Bow Tie Bean Soup
Farfalle, white beans, and dried vegetables in one pot. A soup that eats like a full dinner.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 700 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
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Farfalle | 1 cup | any small shape works, but bow ties hold their shape |
|---|---|---|
| Instant white bean flakes | 1/2 cup | or 1/2 cup small dried white beans soaked all day in a jar |
| Dried diced tomatoes | 1/3 cup | or 2 tbsp tomato powder |
| Dried onion, carrot, and celery | 1/4 cup each | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Oregano | 1/2 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Dried chives | 1 tsp | stirred in at the end |
Method
- Put the dried vegetables and tomatoes in the pot with 700 ml of water. Bring it to a boil.
- Hold a low boil for eight minutes. The carrot and celery need that time or they stay gravel.
- Add the pasta and the bean flakes. Stir right away so the flakes do not clump on the bottom.
- Simmer another ten to twelve minutes, stirring often. Add water in small splashes if it thickens past soup.
- Off the heat, stir in the oil, the spices, and the chives. Let it sit two minutes and stir again.
The camp version of this is a Dutch oven soup that starts with a ten-minute sauté of onion, carrot, and celery in oil. On a stove with finite fuel, that sauté is the first thing to go. Dried vegetables rehydrate in the same water they will be eaten in, so nothing is lost but the browning, and the oil goes in at the end where it still tastes like oil.
Canned beans and canned tomatoes are mostly water and steel. Bean flakes carry the same protein and thicken the broth on their own, which is what the long simmer was doing before. Add the pasta and flakes together and the pot finishes at one time instead of two.
If you have soaked whole beans instead, they need a full thirty minutes ahead of everything else, and a lot more fuel.
Packing
Vegetables, tomatoes, and spices go in one bag. Pasta and bean flakes go in a second bag, because they enter the pot later. Oil rides in its own bottle.
Variations
- Tomato powder instead of dried tomatoes cuts a minute of simmer and thickens the broth.
- A bouillon cube covers for the sauté you are not doing.
- Couscous in place of the pasta drops the cook time to five minutes.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/bow_tie_soup-2443.asp