Do you have foods you eat and you’re immediately transported back to childhood? For me, one of those recipes to come to mind is Poor Man’s Stew. I eat it and I’m immediately 8 years old at a Sate Park, sitting around a camp fire with my cousins. The smell of smoke permeates all of my clothing and I’m slightly dirty even after a trip to the showers. Childhood bliss.
This page contains affiliate and non affiliate links for your convenience. Please read my full disclosurehere. All thoughts and opinions are my own and do not take them as any sort of medical or legal advice.
My uncle would sometimes reheat the leftovers a few days later, maybe a time or two. Mind you we had no real refrigeration. I assure you, we were all surprised at his iron gut. We affectionately refer to this reheated iteration as “homeless crap”. Do not be my uncle friends, let’s not make this a life lesson in food safety. If you’re wanting more info on my childhood camping trips, read my last blog post about why I am the way I am. But, I digress. I promise it’s fabulous and you won’t have leftovers for this questionable use.
I just made it on a recent weekend camping trip to Sleepy Hollow State Park. I’m so glad I picked there because my best friend who lives in Lansing and her family joined us for a night. I made this recipe for the whole crew. It was just as good as I remember and it was perfectly filling and warm. Exactly want you want for a late October camping dinner. Bonus my toddler liked it too.
What is this concoction you ask? Well as the name implies, it’s a beef stew. However, instead of using beef stew meat, you use ground beef, hence the “poor man” of it all. It’s a beautiful rustic mix of root veggies, ground beef, and beef stew mix. You par boil the veggies and toss everything into a foil with a bit of ketchup and cook it over an open fire. It’s like an epic mashup of meatloaf, a hint of pasty, and beef stew cooked over an open flame! Absolute yum.
It’s a pretty simple recipe. First off, get a pot of water filled up, as we’re going to led ourselves a helping hand and par boil the root veggies so they’re tender upon our campfire cooking. Don’t get it boiling just yet. We’re following the rule of where the veggie grows here. If it grows above the soil put it in the water at a boil, if it grows below the soil (looking at you potatoes and carrots) boil the water after adding the veggie. Note this prep work can be done at the camp site if you choose, or you can plan ahead and do these first few steps at home.
Then you need to peel and chop your carrots and potatoes. You can use a thinner skin potato such as a red or yellow potato and skip the peeling.This last time I was feeling a little crazy and added a bit of turnip as a nod to the epic pasties of Da Yoop. You could also add rutabaga, or parsnips, any root veggie you desire will work here. If you choose to make these additions, those too need to be peeled.
Once you have you have your root veggies peeled. Chop them into a medium to large dice. Approximately 2in by 2in cubes is what we’re aiming for here. You’ll also need to dice up some onion, celery and garlic. Mirepoix anyone? The onion and celery I would do a bit smaller at approximately a 1inch dice. The garlic can be minced.
Sautéing the onions, celery, and garlic in a cast iron pan.
When all your veggies are chopped up add the potatoes, carrots, and other root vegetables if you opt to use them, to the pot of water. Turn the stove on and bring everyone to a boil. We aren’t aiming for soft at this point, we’re simply speeding up the cook time once you’re ready to put on the fire. Knife tender is the perfect cook point. If you stick a paring knife into the veggies and it offers little resistance you’re ready. You should be here after 7 minutes or so of a rolling boil.
 |
| Par boiling the root vegetables to make sure they’re cooked through when cooking everything over the fire. |
Now my dad says he park boils the celery and onions as well, but I decided to tweak it just a bit, as a little caramelized onion flavor never hurt anyone. First I put a cast iron pan on medium low heat. Cooking in cast iron is a fabulous way to add a little more iron to your diet. Once the pan is preheated, I add a tablespoon of oil or butter to the pan. Your preference on fat, both options work here. Once your fat beings to sizzle add in the celery and onion. Cook for about 3-4 minutes and then add in the garlic. Cook until everyone begins to soften and it’s super fragrant, approximately 3 more minutes. If you’re doing these steps at home, cool off all your pre cooked vegetables. You can set them aside until you’re ready to assemble the foil packets.
