Campfire Stew

Requiring approximately 20 ingredients, Campfire Stew from Pinch of Nom is a meal that you’ll never make over a campfire. But sarcasm aside, this is one hell of a pot full that can be made in the oven, a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. Below is the oven method (which can take up to 3 hours), but you’ll find the other methods in Pinch of Nom’s debut book.

Some of you might better know this dish as ‘Cowboy Stew’. Whatever you call it, it’s not one you forget because there is literally something in this meal for everyone. The melt in your mouth gammon, the beans, the varieties of vegetables and the subtle spices. An absolute feast, and all for just over 400 calories. Once all the ingredients are in a casserole dish, all you need to do is check every 30 minutes or so to make sure it isn’t drying out and give things a stir, but mine contained plenty of liquid at the end of the cooking time.

You rarely see gammon based recipes in healthy eating cookbooks, so Campfire Stew made for a welcome and satisfying change. If you want an alternative gammon recipe, check out gammon with parsley sauce, which was too random for me but you might like it.

Recipe: Campfire Stew  

Calories: 409 per serving

Serves: 4

Book: Pinch of Nom

Prep time: Approx 30 mins

Cooking time: Approx 3 hours

Ingredients:

• 1 x 750g gammon joint (all visible fat removed)
• 3 mixed coloured peppers (deseeded and chopped)
• 2 onions (chopped)
• 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 1 tsp sweet smoked paprika
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 x 415g tin baked beans
• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 400g tin kidney beans (rinsed and drained)
• 1 celery stick (chopped)
• 2 large carrots (chopped)
• 6-8 button mushrooms (halved)
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of hot sauce

Cost per portion: Approx £2.08

Method:

Soak the gammon joint overnight in cold water if necessary. Drain and rinse.

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C / Fan 170 degrees C / gas mark 5. Keeping half of the sliced peppers to one side, add the remaining ingredients (including the rinsed gammon) to a casserole fish, stir well and cover with a tight-fitting lid.

Cook in the oven for 2-3 hours, stirring every 30 minutes or so and making sure there is enough liquid in the dish. After 2-3 hours, the meat should be starting to fall apart and sauce thickening. Remove the lid and, if necessary, continue cooking for a few minutes to thicken the sauce.

The meat should be soft and falling apart, but if it’s not, shred it in the casserole dish with two forks and mix well. Around 15 minutes before the end of cooking, stir in the reserved peppers, then serve.