Kidney Bean and Elbow Skillet
Pasta, beans, and tomato cooked down into one pot. Built from the cheapest shelf in the store.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 74
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Elbow macaroni | 2 cups dry | from a 16 oz box |
|---|---|---|
| Canned kidney beans | 15.5 oz can | drained; the liquid is not worth carrying |
| Canned tomato sauce | 15 oz can | |
| Canned stewed tomatoes | 14.5 oz can | sliced, with their juice |
| Carrots | 2 medium | they keep a week out of a fridge |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Onion powder and garlic powder | 1 tsp each | |
| Dried thyme and parsley | 1 tsp total | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Slice the carrots into thin coins. Thin matters; thick coins will still be hard when the pasta is done.
- Heat the oil in the pot and cook the carrots four or five minutes over a low flame, stirring so they do not scorch.
- Add the tomato sauce, the stewed tomatoes with their juice, and 700 ml of water. Bring it to a boil.
- Stir in the dry elbows. Keep it at a low boil and stir often, scraping the bottom, for about ten minutes.
- Add the drained beans and the dried herbs. Cook another three minutes until the pasta is soft and the sauce has tightened around it.
- Salt and pepper at the end, after the liquid has cooked down.
This started as a home dinner off a grocery budget list. Two changes make it work in camp: everything cooks in the pot the pasta cooks in, and the pasta boils directly in the thinned tomato instead of in a separate pot of water you would have to drain and dump. That saves a pot, a strainer, and about a liter of water.
The starch coming off the elbows is what thickens the sauce, so undercook the liquid rather than overcook it and stir the bottom often or it will stick. Carrots go in first because they are the only thing here that needs real time. Beans go in last because they are already cooked and will turn to paste if you boil them with the pasta.
Packing
Cans are heavy, so this is a drive-in or paddle meal, not a backpacking one. Premeasure the pasta and the herbs into bags at home and leave the box and jars behind. Pack the empty cans out.
Variations
- A foil packet of tuna or a pouch of chicken at the end makes it a meat dinner.
- Shelf-stable grated parmesan over the top if you are not keeping it vegan.
- Swap the elbows for gluten-free corn pasta and pull it off the heat two minutes earlier.
https://mealswithmaria.site/extreme-budget-meal-plan-2