Sausage and Bean Beer Stew
Two cans of beans, a browned sausage, and enough beer to loosen it up. Camp-table cooking, not pack cooking.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 49
- protein
- 26 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Smoked sausage | 1 lb | kielbasa or andouille; already cooked, so it only needs color |
|---|---|---|
| Canned white or pinto beans | 2 cans (15 oz each) | do not drain, the liquid is the body of the stew |
| Tomato paste | 1 heaping tbsp | tube travels better than a can |
| Onion | 1 small, diced | |
| Beer | 1 bottle | lager or amber; skip anything hoppy, it turns bitter |
| Cooking oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Set the pot on the grate and heat the oil. Add the onion and cook until it goes soft and clear, about five minutes.
- While that happens, cook the sausage over the fire, on the grate or on a stick. You want char, not doneness.
- Pour both cans of beans into the pot, liquid included. Bring it to a simmer.
- Add beer in splashes, stirring between each one, until the pot is loose but not soupy. You may not use the whole bottle.
- Stir in the tomato paste and break it up completely. Salt and pepper now, not before.
- Slice the sausage into coins and fold it in. Simmer five more minutes so the fat gets into the beans.
This is a car-camping stew and it stays one. The weight is in two cans and a bottle, none of which belong in a pack, and the fat in a smoked sausage is what makes the beans taste like a meal instead of a side.
The beer goes in gradually for a reason. Bean liquid is starchy, and adding liquid a splash at a time lets that starch thicken as it goes. Dump the whole bottle at once and you get bean soup you then have to boil back down. Tomato paste goes in near the end because it scorches on a fire grate faster than you expect.
Packing
Sausage and beer stay in the cooler. Cans, tomato paste tube, and onion ride in the food bin. Bring a knife and a cutting board lid.
Variations
- Cook extra sausage while the fire is hot and wrap it in foil for breakfast.
- A can of diced green chiles or a spoon of smoked paprika gives it more direction.
- Non-alcoholic beer works fine here. It is doing texture and malt, not much else.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/anciu-stew