If we can avoid the supermarket and make things ourselves, we will. This is especially true if they are made out of home grown produce. Baked beans are really cheap from the shops but they are full of sugar, salt and additives. We prefer home made baked beans. During the summer we tend to make our own when we have lots of tomatoes and beans.
The beans that I use are borlotti beans as they grow in abundance in my garden. Haricot beans are what the commercial tinned beans are made from. Cannellini beans can also be used, and any small to medium bean, really, of any colour. I have known people cook podded immature runner beans in this way. If dried beans are being used they need to be soaked first before cooking.
The sauce can be made in any way that you like to make a tomato sauce. I am not writing down quantities as we make it out of what needs using up, and then add enough beans to make a nice combination. During the summer I tend to roast some tomatoes out of the garden with some garlic and onion in the air fryer. I then whiz it until smooth with a stick blender. Mean while I boil my fresh beans for 15 minutes. If you had canned beans with out a sauce you could add those to the tomato sauce. I simmer the two together for a few minutes.
When I haven’t had many fresh tomatoes I have made a sauce with tomato puree and onions, or a bit of left over tinned tomatoes. The thing about being frugal is about adapting to what you have. We have even added bits of cooked carrot to our beans to stretch them out. Other things that we have added for taste in winter, when we have not had fresh tomatoes, have been a bit of apple cider vinegar, some garlic or onion powder, and a bit of brown sugar. This picture was made with sauce made from fridge gravel in the winter.
Some people people like to add salt or a dash of Worcester sauce to their fresh tomato sauce, but we don’t bother. I have some wild garlic salt that I made in the spring that I like to add sometimes. In summer when the beans are abundant, I tend to blanch my beans for 3 minutes and then freeze in portions. This way we can make batches of baked beans all of the way through winter. I keep the home made baked beans in a large glass jar in the fridge for up to 4 days once made and use them for a few meals. I do not water bath to preserve them as they would need about 3 hours cooking on a rolling boil and so it is not worth it for me.
These home made baked beans come in really handy for our meals for the week. We have them on toast for breakfast or lunch, on a jacket potato with cheese, add cheese and chilli and make nachos, use them as a side dish with things like chips and sausage or an omelette, throw them in a pie with mince, or to bulk out a cottage pie, or add to a stew to thicken it. They are so versatile. Some times I just like a bowl full of beans with hot crusty bread in front of the wood burner. They are a bit of a comfort food for me, and full of protein and fibre. Just by adding a few herbs they can even seem posh!
What is your favourite thing to make with baked beans?
I’ve never made my own baked beans but it is something I’d like to try this Winter. I love baked beans with just about anything – hot or cold. Always tasty.
I couldn’t cope with them cold. For me they are one of those things that I never fancy (was a staple as a child), but I always enjoy them when we eat them.