Smoky Black Bean Soup
Dehydrated bean flakes, bacon crumbles, and smoked paprika. A crockpot dinner compressed into one boil.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 500 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant black bean flakes | 3/4 cup | dried refried-style, not whole dry beans |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried mirepoix and bell pepper | 1/3 cup | onion, celery, carrot, pepper blend |
| Real bacon crumbles | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable kind in a pouch |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Cayenne | 1/8 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Lime juice powder | 1/2 tsp | or a wedge if it is a short trip |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | |
| Corn chips | 1 small handful | carried whole, crushed at camp |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Drop in the vegetable blend and the bacon and let it sit off the heat for three minutes so the vegetables take on water first.
- Bring it back to a simmer, then kill the heat and rain in the bean flakes while stirring.
- Cover and wait three minutes. It will look thin, then it will not.
- Stir in the oil, lime powder, and cilantro. Crush the chips over the top.
The original is a crockpot dish: dry beans, eight hours, a potato masher at the end to thicken it. None of that travels. Bean flakes get you to the same place because they are already cooked and mashed, so the thickening the masher was doing happens the moment they hit hot water.
The vegetables need a head start. Freeze-dried mirepoix rehydrates slower than the flakes do, and if you dump everything at once you get soup with hard confetti in it. Smoked paprika and bacon crumbles cover for the hours of low simmering you are not doing. Lime and cilantro go in last, off the heat, or the acid flattens out.
Packing
Bean flakes, vegetables, bacon, and every spice go in one quart freezer bag at home. Oil rides in a dropper bottle, chips in a separate bag so they survive the pack.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use vegetable bouillon for a vegan version.
- A pouch of chicken or a spoon of dried chorizo pushes protein past 35 g.
- Cut the water to 350 ml and it becomes a burrito filling for tortillas.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/smoky-slow-cooker-black-bean-soup