camp meals

Camp Stove Sausage and Bean Skillet

Cured sausage, canned white beans, and a squeeze of tomato paste. One pot, one burner, fifteen minutes.

calories
610
weight
11.5 oz
cal / oz
53
protein
30 g
serves
2, scales
prep
5 min
cook
15 min
total time
20 min
water
100 ml cold
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
  • Car camping
  • Basecamp
  • Canoe / raft
  • Dairy free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Grab and go
  • Shelf stable
  • Basic

Ingredients

Dry-cured sausage 6 oz summer sausage or salami, no refrigeration needed
Canned white beans 1 can (15 oz) drain most of the liquid, keep a splash
Tomato paste 2 tbsp the squeeze tube keeps better than an opened can
Olive oil 1 tbsp
Dried minced onion 2 tbsp
Smoked paprika 1 tsp
Garlic powder 1/2 tsp
Salt and black pepper to taste
Water 100 ml

Method

  1. Slice the sausage into coins about as thick as a nickel.
  2. Set the pot on the stove with the oil and run the flame low. Add the sausage and let it brown on one side, three or four minutes. It will give up its own fat.
  3. Stir in the dried onion, paprika, and garlic powder. Thirty seconds, no longer, or the spices scorch.
  4. Add the tomato paste and the water. Stir until the paste breaks up and the bottom of the pot goes glossy.
  5. Dump in the beans with a splash of their liquid. Simmer eight to ten minutes on the lowest flame the stove will hold, stirring now and then.
  6. Taste, salt, pepper, eat out of the pot.

This is a stove recipe more than a camp recipe. A windscreened burner with a real low setting will hold a simmer, and a simmer is the only thing that matters here — the beans need ten quiet minutes to take on the sausage fat and the tomato. Crank it and you get scorched paste on the bottom of the pot and raw-tasting beans on top.

Everything in it sits on a shelf at home. Dry-cured sausage does not need a cooler, tomato paste in a tube survives being opened, and the can supplies both the beans and most of the water, so you are not hauling extra. The dried onion is doing more work than it looks like: rehydrated in the fat, it gives the dish the sweetness a fresh onion would, without the fridge.

Packing

Sausage, the can, and the paste tube ride together in a bin. Premix the onion, paprika, and garlic into one small bag so it is one pour at the stove.

Variations

  • A handful of instant rice or couscous stirred in at the end soaks up the sauce and stretches it to three servings.
  • Swap the white beans for pinto and add a pinch of chili flake.
  • No sausage: two foil packets of tuna, added at the very end so they do not turn to paste.

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