Our family loves this meal.  There is something awesome and comforting about baked beans. There’s something even more awesome about homemade baked beans. 

If you like baked beans (or even if you don’t), you’ll most likely love this. Georgia doesn’t like canned baked beans, but she loves this! It’s just better than the canned variety. More delicious and more nourishing. A great ‘slow food’ meal. 

I use a bottle of pasta sauce for this, but you could use tinned or canned homegrown tomatoes. I have only tried this with bacon, but you could omit the bacon and use vegetable stock for a vegetarian dish. 

I usually serve our baked beans with River Cottage cornbread (similar recipe here) and butter. 

The recipe I’ve based this on is from Taste. 

Baked Beans

Ingredients

• 375g white beans
• 2 onions, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 3 rashers bacon, crushed 
• 1 500g jar pasta sauce (or canned diced tomatoes)
• 3 tbsp tomato paste 
• 4 cups stock (eg chicken, vegetable)
• 2 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tsp wholegrain mustard

Method

• Soak beans overnight or for 24 hours
• Sauté onion and garlic in 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• Add bacon and fry for 2-3 minutes
• Add beans and stir to combine 
• Add remaining ingredients and mix
• Bring to the boil
• Reduce temperature and simmer, covered, for 4 hours. Check that the pot us not getting too dry – if it is, add more water. 
• You can also bake this in a moderate oven for 1-2 hours, checking regularly. 
• It’s easy to make this in an electric slow cooker. Just add all ingredients to the cooker and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or on high for 4. 

Enjoy!