The Ultimate Healthy Picnic Packing Plan

Eating al fresco doesn’t mean you have to fill up on junk food. Here are our ideas for what to take on a picnic without sacrificing your health goals.

If you’re trying to eat healthily, packing for a picnic is, well, no picnic.  

The types of foods that most people bring on outdoor eating excursions are typically high in carbs, saturated fats, and salt. According to one recent survey, the top five favourites for British picnics are:

• Sandwiches

• Crisps

• Juices

• Cakes

• Cheeses

Tasty, certainly, but filling your picnic basket with only these foods doesn’t make for the healthiest spread. 

However, with a little bit of planning and preparation, your picnic basket will be packed full of tasty food that’s good for you, alongside some of the above favorites, because it’s all about balance.  

Here’s what to bring to a picnic if you’re trying to eat more healthily. 

General rules for what to pack for a picnic

Find healthy picnic packing perplexing? Here are some general tips for building out a healthy outdoor lunch. 

Include all five food groups

The easiest way to ensure your picnic is healthy is to include all five main food groups in your picnic basket:

• Carbohydrates: Choose wholemeal bread, potatoes, whole wheat pasta, cous cous, or grains like quinoa.

• Proteins: Chickpea or bean salads are a great source of protein. Boiled eggs, fish, and lean meats are also excellent picnic possibilities. 

• Fats: Oils in salads and spreads are a great way of consuming ‘healthy’ fats. Olive oil is especially good. 

• Fruit and veg: Fruit always makes for a great picnic dessert, while veg should form the basis of salads, finger food, and sandwich fillings. 

• Dairy: Cheese is a great option for sandwiches, but also goes well in salads and even with fruit for certain desserts. 

Related: Meal planning for beginners

Keep it cool 

Many picnic ingredients will spoil or become less palatable when left in the heat for too long. We’d strongly recommend bringing a cool bag on your picnic for any perishables (particularly cheeses, salads, meat, fish, and dips). 

Easy to eat

One of the golden rules of a good picnic is that food should be easy to eat. Avoid anything fussy, runny, spillable, or that requires lots of cutting. Your fellow picnickers should be able to eat everything with their hands or, at most, with a fork/spoon off a plate. 

Hydration station

Even if you’re just sitting down, there’s a high chance of dehydration when eating outdoors in summer. When thinking about how to organize a picnic, we’d always recommend bringing extra water to keep hydrated. 

Homemade

While store-bought, pre-made foods are very convenient, they tend to contain loads of salt and sugar. The good news is that almost all picnic items can be easily created at home. This means you’re more likely to make them using whole foods and will know exactly what went into them.

What to pack for a picnic: healthy alternatives

Most traditional picnic items can be made healthier with just a little bit of planning. Set aside an hour or two on the morning of your blanket banquet to make some healthy but delicious bites. 

Healthy picnic sandwich tips

Sandwiches are the foundation of most rustic repasts. Here’s how to make them healthier:

• Use wholemeal bread: Wholemeal breads are normally much more nutritious than white bread and tend to be higher in fibre, vitamins, and minerals. What’s more, they normally taste more interesting too. 

• Choose oil-based spreads: Margarine and similar oil-based spreads tend to be lower in saturated fats than butter, and they’re generally believed to be better for heart health. 

• Opt for plant-based fillings: While popular sandwich fillings like ham, cheese, or eggs certainly have their place, plant-based sandwich fillings can give you a big hit of vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Chickpea hummus, grilled veg, grated carrots, nuts, lettuce, or chopped tomatoes taste delicious, have interesting textures, and give you a wide range of micro and macronutrients. 

Go big with salads

Not sure what to bring on a picnic that’s tasty and healthy? You can’t go wrong with a salad. There are endless options out there, and most salads will provide loads of dietary fibre while being nutrient-dense. But here’s how to make them as healthy as possible:

• Include a wide variety of food groups: A picnic salad can be so much more than some sad green leaves in a Tupperware! Pack your salads with beans, wholegrain pasta, crumbly cheeses, lentils, herbs, seeds, nuts, and combinations of roasted, steamed, or raw vegetables. 

