Ham and White Bean Stew
A stovetop bean pot rebuilt around dehydrated beans and shelf-stable ham so it cooks in one pot in twenty minutes.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 113
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 600 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Backpacking
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dehydrated cooked great northern beans | 3/4 cup | cook and dry at home, or buy instant white bean flakes |
|---|---|---|
| Shelf-stable diced ham | 3 oz | foil pouch or a hard-cured ham chunk |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | paste concentrate carries the most flavor per gram |
| Dried onion, carrot, and celery | 1/3 cup total | soup greens mix works |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Italian seasoning | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried thyme and rubbed sage | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | the ham and bouillon are already salty |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the dried vegetables, bouillon, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, thyme, and sage.
- Simmer five minutes with the lid on. The vegetables need the head start.
- Add the bean flakes and the ham. Stir, then simmer another five minutes at the lowest flame that still bubbles.
- Kill the heat, cover, and wait ten minutes. This is where the beans finish; heat will not speed it up.
- Stir in the oil. Add water if it went past stew and into paste. Salt only after tasting.
The original is a slow pot: soaked beans, a ham hock, and hours of simmering to pull collagen out of the bone. None of that fits a fuel canister. The workaround is moving the long cook home — beans get cooked and dehydrated in the kitchen, so at camp they only need to rehydrate. The hock’s job, salt and pork fat and body, gets split between bouillon paste, diced ham, and a slug of olive oil.
The herbs matter more than they look. Sage and thyme are what make this read as ham and beans instead of generic bean soup, and dried versions of both hold their character fine. Add them at the start so they have time in the water. The ten-minute off-heat rest is not optional: bean flakes swell slowly, and stew judged before the rest is always thinner than what you end up with.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag: beans, vegetables, bouillon, herbs. Ham pouch and oil bottle ride separately. Label the bag, because dried soup greens all look identical in a food sack.
Variations
- Instant rice or couscous stirred in at the end stretches it to two servings.
- No ham pouch: a hard salami or summer sausage chopped in works and keeps longer.
- Skip the ham and use vegetable bouillon for a vegan version. Add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast to replace the savoriness.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/classic-recipe-northern-beans-ham-soup