Campfire Pot Sausage and Bean Stew
One deep pot over coals, smoked sausage, and beans that do the thickening for you.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 62
- protein
- 27 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- 400 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
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Shelf-stable smoked sausage | 12 oz | the dry-cured kind that lives in a pantry, not the refrigerated kind |
|---|---|---|
| Canned white beans | 2 cans, 15 oz each | do not drain, the starch in the liquid is the thickener |
| Tomato paste | 3 tbsp | tube travels better than a can |
| Dried onion flakes | 3 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 2 tsp | |
| Bouillon | 2 cubes | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals and set the pot on a grate. Flames will scorch the tomato paste before anything else cooks.
This is built around a wide, deep pot on a grate over coals, which is a slow and uneven heat source. Everything here tolerates that. The sausage is already cooked and cured, so it only needs to render and brown. The beans are already soft, so overcooking them just makes the stew thicker.
The canning liquid is the reason there is no flour or roux. Simmered down, it turns starchy and coats the sausage fat into something closer to a gravy. Skip the paprika and the tomato paste and you have beans in hot water; those two are carrying the whole flavor.
Packing
Cans, sausage, and the spice jar go in one bin. Premix the onion, garlic, paprika, and pepper into a single small container at home so camp is two openings instead of five.
Variations
- Swap the white beans for pinto or kidney and it becomes a chili with a different accent.
- A handful of instant potato flakes at the end tightens it up if the fire ran hotter than planned.
- No sausage: double the beans and add a foil packet of chicken.
https://primusequipment.com/products/campfire-cookset-stainless-steel-large