• A no-regret vinaigrette: Many shop-bought vinaigrettes will include lots of sugar, salt, and stabilizers. Keep it simple with delicious homemade vinaigrettes - you often need nothing more than some vinegar, quality olive oil, and mustard. 

• Maybe no mayonnaise: As tasty as mayonnaise is in a potato salad or creamy coleslaw, it does tend to be high in saturated fat and salt. A quick search online will turn up thousands of recipes for mayonnaise-free summer salads. 

Snacks can be healthy too

A bag (or five) of crisps/potato chips is pretty standard at most picnics. But we all know that most crisps are deep fried then saturated in salt. Here’s what to bring to a picnic when you want nibbles that are actually good for you. 

• Make your own root vegetable ‘crisps’: It’s easier than you might think to make healthy, homemade crisps from root veg. Finely slice parsnips, carrots, beetroot, and any other suitable root veg, place them on a single layer in a baking tray, and roast for a couple of hours.

• Go nuts: A bag of mixed, roasted nuts can be a great snacking alternative to crisps. Nuts are packed with fibre, protein, healthy fats, vitamins and minerals, and will fill you up far more than potato-based nibbles. 

• Alternative ‘crisps’: In most supermarkets today, you can find a wide range of healthier alternatives to potato crisps. Whether it’s baked corn chips, lentil flour puffs, chickpea crackers, or whatever else, these alternative snacks pack a punch when it comes to quality protein, vitamins, and minerals. 

• Dips without the chips: Popular picnic dips like hummus, baba ghanoush, guacamole, or tomato salsa tend to be pretty healthy. However, most people use white bread or crisps to scoop them up with. A healthier alternative is crudité — pre-slice some carrot, cucumber, or celery batons for a fresh and healthy option. 

Healthy picnic puddings

Picnic desserts don’t just need to consist of cookies, cakes, and half-melted chocolate. Here are some simple ways to make your sweet course healthy too. 

• Healthy bakes: A quick search online will turn up thousands of plant-packed, low sugar versions of brownies, biscuits, flapjacks, and other delights that are ideal for lunch on the lawn. 

• Fun with fruit: Get kids excited about eating fruit by using wooden skewers. Chop up a variety of berries, bananas, melon, and other summer fruit and get kids involved in turning them into ‘kebabs’. 

• Cheese and fruit: Fruit and cheese salads sound weird… until you’ve tried them. Whether it’s watermelon and feta, goat's cheese and figs, cheddar and grapes, or something else, many cheese and fruit salads are a great way of making healthy and delicious desserts. Just remember you’ll need a cool box.

• Huel bars: For a healthy alternative to chocolate or cereal bars, consider packing a nutritionally complete Huel bar. Low in sugar, but high in fibre and protein, they make for an indulgent but healthy ‘sweet’ picnic table treat. 

Other ideas for healthy picnic packing

Besides the food itself, here are some other ideas for what to bring on a picnic to make it as healthy as possible. 

• Sunscreen: Wearing sunscreen will protect your skin from damage when eating al fresco. Opt for the highest UPF available and reapply every couple of hours (check the bottle for instructions). It’s sensible to keep your sunscreen in the shade or inside your picnic basket - if the bottle sits in direct sunlight too long, it can make the sunscreen split, and it won’t be as effective. 

• Hats, sunglasses, and umbrellas: Again, these will protect you from overexposure to the sun by providing additional shade. They’re especially important if you’re eating with children.

• Sports and games: Once you’ve finished eating, playing sports or doing other activities will get you moving - and help burn off extra energy if you’ve overindulged! Fun and easy post-picnic play options include frisbee, bat and ball, catch, five-a-side, rounders, or French cricket. Most of these don’t need much equipment and can add to your fun in the sun. 

What to take on a picnic when you’re health-focused

In many countries and cultures, picnics tend not to be the healthiest of events. The combination of shop-bought nibbles and a preference for high-carb, high-fat, high-salt, and high-sugar foods means you can often come away feeling bloated, thirsty, and experience crashes in energy. 

But it doesn’t have to be that way!

By taking some time to think about what to bring on a picnic that’s not only healthy, but tasty too, you’ll be able to enjoy grazing on the grass without any worries. 

Words by Len Williams