Delicious Mexican Camp Bean Recipe to make on your next camping trip!

This post is all about camp bean recipe. Ayocote Frijoles (Purple Camp Bean Stew) is made in a chilli puree of ancho peppers, guajillo peppers, cumin, garlic, and oregano.

Move over red chilli beans! We got a new recipe for you if you're looking for a tasty and filling camp bean recipe to make on your next camping trip!

Try our 'Mole Ayocote,' AKA Purple Camp Bean Stew, and you will not be disappointed! It's tasty, vegetarian, and so easy to make!

Packed with the delicious flavors of ancho and guajillo peppers, cumin, thyme, oregano, and garlic, this will surely become your favorite camping bean recipe!

Beans are always an easy food to bring and make for camping. High in protein and easily filling, there's a reason why people choose beans during camping.

Why Use this Recipe for Camping?

About those flavorless canned beans, I personally don't like them because they are heavy to bring. Once I found this camp bean recipe, it's a game-changer for my camping food experience. It's super easy, and you can make it at the campsite. I always prefer to make the red chili puree at home and bring it to the campground.

At the campsite, you just have to cook the beans, sauté some onions, and stir in everything. You don't need to bring much or a big load of stuff to make it. It's absolutely perfect, and your neighbors at the campsite will be fishing around to see what you're making!

Vegetarian Option

Originally the recipe is not vegetarian, but we will be making some suggestions to make it completely plant-based. I know beans for a vegetarian sounds boring, but trust me this combination of spice and peppers is incredibly flavourful and delicious. It will make you wonder why you have never tried this before!

Origin of the Recipe

I was traveling to a small town in Puebla when I came across this recipe, I went there to learn how to grow oyster mushrooms with a program partnered with the governments to help educate small rural towns about agriculture. The owner of the workshop is a woman by the name of Doña Mari. 

She quietly invited us over for brunch at her house, and introduced to us this delicious purple broad bean stew she calls "Mole Ayocote". Instantly fell in love with the deep flavours of this dish.

This authentic Mexican small-town recipe is so good! and probably a well-kept secret of a recipe too. I'm very grateful and humbled for the opportunity to share this recipe with everyone. 

What is Ayocote Bean?

Is a type of Mexican bean. It is purple in colour, and one of the bigger types of Mexican beans. In English Ayocote is also called runner bean. 

The taste of runner bean aka "ayocote" is savoury with nutty flavour - almost meat-like, with a very creamy and starchy texture. Which s a great replacement for meat for vegetarians. 

How do you cook Ayocote bean?

This broad bean can easily cook in an Instant Pot or a pressure cooker.

1. Instant Pot, rinse the dried beans in tap water and fill it with 1/2 litre of water. Set the mode to "Pressure Cook" and set the timer to 40 minutes. Close the lid with the valve on. After the timer sets off, let the beans sit until the valve naturally unlocks itself. 
2. Pot on the stove, rinse the dried beans in tap water and fill it with 1L of water. Boil the beans until it is tender. It can take up to 45 minutes depending on the size. After 45 minutes test the bean if the inside is soft. If you need more time, give it an extra 10 minutes and you may need to add a bit more water to the pot.

Pro Tip: Soak the beans overnight, and cook them in a pressure cooker for 25 minutes. Once it is soaked, it is much easier to cook and less time to wait for the beans to cook. 

The pressure cooker I use and love is the Instant Pot 7-in-one Duo. 

How to cook beans while camping

My most favourite cooking vessel to use while camping is a Dutch Oven. A campfire edition dutch oven is the BEST investment you can make. Yes, it is heavy and bulky but you can do anything in that thing. And making beans over the campfire is one of them. 

Fill the dutch oven with water and hang it over the campfire. You may also lay it down on a campfire grate over a fire. Put in the beans and cook for 45 minutes. Control the heat by adding fuel to the heat to increase the temperature. Add water inside the dutch oven whenever possible. Lack of water will burn the beans over time. 

