camp meals

Sausage, Apple, and Potato Stew

Sausage browned in the pot, then everything else on top of it. A cold-weather car camping dinner.

calories
620
weight
13 oz
cal / oz
48
protein
26 g
serves
4, scales
prep
10 min
cook
25 min
total time
35 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
  • Dairy free
  • Nut free
  • One pot
  • Grab and go
  • Needs a cooler
  • Basic

Ingredients

Pork sausages 8 any flavor; keep them cold until they hit the pot
Onion 1 diced small at home
Baby potatoes 1 lb halved or quartered, skin on
Carrot 1 large cut in fat coins, no peeling
Green apple 1 cored and cut in chunks, skin on
Dehydrated peas 1/2 cup
Gravy powder 2 tbsp or 1 tbsp flour plus a bouillon cube
Cooking oil 1 tbsp

Method

  1. Heat the oil in a wide pot over medium. Brown the sausages on all sides, turning them often. They do not need to cook through yet.
  2. Add the onion and let it soften for about three minutes.
  3. Add the potatoes, carrot, and apple. Sprinkle the gravy powder over everything and stir until nothing looks dusty.
  4. Pour in water until it just covers the vegetables, roughly 700 ml. Bring it to a low boil, then hold it there.
  5. Simmer 10 to 15 minutes, stirring now and then so the bottom does not catch. The potatoes are the timer.
  6. Stir in the dehydrated peas for the last five minutes. Serve straight from the pot.

The gravy powder does two jobs. It seasons, and it thickens the cooking water into something that clings to the potatoes instead of running off them. Toss it with the raw vegetables before the water goes in, or it clumps.

Apple with sausage sounds off until it cooks down. The chunks half-collapse and sweeten the broth, which cuts the fat coming off the pork. Skins stay on everything here, apple included: less prep, less trash, and the potato pieces hold their shape better with the skin holding them together.

Packing

Cut the onion, carrot, and potatoes at home and bag them together. The apple goes in whole and gets cut at camp so it does not brown into mush. Sausages stay in the cooler.

Variations

  • Swap the sausages for a shelf-stable summer sausage or a hard chorizo and this becomes a backpacking dinner. Slice it thin, brown it the same way.
  • Instant mashed potato flakes stirred in at the end will thicken it if the gravy powder is not doing enough.
  • Any firm apple works. Softer varieties dissolve, which is fine if you want the sweetness spread through the broth.

https://www.advrider.com/sausage-and-apple-stew