 |
| Mixing together all the partially cooked vegetables before cooling to pack up for camping. |
When that time comes, you can either create your own foil packets or spend a little extra to avoid the hassle, and get the pre made ones. If you opt to DIY, pretend you’re making a giant envelope out of aluminum foil. Lay down a piece large enough to accommodate the filling on one half of the sheet. Leave about 2 inches around the edge to allow a seal to be made. Then fold over the empty half to cover the filing. Fold the 2 inch edges together and roll tight to create a seal. I recommend using the heavy duty kind. You WILL be sad if all your hard work falls into the fire because you used the cheap flimsy stuff.
Crumbling ground beef on a sheet of aluminum foil to make sure it doesn’t cook as one big lump.
Before sealing your packet, crumble up the ground beef a bit to avoid a giant lump once it cooks. Again if you’re making your own keep the filling on one half of the sheet. Sprinkle the beef stew seasoning mix and add your ketchup on top of the beef, and roughly coat the meat in the mixture. Wash your hands, and collect your par cooked vegetables. Add those on top of the beef mixture and again mix roughly. Wash your hands again and seal it up. You can make the packets in their entirety before heading out, or bring along the sum of the parts to put together at your campsite.
 |
| Mixing the veggies, ketchup, and seasoning into the beef. |
Once you’re at the campsite and ready to start cooking, locate your fire ring. When you have done that you have a few options. You can put a cooking grate over the fire pit. Build your fire, and let it burn for a few until you have some hot coals. I’m not going to get into the debate on what structure is the best for fire building, pick your favorite way to get the flames going. You can also put the packets directly into the coals. These packets will get a bit charred if you opt for this method.
 |
| Cooking the foil packets of stew in the camp fire. |
When your fire is adequately hot, place your foil packet on the grate. Cook for 30 min to an hour, flipping occasionally and ensuring your packet is being heated. Check to make sure the beef is cooked through and the vegetables are fork tender. The beauty is you can’t really overcook this unless you burn it. Cool off and enjoy by the fire, maybe topping with a bit more ketchup if that’s your jam. Hope you love it as much as we do!
 |
| Enjoying my Poor Man’s Stew by a warm campfire! |
Tell me how it goes when you make it yourself and any twists you add to make it your own!
Recipe
Makes: 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
6 medium carrots, peeled and diced
1 lb potatoes diced ( I used baby yellow potatoes to avoid peeling)
2 lbs 80/20 ground beef
2 large onions diced
4 stalks celery diced
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tbs butter
2 packets beef stew seasoning mix
4 tbs ketchup
1 tbs salt
Optional: turnip, rutabaga and /or parsnips
Directions:
1. Peel and chop all veggies. Keep potatoes, carrots and any other root vegetables used in a 2 inch dice, dice onions and celery in 1 inch pieces and mincing garlic.
2. Heat cast iron pan on medium heat, and melt butter. Add onion, celery, garlic and cook until softened 3-5 min
3. Add water and salt to a pot. Add diced root vegetables (carrot, potatoes, turnip/ rutabaga/ parsnip) bring to rolling boil for 7-10 min
4. Cool veggies and pack in container if transporting to campsite.
5. Lay out 2 large sheets of heavy duty aluminum foil. Divide meat in half and crumble on one side of aluminum foil. Sprinkle on beef stew seasoning and mix. Wash hands.
6. Divide vegetables evenly on top of meat mixture. Squirt 2tbs ketchup on each mound, and mix throughly washing hands again.
7. Fold and seal packet like envelope and place over fire cooking for 30-60 minutes until meat is cooked through and veggies are tender. Cool and enjoy with more ketchup if you desire!
Makes approximately 6 servings, 590 cal 33.3 g fat, 37.4 g carb, 29.5 g protein (this included 1 turnip which is marked optional in ingredients list)
Calories and macros were calculated using the free version ofMyFitnessPalwhich I am not affiliated with but use for personal calorie tracking.
