White Bean, Sausage and Bitter Greens Soup
A Tuscan sausage-and-bean soup rebuilt from a dry bag: instant beans, hard salami, and dehydrated greens.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 15 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
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant white bean flakes | 3/4 cup | cannellini or great northern; whole dried beans will not cook in camp |
|---|---|---|
| Hard salami or dry-cured sausage | 2 oz | diced at home; a shelf-stable stand-in for fresh Italian sausage |
| Dried mixed vegetables | 3 tbsp | carrot, onion, celery |
| Dried mushrooms | 2 tbsp | crumbled small so they rehydrate fast |
| Dried dandelion, chicory, or kale | 1/3 cup packed | crumbled; any bitter green works |
| Tomato paste | 1 tbsp | from a squeeze tube |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | |
| Dried thyme, garlic powder, and a crumbled bay leaf | 1 tsp total | |
| Grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | the hard, dry shaker kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Put the salami in the dry pot over medium heat and let it sizzle two or three minutes until the edges darken and fat renders out. That browning is most of the flavor here.
- Add the dried vegetables, mushrooms, tomato paste, and half the oil. Stir for a minute so the paste toasts against the hot pot.
- Pour in 600 ml of water, add the bouillon and herbs, and bring it to a boil.
- Drop in the dried greens and simmer five minutes. Bitter greens need the longest soak of anything in the pot.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the bean flakes a few spoonfuls at a time so they do not clump, then cover for three minutes.
- Top with parmesan, the rest of the oil, and pepper. It thickens as it sits; add hot water if it goes past stew.
The original is a long-simmer soup: soak beans overnight, brown sausage, sweat a mirepoix, deglaze with wine, blanch the greens separately. None of that survives a stove that burns fuel by the minute. Instant bean flakes replace the overnight soak and thicken the pot on their own, dried mirepoix stands in for fresh, and hard salami carries the same rendered pork fat without a cooler.
Browning the salami first is the one step worth the extra minutes. Dry-cured meat has little water in it, so it darkens fast and leaves a fond that a bouillon cube alone will not fake. The bitter greens are the point of the dish, not a garnish, so give them the full simmer or they stay leathery.
Packing
Bean flakes in their own bag, everything else dry in a second bag. Salami, tomato paste tube, and oil ride separately.
Variations
- Skip the salami and double the mushrooms for a meatless pot. Use vegetable bouillon and leave off the parmesan if you want it vegan.
- Instant polenta or small pasta in place of half the bean flakes changes the body without adding weight.
- A splash of red wine vinegar at the end does what the white wine did in the original.
https://foragerchef.com/dandelion-soup