Ultimate winter comfort food, baked beans are fantastic for breakfast lunch or dinner. Match them with fried eggs for breakfast, melt cheese on top for lunch and serve with crusty bread and wilted spinach for dinner.
Making them yourself is easy and delicious giving you (not Heinz) the creative licence to invent new flavours. Try adding Indian spices, Italian herbs, or smoky BBQ sauce, just to suggest a few.
Note this recipe needs to be started 1 day in advance. For a vegetarian version simply remove the bacon bones.
Ingredients
300g dried borlotti beans
300-500g bacon bones
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
400g tin crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon Worstershire sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
Salt
Pepper
Method
Place the beans in a bowl and cover with cold water and soak overnight.
The next day drain the beans and place in a large saucepan with the bacon bones and cover with water. Bring to the boil and reduce the heat. Simmer for 30 minutes making sure to stir occasionally to prevent the beans from sticking. Remove the bacon bones and drain the beans making sure to reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid.
While the beans are cooking pre heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
In an oven proof casserole dish, heat the oil and cook onions, carrots and celery for 8-10 minutes or until soft. Add the dried spices, tined tomatoes, tomato paste, reserved cooking liquid, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar and mustard.
Cut the meat from the bacon bones and finely shred and add to the beans. Cover the casserole dish with foil or a lid and place in the oven. After 30 minutes remove the lid and continue to cook for another 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick and the beans are tender and the sauce is thick.
Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Serves 4 or can be kept in the refrigerator for 1-1 1/2 weeks.
Bon Appetite
5 comments:
Now we're talking!
Happy to be of help...
Jess, is there a reason we use dried borlotti beans instead of canned?
While canned borlotti beans are great to add to soups, salads or pastas. They are not so great for recipes that take a while to cook like baked beans.
The reason is that to preserve them in tins, they are kept in liquid making them soft and ready to eat. Instead it is good to soak and cook your own beans as they will hold their shape and texture in a longer cooking process.
Hope this helps.
Gotcha, thanks!
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