15 Bean Soup with Ham and Kale
A slow cooker bean soup rebuilt as a car-camping pot. Beans soak all day in the pack, then simmer over the fire.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 96
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 75 min
- total time
- 85 min
- water
- 900 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| 15 bean soup mix | 1 lb bag | throw out the seasoning packet, it is mostly salt |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf-stable diced ham or summer sausage | 8 oz | vacuum-packed ham keeps unopened without a cooler |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried carrot | 1/3 cup | |
| Chicken bouillon | 4 tsp | stands in for the stock |
| Bay leaf | 2 | |
| Dried kale flakes | 1 cup, loose | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- In the morning, put the beans in the pot with 900 ml of water and let them sit all day. Cold soaking cuts the cook time roughly in half.
- At camp, drain the soak water and refill with fresh water to cover the beans by an inch. Bring to a boil.
- Add the onion, celery, carrot, bouillon, bay leaves, and paprika. Drop the heat to a low simmer and put the lid on.
- Simmer 60 to 75 minutes, stirring now and then. Add water when the top of the beans goes dry. They are done when a bean crushes against the pot with a spoon.
- Stir in the ham, kale, and parsley. Five more minutes, uncovered, is enough to soften the kale.
- Pull the bay leaves. Salt and pepper at the end, not before, or the beans stay tough.
Slow cookers work because they hold beans at a low temperature for hours. On a trip you do not have the hours or the outlet, so the soak does the work instead. Beans that sat in water since breakfast finish in about an hour over a fire, which is the difference between dinner and going to bed hungry.
Everything fresh in the original has a dried equivalent that rehydrates in the broth: onion, celery, carrot, kale, parsley. The ham bone is the one real loss. Vacuum-packed ham or a hard summer sausage gets you the salt and the fat, and the smoked paprika covers the smoke the bone would have given up. Hold the salt until the beans are soft, since salting early keeps the skins tough.
Packing
Beans in one bag, the dried vegetables and seasoning premixed in a second. The ham stays sealed until it goes in the pot.
Variations
- Skip the ham, swap in vegetable bouillon, and double the smoked paprika. That version is vegan.
- A cup of instant rice stirred in at the end stretches it to six.
- Spinach flakes work if kale is not around.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/slow-cooker-16-bean-and-kale-soup