Easy GF, Vegan Baked Beans
30 May
Oh, hey. Just bought you a ticket to Yum Town. Ready to board?
(Awkward silence.)
Sorry. But seriously. This is beyond words. Still, I am rarely without words, even if something lies far outside the bounds of them. (= I am really annoying.) So let me attempt to explain this to you. Did you know the secret to awesome baked beans is mustard? Yes. Many of you suggested I make this dish in a GF and vegan reconstruction for Memorial Day BBQs. I must admit, I was thinking the same thing. I tried making baked beans the other day by starting with tomato paste. No dice. Too tomato-y. If I have a fail in the kitchen, for some reason it seems like a statement about the state of my life more generally. Bad batch of baked beans = Katie is the worst thing ever and has no purpose. Yep. That’s why I need to write posts like my Think This, Not That series… I am a crazy=pants. So, anyway. I (wo)manned-up, and put my big girl apron on. I tried to summon all my baked bean wisdom and experiences. There was a lot of bacon in that zone, so I tried to go a little deeper… There has to be a (non-meat) secret ingredient, right? I remembered my mom always casually just squeezing half a bottle of mustard into her baked beans. Wait, I thought. Wait just a second. I know what I’m doing wrong here. I’m trying too hard to do this on my own. Think back. Use The Force.
What now, Baked Beans? I will slay you. And no pork necessary. Suckahhh.
Ingredients:
1 can (about 1 1/2 C) cooked white beans (I used Great Northern, but Cannelini or even Pinto would work too)
1/2 C water
extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion (I always use red, but do whatever)
1 large or 2 medium sized cloves garlic
2 Tb ketchup (I strongly suggest this awesome agave-sweetened kind by Organicville. It’s rocked my condiment-loving-world.)
2 Tb yellow mustard (prepared — not the powder)
2 Tb molasses
1/2 t paprika
1/4 t garlic powder
salt, pepper, cayenne
Recipe:
1) Chop onions and add them to a stovetop pan with olive oil (I used about 1 Tb evoo) over medium heat.
2) Dice garlic, and add to onion. Sprinkle both with salt, and cook until almost caramelized (browned).
3) You should have a crust of residue from the caramelizing; add just a splash (2-3 Tb?) of water to “deglaze.” Remove from heat.
4) Add rinsed, cooked beans and sprinkle with salt (important to salt the beans, especially after they’ve been rinsed). Set aside.
5) In an 8×8 pyrex baking dish, mix remaining ingredients (I added just a sprinkle of cayenne — feel free to omit).
6) Add beans, onions, and garlic.
7) Place in a preheated 350* oven. Let cook until a nice little pseudo-crust has formed on top (~20/30 minutes?), and remove.
Yum Town arrival.
I will be the first to say I think these are even better if they sit overnight in the fridge. Aren’t most things? Especially beans. Also, my husband thinks this dish would be additionally awesome with a higher ratio of beans — feel free to add more, of course! I like mine either way.
Edited to Add: Also, I would strongly recommend doubling, tripling, or quadrupling this recipe. It’s ridiculous. One person already made this and said: “Dude…those baked beans were out of control good. Only thing I would do differently is double the recipe!” So. Take the wonderful Hilary Tina’s advice. She knows what she’s talking about. : )
I was aiming for a flavor similar to the Busch’s of old, but I think I might actually prefer some extra mustard for tang. The wonderful part of this dish is that you can easily adapt it even after it comes out of the oven. Try a taste. Not zingy enough? Add more mustard. Not sweet enough? Add a glop more molasses and/or ketchup. It’s a beautiful thing, this dish. A beautiful, tasty thing.
Featured in Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
Have a great (Memorial) day! What are you cookin’ up (activity-wise, and food-wise)?
I love baked beans — seriously I could eat them every day. I’ve only had the premade canned stuff so I can imagine a home prepared version tastes even better.
Have a great day!
They really are awesome! And if you have the ingredients on hand, so fast, easy, simple, and cheap!
I LOVE baked beans! As do the boys. These look delicious! I need to get ahold of that ketchup! It sounds delicious!
The ketchup is a little steep price-wise, but so, so worth it!
I am so going to make these tonight! I love homemade baked beans. Thanks for the recipe!
You betcha! We were near tears when they were all gone. Which was about 5 minutes later.
Let me know how it goes!
