Recipe video above. This is seriously so similar to Heinz, it's scary! Except - no artifical flavouring, and the sauce isn't slimy which I really hate about canned baked beans. Make with DRIED or CANNED beans. Navy beans / haricot, if you can find them (that's what Heinz uses) otherwises any beans (preferably white).
Prep Time5 minutesmins
Cook Time30 minutesmins
Cooking dried beans1 hourhr
Total Time1 hourhr35 minutesmins
Course: Breakfast, Brunch
Cuisine: British, English, Western
Keyword: baked beans from scratch, baked beans recipe
Servings: 8- 10
Calories: 228cal
Author: Nagi
Ingredients
Beans - choose ONE (Note 1):
2 cups (14 oz)dried Navy beans (aka Haricot) or other white beans
3x 400g/14oz cansharricot/navy beans, cannellini or any white beans, drained
Baked beans:
2cupschicken stock/broth, low sodium, OR homemade vegetable stock (Note 2)
1cupwater
2tspWorcestershire sauce
6tbspketchup or Aussie/British tomato sauce(Note 3)
No need to do these steps if using canned beans, start with Step 1 under "Baked Beans" below.
Soak beans in a big bowl of water for 8 - 24 hrs, then drain.
Skim foam - Place beans in a large pot of water over high heat. Bring to a simmer, then skim off foam.
Simmer Reduce heat so it's simmering gently (medium or medium low). Partially cover with lid (leaving a crack for steam to escape), then cook for 1 - 1.5 hrs until just tender. (Start checking at 45 min). Beans should be still slightly firm on inside (they're cooked more in the sauce). Drain, use per recipe.
Baked Beans:
Mix - Place all Baked Beans ingredients in a pot (except beans) and stir, then add beans.
Simmer - Bring to a simmer, then lower heat to medium low and simmer for 20 minutes, without the lid. Stir every now and then so the beans don't catch on the bottom of the pot.
Thicken sauce:
Mix cornflour with water. Pour into pot while stirring, then cook for 2 minutes until sauce thickens - it will thicken quickly. (Note 3)
Check for salt: Taste and add more salt if needed.
1. Beans - navy beans / haricot beans (same thing) are used by Heinz. Smaller than Cannellini beans. But any beans will work just fine here, small to medium (eg cannellini, butter beans, Great Northern, baby lima.Australia - Haricot/navy beans are sold at some fresh produce stores (like Harris Farms) and also help-yourself health food places like Scoop (very good value too!). Coloured beans will also work just fine, it just won't look like Heinz.Dried vs canned - dried gives better flavour, see in post for commentary.Dried beans triple in volume so use lots of water when soaking. Soak for minimum 4 hrs (safest to soak for even, faster cooking).1 cup dried beans = 2 3/4 cups cooked. 1 can beans drained = 1 3/4 cups beans, so 3 cans = 5 1/4 cups beans. So 2 cups dried beans = 5 1/2 cups = approximately 3 cans.2. Chicken stock gives the sauce a better flavour because it has more complex flavours than vegetable stock because it's made from meat. It doesn't make this dish taste "chicken-like" or meaty once cooked. However, vegetable stock does work fine but for best results, I recommend using homemade vegetable stock (it's the easiest of all stocks to make, and really worth doing homemade).3. Tomato Sauce - If you're in the US or Canada, don't use what you call "tomato sauce", use ketchup (Aussie/British Tomato Sauce is a type of ketchup, that's what this recipe needs).4. Sauce thickness - The beans should be relatively thick so it can be piled onto bread without the sauce running all over the plate. If too runny, just keep it on the stove for a couple more minutes so the liquid reduces - the sauce reduces fairly quickly towards the end / when you take it off the stove.5. Storage - fridge for up to 5 days (I'm still making my way through the batch you see in the photos!), freezer for 3 months. (Note: if the sauce thins out after freezing, just reheat it with some more cornflour/water slurry. It should be fine, that's a "just in case" tip - sauces thickened with cornflour as opposed to flour sometimes lose a bit of thickening power after freezing).6. Nutrition per serving, assuming 8 servings.