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Baked beans

Name: Baked beans
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 10 min
Yield: Serves 8
Cuisine: British recipes
Ingredients: 400g dried haricot or cannellini beans; 3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil; 2 red onions, finely chopped; 150g pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped; 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 400g can chopped tomatoes; 2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar; 3 tbsp cider vinegar

Published: 30 Apr 09
Updated: 18 Mar 24

Homemade baked beans are simple and cheap to make, and they certainly taste better than the canned versions. Make a big batch and freeze in portions for up to three months.

Try our Mexican baked beans too made with spices, chipotle paste and a little treacle.

Easy
May 2009

Test kitchen approved

Serves 8
Takes 10 minutes to make, 2½-3 hours to cook, plus standing and overnight soaking

Homemade baked beans are simple and cheap to make, and they certainly taste better than the canned versions. Make a big batch and freeze in portions for up to three months.

Try our Mexican baked beans too made with spices, chipotle paste and a little treacle.

Dairy-free recipes

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 260kcals
Fat: 9.5g (2.3g saturated)
Protein: 14.6g
Carbohydrates: 31g
Salt: 0.7g

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Ingredients

400g dried haricot or cannellini beans
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 red onions, finely chopped
150g pancetta or smoked streaky bacon, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp dark muscovado sugar
3 tbsp cider vinegar

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Method

Soak the beans overnight. Drain them, place in a pan, cover with fresh water and bring to the boil over a medium heat. Cook for about 45 minutes-1 hour until tender, then remove from the heat and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain well.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onions and pancetta and cook for 6-8 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomatoes, sugar, vinegar and 400ml water, then tip in the beans. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 1½-2 hours, stirring occasionally, until you have a thick sauce and tender beans. Serve the beans on toasted bread with grated cheese, if you like.

Recipe from May 2009 Issue

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving

Calories: 260kcals
Fat: 9.5g (2.3g saturated)
Protein: 14.6g
Carbohydrates: 31g
Salt: 0.7g

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Jackie Rawe says:

1st Feb 2022 at 2:20 pm

I’ve made these a number of times for my son who has a very pure vegan diet. I leave out the pancetta and bacon and I use lemon juice instead of vinegar as he doesn’t use vinegar at all and coconut sugar instead of muscovado. He hadn’t had baked beans for so long and he absolutely loved them. The beans were still a bit hard even after cooking them an extra hour 4 hours in the end. I now use pre-cooked cannellini (haricot) beans for this recipe. Thank you for this recipe.

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