Homemade Baked Beans

Baked beans are popular menu for breakfast and meals. Many of us rely on ready-made canned baked beans since they are easy to store and use. You just need to heat the canned baked beans before serving. However, these baked beans contain preservatives and salt in large quantity and make the recipe less nutritious. Though homemade baked beans require too much of time for preparation and cooking, they are healthy and nutritious. Moreover, they are also tastier than the canned baked beans.

If you use dried beans in your homemade recipe, you need to soak the beans overnight, while canned beans can be directly used while cooking. Try to use variety of beans in your recipe and you can serve baked beans with any meal like hamburgers, hotdogs, tortillas, etc. Here are two easy recipes for baked beans.

Ingredients

• Water, 4 cups
• Ketchup, ¼ cup
• Brown sugar, 2 tablespoons
• Maple syrup, ¼ cup
• Molasses, 2 tablespoons
• Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon
• Dried navy beans, 1 cup
• Salt, ½ teaspoon
• Chili powder, 1 pinch
• Small onion (chopped), 1
• Ground black pepper, 1 pinch

Procedure
Take a large vessel and place the navy beans in it. Pour cold water in the vessel to cover the navy beans 4 inches above. Let the beans soak for at least 8 hours or overnight. Then, drain and rinse the beans and preheat the oven to 375 °F.

Take a large saucepan, and place the soaked beans in it. Pour 4 cups of water to it and bring the mixture to a boil over high heat. After that, reduce the heat to medium-low and cover the saucepan. Let the mixture simmer for at least an hour.

Take a small bowl and combine the maple syrup, ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, molasses, and chili powder in it.

Stir the mixture properly and keep it aside. After simmering the beans for one hour, drain the beans and collect the liquid in a small bowl. Place the beans in a casserole dish and add the chopped onion and molasses sauce to it. Then, pour the reserved liquid over the beans to cover the beans by ¼ inch. Cover the casserole dish and bake the mixture in the preheated oven for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, reduce the temperature of the oven to 200 °F. Bake the beans for 6 more hours, and stir the mixture in between after 3 hours. Once the beans are cooked, let the mixture cool down for 15 minutes and then serve.

Ingredients

• Garlic clove (minced), 1
• Onion (chopped), 1 cup
• Olive oil, 1 teaspoon
• Bacon, 6 slices
• Pinto beans, 2 cups
• Baked beans, 2 cups
• Red kidney beans, 2 cups
• Great Northern beans, 2 cups
• Garbanzo beans, 1½ cups
• Ketchup, ¾ cup

• Pepper, ½ teaspoon
• Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons
• Yellow mustard, 1 tablespoon
• Molasses, ½ cup
• Packed brown sugar, ¼ cup

Procedure
Use canned beans for this recipe. Take a large deep skillet and add olive oil to it. Cook the bacon slices in the skillet until they turn brown. Then, drain out the liquid and reserve 2 tablespoons in the skillet. Crumble the bacon slices and place them in a large bowl.

Then, sauté the chopped onion and garlic in the reserved drippings of the bacon in the skillet. Once the onion slices turn tender, drain out the excess liquid, and add it to the bacon in the bowl. Then, add the crumbled bacon to the onion and garlic mixture.

Combine the pinto beans, northern beans, baked beans, kidney beans, and garbanzo beans with the bacon mixture. Stir to mix the ingredients properly. Then, add the ketchup, brown sugar, molasses, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper to the bacon mixture.

Mix all the ingredients to combine well and then transfer the mixture to a casserole dish. Cover the dish and bake the mixture in the 375 °F preheated oven for an hour.