Stephanie Alexander's Baked Beans
- Ready In:
- 4hrs 15mins
- Ingredients:
- 16
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 375 g dried roman beans or 375 g dried red kidney beans, soaked
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, diced
- 3 garlic cloves, chopped
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 slices bacon, cut into 1cm wide strips (thick, streaky)
- 2 red peppers, cut into 2cm squares
- 1 green pepper, cut into 2cm squares
- 1 (400 g) can peeled tomatoes, don't drain
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1⁄2 teaspoon crushed coriander seed
- salt
- fresh ground black pepper
- 3 3 tablespoons golden syrup or 3 tablespoons honey
directions
- Preheat oven to 160⁰C.
- Rinse soaked beans, then put into saucepan & cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, then strain & rinse with cold water.
- Heat oil in a large enamelled cast-iron casserole & sauté onion, garlic, carrot & bacon. After 5 minutes, when onion has softened & bacon is sizzling, add red & green peppers.
- Puree tomatoes & juice in a food processor & add to casserole with beans & remaining ingredients, except maple syrup. Mix well. Add sufficient cold water to cover beans by 4 cm.
- Transfer casserole, tightly sealed, into oven & bake for at least 4 hours. Stir well after 2 hours, checking that it is still reasonably sloppy (if too dry, add a little water & reduce oven temp).
- After 4 hours, stir in maple syrup, extra salt & plenty of freshly ground pepper.
- The beans should now be in a rich sauce. If too thick, add a little water; if too runny & the beans are tender, increase oven temp & continue to cook.
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Reviews
-
Delicious and 600% better than the tinned variety. I used Borlotti beans (no probs) and also 100gms of lean bacon rather than 2 slices, omitted the maple syrup by mistake and cooked it in my electric New Wave 5:1 cooker for 5 hours. I soaked the beans in boiling water for half an hour before putting them into the cooker. The beauty of this cooker, compared with a conventional oven as per Stephanie's recipe, is that the lid is sealed tightly (even with vent open) so you need much less liquid. I will definitely cook this again.
-
Finally got hold of some dried Roman beans, since I didn't want to try the recipe with the kidney kind, then pretty much followed the recipe right on down, baking them at 320 degrees F, & they were great in the taste department, & a nice change of pace from the usual baked beans! Thanks for posting the recipe! [Made & reviewed for one of my adoptees in this fall's round of Pick A Chef]