Where can I find Ayocote beans?

There are many variables and types of ayocote beans. We are using the purple broad beans. If you can't find any purple broad beans, any other broad beans will do except fava beans. Fava beans have their own strong distinctive taste which is not what we are looking for. 

Easy recipe with 3 steps

• Cook the beans
• Make the red chilli puree
• Cook the onion with manteca (animal lard), and combine everything together. 

Why You will like this recipe

• Great vegetarian option - no meat in this recipe! You'll be surprised how delicious and hearty this camp bean recipe is with minimal ingredients.
• Authentic Mexican flavour - with the peppers and spice, you get the full Mexican experience from this dish.
• Delicious - the flavour is so tasty, and the colour of the ayocote beans in the stew is gorgeous with brilliant red colour!
• Easy to make at campgrounds - I don't like to bring a lot of stuff to make food at campgrounds, and this requires very minimal packing, as long as you make the red chilli puree at home. The chilli peppers has a smokey taste to it, and its honestly the best campfire bean recipe. Simple instructions, easy ingredients and a delicious meal!

Ingredients for this purple camp bean recipe

ancho peppers

When you see the red colour of the stew, you could be certain the colour came from tomato paste or tomatoes. But the true red warm colour of this bean stew comes from the ancho pepper. It is not spicy but uses mostly as a colouring agent for Mexican food like pozole and red enchiladas sauce. 

Guajillo peppers

This pepper is slightly spicy, not not a lot. For dried guajillo pepper we always discard the seed and the stem. Only use the flesh, so we are keeping the flavour but kicking out the heat. We are using both long and short guajillo. why? I am not sure - I tried asking, but my Spanish isn't that good yet. 

cumin

This recipe has a strong taste of cumin. It is a well-known spice used in Mexico and it is called "Comino." 

oregano

There are many different types of oregano. Try to use Mexican oregano. The smell and taste are stronger compared to their oregano and it has a stronger earth tone to it.

Manteca

In English is simply animal fat/lard. In small towns around Mexico, Manteca is cheaper than cooking oil like canola or sunflower oil, so most people in small towns would use animal lard instead of cooking oil. Obviously animal fat also tastes delicious, so it's very common to find people in small rural towns to use animal fat more often. 

You can replace Manteca with your regular cooking oil.

Professional Tips for No-Fail Recipe

Pro Tip #1: soak the beans overnight

If you want to cook the beans after in the Instant Pot, soak them overnight and you can reduce the cooking time by half! This is something I always do if I know I know I am making beans the next day.

Pro Tip #2: cook it in a pressure cooker

I love using the pressure cooker to cook my beans because they always cook perfectly in it, and it doesn't take that long! 

Dried beans in the Instant Pot will take from 37-42 minutes, depending on the size.

Well-soaked beans in the Instant Pot will take from 15-25 minutes, depending on the size. 

Pro Tip #3: Keep the bean water

After the beans are finished cooking in the Instant Pot, you'll be left with some water. Don't throw it away! The bean and the sauce will have to cook for 30 minutes on the stove, and to make the sauce more flavour, we add in some of this reserve water to the stew. 

Pro Tip #4: Lightly toast the chilli peppers

Want to add more flavour to the sauce? Give it a light toast on the outside skin of the guajillo and ancho peppers. The smokey flavour really comes through once the skin is toasted. 

After toasting it, add some hot water to the peppers, and soak them for 10 minutes. 

Ideas on how to serve mole ayocote

There are many ways of eating Mole Ayocote while camping! Some examples are:

• Bread - got some extra bread lying around? Use the bread to dip into the sauce and soak it all up while you eat the beans with the spoon.
• Rice - Lay this purple camp bean on top of some rice and sauce! The best and most simple supper.
• Mashed potato - serve it with mashed potato and veggies on the side. Don't forget to drizzle it with its red tasty sauce as well.
• Vegetable - have it with some rice and vegetables and you got yourself a full and complete meal right there!

This post Was all about camp bean recipe.