Windbreak Sausage and Bean Skillet
A two-burner camp dinner built around a can of beans and a stick of summer sausage.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 80
- protein
- 31 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 120 ml cold
- 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
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Summer sausage | 6 oz | unrefrigerated until opened |
|---|---|---|
| Canned white beans | 1 can (15 oz) | drain, keep the liquid |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not a can |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper | 1 tsp total | |
| Instant polenta or couscous | 1/2 cup | optional, to stretch it |
Method
- Set the stove on level ground and turn the lid into the wind so the flame stays put.
- Cut the sausage into coins. Heat the oil in the pot on medium and brown the coins on both sides, about four minutes.
- Add the dried onion and the spice mix. Stir for thirty seconds, until the onion stops smelling dusty.
- Stir in the tomato paste and let it darken against the pot bottom for a minute. That step is where the depth comes from.
- Add the drained beans and about 120 ml of water or the reserved bean liquid. Simmer on low for eight minutes, stirring so nothing catches.
- If you want it to go further, kill the heat, stir in the polenta or couscous, cover, and wait five minutes.
Camp stoves lose more heat to wind than most people expect, which is why this cooks in one pot on low and never asks for a rolling boil. A windscreen or a propped lid buys back most of the fuel a gusty site steals.
The tomato paste is doing the work. Fried in oil before liquid goes in, it turns from sour to savory and gives canned beans something to taste like. Skip that minute and you get warm beans in pink water. The optional polenta is there for the night the drive ran long and two servings need to become three.
Packing
Premix the onion and spices in one small bag at home. Sausage, tube of paste, and the can ride together in a bin so dinner is one grab.
Variations
- Swap the white beans for pinto and add a spoon of chipotle paste.
- A hard cheese grated over the top at the end adds fat you would otherwise carry as oil.
- No sausage: double the beans and add a foil packet of tuna off the heat.
https://casambu.com/products/rechaud-a-gaz-2-cook-3-classic-stove-cadac