Lasagna Soup for the Camp Pot
Everything lasagna does, minus the layering, the oven, and the refrigerator.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 83
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 min
- water
- 900 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
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 1/2 lb | lean; keep it cold until it goes in the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Italian sausage | 1/2 lb | bulk, not links |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried minced onion | 3 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 3 cloves | or 1 tsp granulated |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | the squeeze tube keeps without a fridge |
| Jarred marinara | 2 cups | a pouch travels better than glass |
| Chicken bouillon | 3 cubes | makes 4 cups of broth |
| Dried oregano and basil | 1 tsp each | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Lasagna noodles | 6 sheets | snapped into quarters at home |
| Dried spinach flakes | 1/4 cup | or skip it |
| Parmesan | 1/2 cup grated | the shelf-stable green-can kind is fine |
| Mozzarella | 4 oz | low-moisture block, cut into cubes |
Method
- Brown the beef and sausage in the pot over a strong flame, breaking it up as it goes. Salt and pepper it while it cooks. Tip the grease off into your trash bag, not the dirt, and set the meat aside in a mug or bowl.
- Put the oil in the pot and add the dried onion, garlic, and 1/4 cup of water. Two minutes, until the onion softens and stops smelling like dust.
- Stir in the tomato paste, marinara, oregano, basil, and pepper flakes. Add 900 ml of water and crumble in the bouillon.
- Bring it to a boil, drop in the noodle pieces, and back the heat down. Stir every couple of minutes so nothing welds itself to the bottom. Twelve to fifteen minutes until the pasta bends easy.
- Add the spinach flakes and the browned meat. Two more minutes off high heat.
- Kill the flame, stir the parmesan through, and drop the mozzarella cubes on top. Lid on for a minute, then serve while the mozzarella is still stringing.
Lasagna is a layering problem, and layering needs an oven you do not have. Take the same ingredients, boil them together, and you land in the same place with one pot and one burner. The noodles cook directly in the broth, which means the starch they shed thickens the soup instead of going down a strainer.
The cheese is the part that has to change on the trail. Ricotta is a fridge item and a poor traveler, so this drops it and leans on grated parmesan stirred through plus cubed low-moisture mozzarella melted on top. Dried onion and spinach save cooler space and rehydrate fine in a pot that is already wet. The meat still needs a cooler for day one or two — if you are past that, use the pepperoni swap.
Packing
Snap the noodles at home so they fit a quart bag flat. Onion, herbs, pepper flakes, and crumbled bouillon go in one small bag. Meat and mozzarella ride in the cooler; everything else lives in the food bin.
Variations
- Skip the meat and add a handful of dried mushrooms with the noodles. Use vegetable bouillon.
- No cooler: swap both meats for two pouches of shelf-stable pepperoni or a can of chicken, added at the end.
- Any short pasta works if you would rather not deal with snapping sheets.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/lasagna-soup