Katie, that recipe looks great. I’m am adding to my list of to-makes! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Caitlyn! Let me know what you think!
Ooooh, I love baked beans! Love all those flavors in there
Thanks Heidi! Seriously, these are awesome. I hate to toot my own horn, but I got lucky with this recipe!
Do baked beans in Amorik come with meat in them? Over here they’re alllwaaays veggie (at least to my knowledge!). You crazy folks from the US of A :/
Yours look stellar!
Sadly, many of them do have meat in them… I know. We ARE crazy! Do you eat beans on toast? I hear that’s all the rage across the pond! Wondering if I should try these on (GF) toast!
Beans on toast is like a classic Brit dish :-p I verrry rarely have it though – not my thang. But my sister LOVES it, and basically 90% students live off baked beans and Pot Noodle :/
These look so good!
Definitely a must try!
They are one of the best things I’ve ever made, in my not-so-humble-opinion
Let me know if you give ‘em a go!
Problem with night time reading of your blog…makes me want to make up a second supper! I had portabello pizzas tonight for my first memorial day in the states and it was amazing!
LOL! Mmm…portobello pizza. Yes please.
I made some plain old boring black beans this weekend, but now I want your baked beans instead. Wait, that sounded dirty. That’s not how I meant it. Anyways, they look really delicious!
Ha! Hope you love em
This looks perfect for summer cookouts! I’m absolutely terrible at cooking and seasoning beans, but I’m tired of the salty, sugary (and not to mention expensive) ones from a can – I’ll have to try this out ASAP!
It is one of the best things I’ve ever cooked, I think!
This is much richer in flavor than the canned baked beans; instead of just having the flavor of high fructose corn syrup and salt, you get more complexity. It is so good! Hope you love it!
When you say “mustard” – is that mustard powder or prepared mustard? These look wonderful – I love baked beans.
Hi Nancy! It’s prepared mustard. I’ll go edit the post so it’s not confusing. Thanks for catching that!
Hope you love ‘em!
I haven’t had baked beans in so long….will have to make some soon! I didn’t know about the agave-sweetened ketchup. I’ve been making my own for quite some time sweetened with brown rice syrup. Thanks for linking up to Slightly Indulgent Tuesday. See you next week!
Hugs,
Amy
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that you host it each week, Amy. Thank you! <3
Well you’re totally right about the beans. I thought I’d be making breakfasts for 2 days. Sadly no. All gone. The onions really make it. And I can’t do much salt but salting the beans would have tasted even better. I used little white beans because that’s what I had in the pantry, but next time I’ll use Northern beans, maybe even lima beans for that creaminess.
I know, the only downside really is that this recipe is kind of small! Ours disappeared in an hour. No joke. So glad you enjoyed ‘em!
Okay Katie… I’m back with the verdict. The beans were so good! We loved them. I had both pinto and navy beans in the freezer and mixed them. The recipe was so easy and in no time, my kitchen smelled like something really amazing was cooking! I also knew that we would want more than one batch, so I doubled it and I’m glad that I did!
I saw your mention about beans on toast. We have a crepe restaurant in town that makes gluten free crepes- and a couple of their selections have baked beans in them. After trying these crepes, I made some of my own at home. My kids thought it was a little strange, but they gobbled them up! You should try it for sure!
Shelby, thank you so much for coming back and letting me know! It made me so happy to read that you loved this recipe as much we did
I might just have to try the crepe idea!
Made the baked beans tonight. Yum! Easy and hubby loved them. Winner!
Yay! This is one of my personal favorites
Thanks for letting me know Chris!
OMG… I made these and they are soooooooo good!! My bf thoroughly enjoyed them, too. I have always been apprehensive to make baked beans, fearing they will never compare in taste to my mother’s recipe. However, my mom’s baked beans are so high in sodium, fat, and sugar that it is best to only consume them once or twice a year on holidays. Plus, I try to avoid bacon as much as possible so this recipe was a godsend. And though different from my mom’s version, they could definitiely give her’s a run for their money. Thanks so much for another delicious dish!
Shauna, thank you so much for this comment! It made my day! The fact that they passed not only the Mom’s-recipe-test, but also the BF taste-test, = totally awesome. YAY! I hope you enjoy the recipe for many meals to come
xo
Me and my family love beans a lot! Thanks for a great recipe!