This flavourful, nutritious recipe packed with vegies, beans and bone broth can be equally enjoyed as an instant cup-a-soup on the trail for lunch or, in an alternate chunky version, as a satisfying casserole in camp.

pot of delicious looking chunky soup — Dinner version with chunky veg and beans

Although ham hock meat can’t be safely home-dehydrated due to its high fat content, this recipe uses only the gelatin-rich but defatted stock, so you retain all the flavour: shredded, the hock meat is delicious to eat at home in sliders, pasta or sandwiches. Like many of our soups, this can be either powdered or kept chunky – both are equally yummy and filling. You can substitute with peas for a sweeter, more traditional pea and ham flavour, but we’ve gone with beans because they are higher in protein.

An array of fresh vegetables, spices on table with ham hock — All these in a cup in a flash on the track, or in a nutritious chunky casserole in camp… now that’s gotta be good!

Ingredients:

Man pouring sachet of soup powder into a pot of hot water mixing it with spoon — For the ham stock:
1 L commercial chicken stock
1 tbspn oil
1 large carrot, coarsely chopped
5 celery tops, coarsely chopped
1 onion, coarsely chopped
tops of 3 leeks, split, washed and sliced
1 fennel top and fronds, chopped
1 knob garlic, chopped
3 tbspn tomato paste
1 cup white wine
1 large ham hock
Parsley stems, chopped
1 tbspn or more dried chili or to taste
3 bay leaves
½ bunch thyme
1 tbspn peppercorns
1 cup verjuice
fresh chillies to taste
3 parmesan rinds (optional – they are worth saving in the freezer to add to soups like this)
20g dried shiitake or porcini

For the Soup:
2 large carrots finely diced
5 stalks celery finely diced
2 onions finely diced
3 leeks finely sliced, white part only
1 fennel finely chopped
300g potatoes finely diced
1 large bunch Tuscan black cabbage, destemmed, finely chopped
6 x 400g cans cannellini, red kidney beans and/or chickpeas, drained, liquid reserved
1 bunch parsley, chopped and/or 1 bunch spring onion, very finely sliced

Cheats’ clever hacks

Vegan hack: make this a vegetarian bean and vegetable soup by omitting the ham and using vegetable stock or, as suggested by reader G.T Whitlow, miso paste. It will still be nutritious, delicious and packed with protein from the beans.

Quick hack: Cook ham hock in commercial vegetable or chicken stock only, instead of homemade stock

Buy commercial dehydrated blended vegies OR

Puree and dehydrate tinned beans and cooked chopped vegetables. Powder and add to commercial pea and ham soup sachets for instant soup, or leave chunky and rehydrate with commercial pea and ham sachets in camp for dinner.

Method:

First, make the stock. Heat 1 tblspn oil over medium high heat in a very large pot. Add the coarsely chopped stock vegetables (onion, celery, carrot, garlic, fennel and leek tops) and stir until onion is softened and translucent.

frying core ingredients in pot to caramelise for extra flavour

Add tomato paste and stir well. Cook for a few more minutes, then add white wine, herbs, thyme, peppercorns, mushrooms and parmesan rind. Add ham hock, stir well, and add chicken stock, cold water and/or liquid from tinned beans to just cover (chickpea water or aquafaba in particular is very high in protein and should never be thrown away). Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer 3-4 hours, or until ham is falling off the bone. Remove hock, allow to cool slightly then shred meat, cover with a little of the fatty stock skimmed from the surface and use at home in pasta, sandwiches or sliders: it’s delicious!

pot of ingredients being brought up to the boil

Strain stock and allow to cool or refrigerate overnight. When cooled, remove all solidified fat from the surface of the stock and freeze it for future use in pasta, casseroles and soups.

Now make your soup. In a large pot, fry first six soup vegetables in 1 tbspn oil until softened. Add 1 tbspn plain flour and cook for another minute, then add stock. Bring to a boil, stirring and scraping the bottom. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 15 minutes. Add drained beans and cabbage and cook fifteen minutes more. Taste and season well. Do not add the chopped parsley/spring onions, keep them separate.

Hiker sitting on rock looking across to rugged sea waiting for pot of water to boil — Waiting for the water to boil…sourdough crackers at the ready. Cape to Cape track, Western Australia

If making homemade instant cup-a-soup:

If you want a smooth, instant soup, puree your soup mix with a stick blender, then spread the puree on lined dehydrator trays.

