These beans are the business and so so easy. The only thing is that you need to do a bit of planning in advance. At first I was a little worried about not sweating the onions first but trust me, this long slow cooking method gives them plenty of time to melt into the sauce.
If you want to make a vegetarian version just ditch the ham hock and if you have any, add a tablespoon of smoked paprika and a bit more salt to enhance the flavour. Without the meat this would probably only serve 5 hungry vegetarians.
Traditionally baked beans use maple syrup to sweeten. I’ve kept it more basic and used brown sugar but by all means substitute in the more authentic maple syrup if you happen to have it on hand.
Killer Home Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 500 g dried beans cannellini or navy
- 1 smoked ham hock approx 1kg or 2lb or 500g (1lb) piece bacon or pancetta
- 1 red onion peeled & diced
- 2 400g cans tomatoes chopped
- 3 T dark brown sugar
- 3 T worcestershire sauce
- 1 t wholegrain mustard
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- 1 t sea salt flakes
- 2 1/2 C water
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a large casserole dish and season generously. Stir to combine and cover tightly with a lid or foil.
- Turn your oven on to 140C (280F) and bake overnight for approximately 7 – 8 hours or until beans are soft and the sauce has thickened. If they look a little dry, add more water.
- Shred ham hock meat and discard the skin and bone or slice pancetta. Enjoy.
NOTE: This recipe pre-dates my 5 Ingredients philosophy
Variations
short on time – if you do forget to put your beans in the oven the night before, all is not lost. Use the fast track cooking method and bake at 180C (350F) for 2 1/2 – 3 hours instead. You may have a few split beans but they’ll still be absolutely delicious.
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These are so good Denise! Caroline will email you when it’s done 🙂
So I made these and they were amazing. I got an unsmoked ham hock so I added some of the smoked paprika and I left out the sugar (as I’m sugar free). I didn’t have worcestershire sauce (think it has sugar anyway) so I added a little tamari instead, was perfect!
oh yay Meriel!
So glad you liked the beans with the tamari… and great idea to add smoked paprika. Fergal loves these beans so I’ve been making them on a much more regular basis.
Jx