
5) Divide between 12 muffin cases. Bake at 200 for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and risen.
Lunch or tea
Sandwiches are an obvious choice, but they can be a bit uninspiring. These alternatives serve the same function as a sandwich – carb, protein and veg in one easy to consume unit, but they are a bit more exciting.
For a super-easy alternative that doesn’t require any prep at all, then just pop into M&S at the station and buy a big tub of houmous, some breadsticks and some carrot sticks or cherry tomatoes. Job done.
Train couscous salad (with variations)
Ingredients
150g couscous
Enough boiling water to cover the couscous
1 tsp Marigold bouillon powder
Olive oil
3 grated carrots
2 handfuls sultanas
Chopped coriander
Juice of one lemon
Method
1) Place couscous in large sealable container, and mix bouillon through it.
2) Cover with boiling water, then put lid on (or cover with clingfilm) and leave for 5 mins while you grate the carrots and chop the coriander.
3) Fork the couscous through, and stir in the carrot, sultanas and coriander along with the lemon juice and a generous slug of olive oil.
4) Serve with houmous and/or tzatziki.
Variations
Roasted Mediterranean Veg
Chop up one pepper, one aubergine, one courgette and one red onion and roast until soft.
Omit the carrot, coriander sultana and lemon juice, and stir the roast veg through instead,
with olive oil and some basil if you have it. Serve with houmous.
Squash and Halloumi
Cube a butternut squash and roast until soft. For the last twenty minutes of cooking time, add cubed halloumi. Stir through the cooked couscous with olive oil and whatever fresh herbs you like – mint would be good. Serve with a dollop of natural yoghurt.
Greek Style Salad
Finely chop 2 large tomatoes and half a cucumber and a big bunch of parsley. Stir these through the couscous with the juice of a lemon and some olive oil. Add chopped feta to make it a complete meal, or serve with houmous.
The beauty of these salads is that they are quick to make, healthy, easy to transport, can be adapted to whatever you have in the fridge, and can all be done in one container.
Full English Muffin Tin Tarts
Ingredients
Ready rolled shortcrust pastry
2 eggs
2 rashers bacon
Bunch of spring onion/chives
Cherry tomatoes
Sliced mushrooms
Grated cheese
Method
1) Cut out circles of pastry and line the muffin tray with them. Put baking beans in, and
bake blind at 180 for 10-15 mins – until pastry is very lightly golden.
2) Beat eggs. Chop and fry bacon and mushrooms. Chop the chives and stir the cooked
bacon mix and the chives into the eggs.
3) Divide the egg mixture between the 12 pastry muffin cases. Sprinkle with grated
cheese. Halve each cherry tomato and place on top of muffin tin.
4) Bake for 20 mins at 200 until golden and set.
Variations
Omit the bacon for a vegetarian version. Or omit the bacon, mushroom and cheese and use
chopped smoked salmon trimmings and some spinach leave. Experiment with whatever bits
you have lurking in the fridge.
Filo Tarts
For a more significant variation use sheets of filo pastry, brushed with melted butter, to form the tart cases. These do not have to be blind baked. Put a teaspoon of onion chutney, or cranberry sauce in each one, and then top with cubed brie. Bake until golden. Or roast vegetables as for the cous cous above, and divide those between the cases and top with grated mozzarella. Experiment with any combination of cheese and condiment that takes your fancy, but don’t do an egg based mixture in filo cases as it won’t be strong enough to hold.
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Again, these are SO easy and quick to make, and travel very well.
Ingredients
175g soft butter
175g caster sugar (or brown sugar)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g plain flour
100g SR flour
200g dark chocolate chips
Method
1) Cream together the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract.
Add the flours and the chocolate chips and mix with a wooden spoon until it comes
together in a soft dough.
2) Place the dough in ping pong sized blobs on a couple of greased baking sheets – you
will get about 16-18 out of this mixture.
3) Bake at 190 for 12- 15 minutes.
4) They will still feel soft when you lift them out of the oven, allow to harden on baking sheet before moving.
Train Picnic Tips
1) If you are going out for the day then it is worth taking disposable paper plates and napkins (Poundland is your friend). If you are travelling straight to someone’s house then by all means take non-breakable crockery.
2) Embrace middle-age. Yes, my friends, I am talking about the thermos flask. Do not waste £3 a pop on a takeaway coffee at the station. Make your hot drink of choice in the comfort of your own home and pop in a flask. I am a freak who does not like tea or coffee, so I make a big flask of hot chocolate and share it with my kids. Whereas Thomas basically doesn’t function without caffeine, so he brews a double espresso in his stovetop at home and makes an Americano to go in the flask.
Incredible life-truth: You don’t actually have to be middle-aged to use Thermos flasks. Though as we both turn 40 this year, we do now qualify…
3) Take hand gel and antiseptic wipes to clean yourselves and the table. It’s not worth the risk of not right now.
4) Take an old carrier bag to act as a rubbish bag – the litter bins on some trains are tiny, so you might need to take your rubbish with you.
5) Invest in some little freezer pack things to keep everything cool in hot weather. Supermarkets tend to sell them in the summer, or just recycle the packs that come with your Hello Fresh box or Farm Drop delivery if you do that.
Most of all, though, just enjoy. Train picnics are so much fun, and as you eat you can reflect smugly on all the time and money you have saved yourself.