Place parsley/spring onion on a separate tray(s) and dehydrate.

Dehydrate everything at 62C (145F): although this recipe contains no meat pieces, it contains meat stock and must therefore be dehydrated at meat temperatures. Partway through, invert silicone sheets onto mesh and peel off so bark dries more thoroughly. Because it contains so many beans, it will be quite crumbly.

When dry, remove all dried puree/bark and powder in a spice blender. Return to lined trays and dehydrate another half hour or so to condition, then place in a large bowl.

Place dried spring onion/parsley in another bowl.

You’re ready for packaging!

If making a chunky casserole for in camp:

Place 1 serve of this chunky mix into a bowl and weigh. This is WET WEIGHT A. Drain (return the liquid to the soup) and place vegetables and beans on a dehydrator tray marked with a spoon.

Tip the rest of the soup into a large colander over a large frypan or wok. Drain well. Set aside colander of vegetables and beans.

pot of vigorously boiling stock to reduce liquid — The strained liquid from the colander is too wet to dehydrate easily but is packed with flavour, so we want to use every drop.

Reduce it by boiling in a large pan or wok.

pot with thickened liquid in it there are small chunks of pureed vegetables in it as well — Add a few spoonfuls of the chunky vegetable mix to the liquid and blend with a stick blender to thicken. It needs to be thick enough to not run off silicone sheets or baking paper in the dehydrator.

Spread the remaining chunky vegetables and beans onto remaining trays.

pureed mixture on dehydrating tray — Spread the blended mix on a dehydrator tray(s).
Place parsley/spring onion on a separate tray and dehydrate.

Dehydrate everything at 62C (145F): although this recipe contains no meat pieces, it contains meat stock and must therefore be dehydrated at meat temperatures. Partway through, invert silicone sheet onto mesh and peel off so bark dries more thoroughly. Because it contains so many beans, it will be quite crumbly.

When dry, remove dried bean and vegetable mix. Weigh marked tray: this is DRY WEIGHT B. Place all chunky vegetables in a large bowl.

Place dried puree/bark in a spice grinder and powder. Return powder to dehydrator trays or low oven for another half hour to fully dry.

Dehydrated puree called bark and the bark grinded into powder — Bark straight out of the dehydrator (right) and powdered (left).

I usually make a mix of instant cup-a-soup and chunky dinners by pureeing a significant proportion of the beans and veg, rather than just a small amount to thicken the strained liquid.

Finished product sorted into four bowls ready for packaging — You can see five serves of chunky veg in three bowls, plus some powdered in ziplocs to be added when rehydrating. The remaining powder in the bowl top left will be portioned into instant cup-a-soup for lunch (see below).

Packaging for two people:

FOR INSTANT LUNCH CUP-A-SOUP:

Make up a test batch in your cup as described here, omitting the milk powder, add dehydrated parsley and/or spring onion, and package 2x your test batch into vac sealed bags (or Ziplocs for short term storage). For a two-person sachet to make up two 400 ml cups, we use 55g-60g powder, 2 pinches each parsley and spring onion, and a pinch of salt and pepper, but making up a test batch at home in your own cup ensures your soup will be exactly the thickness, size and flavour that you prefer.

FOR DINNER CASSEROLE:

Into each vac-seal bag place

2 x B.

Parsley and spring onion, distributed evenly across all the bags.

Add the powdered stock evenly between bags.

Seal.

On the outside, write amount of water needed where 2A-2B = W+. You’ll need a little more water, say 100 ml, to cater for the herbs and powder depending on how much of the latter was added, but it won’t matter too much as you’ll simply have a slightly thicker or thinner casserole.

In camp or on the track:

For chunky dinner soup or casserole: Simply open the bag and pour in boiling water W+ . Stir well and place in a cosy for 20-25 minutes.

For instant soup, either:

distribute powder between two mugs. Pour in boiling water and stir vigorously with a fork. Wait a minute, stir again.
bring water to boil in pot. Take water off the heat and stir vigorously with a fork as you add powder to the water.

Either way, enjoy!

Ham and bean soup being poured from pot into cup it looks delicious — I forgot to add spring onions and parsley to this batch, but it was still delicious!

Homemade Instant Cup-a-Soup 2: Ham Stock and Bean Soup (or Dinner Casserole)