White Bean Chili Blanco
Cannellini beans, corn, and green chile, dried down to one bag and rebuilt with boiling water.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 22 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 600 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
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Dehydrate ahead
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cooked cannellini beans, dehydrated | 1 1/2 cups dried | two 14 oz cans, rinsed, dried until they rattle |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried corn | 1/2 cup | |
| Dried zucchini | 1/2 cup | sliced thin before drying or it never rehydrates |
| Dried diced poblano or green chile | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | stands in for four fresh cloves |
| Ground cumin | 1 tbsp | |
| Vegetable bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Cayenne | 1/4 tsp | or leave it out |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Pour 600 ml of water into the pot with the whole bag of dry mix. Stir once and let it sit five minutes off the stove. Cold soaking first cuts the fuel you burn later.
- Light the stove and bring it to a simmer. Stir often, low flame, or the bean powder scorches on the bottom.
- Simmer eight to ten minutes until the zucchini bends and the beans stop tasting chalky. Add water in splashes if it goes past thick into paste.
- Kill the heat, stir in the oil, and season. Let it stand two minutes before eating.
The original simmers canned white beans in ale for forty minutes. None of that travels. Dehydrated cooked beans rehydrate in ten and carry a fraction of the weight, and the beer goes away entirely — there is no shelf-stable version of it worth the ounces. Cumin, garlic, and green chile were doing most of the flavor work anyway.
Drying the beans is the step that matters. Rinse the canned beans well, spread them one layer deep, and dry them until they are hard; half-dried beans go rancid in a food bag. Some will break down into starch in the pot, which is what thickens this into chili instead of soup. The avocado is gone for obvious reasons — the oil replaces the fat it was there for.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag, oil separate. Two servings fit in one bag; split it at home if you are cooking solo on consecutive nights.
Variations
- A packet of instant refried beans thickens a batch that came out soupy.
- Lime powder or a squeeze of shelf-stable lime juice does what the fresh cilantro-and-avocado topping used to.
https://ohmyveggies.com/chili-blanco-with-summer-veggies-and-ale