Dutch Oven Tuscan White Bean Stew
Canned beans, sun-dried tomatoes, and herbs over coals. Thirty minutes, one pot, feeds four.
- calories
- 390
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 35
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 35 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow onion | 1 medium | diced at home, packed in the cooler |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | minced |
| Cannellini beans | 2 cups | one can, drained and rinsed |
| Vegetable broth | 2 cups | boxed, or bouillon and water |
| Sun-dried tomatoes | 1 cup | chopped; the dry-packed kind, not the jarred oil ones |
| Baby spinach | 3 cups | packed dry and separate |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp | optional |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Rake out a flat bed of coals and set the Dutch oven over it. Skip the tall flames. They scorch the bottom before anything cooks.
- Heat the oil and cook the onion until it goes soft, four or five minutes. Add the garlic for the last thirty seconds.
- Add the beans, broth, sun-dried tomatoes, Italian seasoning, pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Simmer uncovered about fifteen minutes. Stir from the bottom every few minutes. If it starts sticking, slide the pot to a cooler part of the bed and add a splash of broth.
- Mash a few spoonfuls of beans against the side of the pot. That is what thickens it.
- Stir in the spinach and pull the pot off the heat. It wilts in under a minute.
- Scrape the pot while it is still warm. Cold cast iron does not give anything up.
Sun-dried tomatoes are doing most of the work. They are concentrated acid and salt in a form that does not need a cooler, and they rehydrate in the broth while the beans warm through. Without them this is just beans in liquid.
Canned beans are already cooked, so the twenty-five minutes is about reduction, not softening. Mashing a few against the pot wall releases starch and turns thin broth into something that stays on a spoon. Keep the coals moderate and stir from the bottom, because cast iron holds heat long after you stop paying attention.
Packing
Measure the seasonings into one small container at home so you are not hunting jars in the dirt. Onion and garlic get chopped ahead and go near the top of the cooler. Spinach rides in its own bag, dry, and goes in last.
Variations
- A cup of small pasta added with the broth makes it a bigger dinner. It stops being gluten-free.
- Sliced dry salami browned in the oil first adds fat and salt.
- Swap the spinach for kale and give it five minutes in the broth instead of one.
https://camprecipes.com/dutch-oven-tuscan-white-bean-stew