Two-Burner Camp Skillet Beans and Rice
A dependable double-burner dinner: rice on one flame, beans and sausage on the other.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Long grain white rice | 1 cup | parboiled cooks faster and forgives a rough simmer |
|---|---|---|
| Dried refried bean flakes | 1 cup | |
| Shelf-stable smoked sausage | 6 oz | summer sausage or dry chorizo, no refrigeration needed |
| Dried onion and bell pepper flakes | 1/4 cup | |
| Tomato powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Cumin, smoked paprika, garlic powder | 2 tsp total | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp |
Method
- Set the pot on one burner with 500 ml of water and a pinch of salt. Bring it to a boil, add the rice, cover, and drop to the lowest flame you can hold. Fifteen minutes, lid on.
- While that runs, put the skillet on the second burner with the oil. Slice the sausage into coins and brown it over medium heat, about four minutes.
- Add the vegetable flakes and spices to the skillet and stir for a minute, until the spices smell like something.
- Pour 200 ml of hot water into the skillet, then rain in the bean flakes and tomato powder. Stir until it thickens, roughly two minutes. Add water a splash at a time if it goes past thick into stiff.
- Pull the rice off the heat and let it sit covered for five minutes. Spoon the beans over the rice, or dump the rice into the skillet and stir it all together.
Two burners change what is worth cooking in camp. Rice needs fifteen quiet minutes of low heat and nothing else, so it occupies the flame you are not watching while the real work happens in the skillet. Run it on one burner and you are waiting twice.
Everything here is dried on purpose. Bean flakes rehydrate in two minutes and carry a fraction of the weight of cans, tomato powder replaces a jar you would otherwise haul out and back, and cured sausage does not care about temperature. The oil is not optional. It is where most of the calories live, and it keeps the bean paste from setting up like plaster.
Packing
Rice in one bag. Bean flakes, vegetable flakes, tomato powder, spices, and salt premixed in a second bag. Sausage stays sealed until camp; oil goes in a leakproof bottle.
Variations
- Skip the sausage and the recipe is vegan. Add a handful of dried mushrooms for the missing savor.
- A packet of hot sauce or a squeeze of lime powder at the end cuts the starch.
- One burner works too. Cook the beans first, set them aside covered, then do the rice in the same pot.
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