I love making dishes that can be used for breakfast, lunch and dinner. These homemade baked beans fits that bill perfectly. This is definitely one of my go to recipes from the bus. I usually make them at least once a fortnight. Today I am going to share with you how to make them, then how you can use for the different meals throughout the day. My inspiration for this recipe came from Quirky Cooking.
This is a simple recipe and a great one to get the kids cooking in a home economics session at home. Because I like making cooking easy, it starts off using the same ingredients and method as My Base Recipe (which I also use for spaghetti bolognaise, stir fries, soups, dahl and more).
Ingredients
- one brown onion
- at least one clove of garlic
- a stalk of celery – cut finely
- one small carrot
- thumb nail sized piece of ginger – grated
- thumb nail sized piece of turmeric – grated (omit if you don’t have but I add turmeric whenever I can get my hands on it because it’s good for keeping inflammation out of your body)
- a good pinch of celery salt*
- good grind of salt
- good grind of pepper
- 1 tblspn coconut oil
- 1 tblspn butter (omit if vegetarian)
- 400g cannellini beans**
- 400g five bean mix**
- 400g chickpeas**
- 400g passata sauce
- 1 tblspn rice malt syrup
- 1/2 cup bone broth or water
- 1 tblspn fresh herbs like basil diced finely
- Salt and pepper to taste
* Visit my base recipe to find out how simple it is to make your own celery salt
** If your family aren’t ready to have baked beans with a variety of beans, just use cannellini beans.
Method
- Blitz the onion, garlic, celery and celery in a food processor (or chop really finely)
- Heat coconut oil over medium heat, and saute the mix from the food processor for 1-2 minutes
- Add the grated ginger and turmeric, and saute for another 1-2 minutes
- Remove pan from the heat
- Drain and rinse the beans until the water runs clear
- Add beans to the pan and stir through
- Add the passata, rice malt syrup, bone broth, herbs and salt and pepper, stir through
- Place pan back on stove over high heat, and bring to a boil
- Turn down heat and simmer for 15-20 minutes until sauce thickens, stir intermittently.
Freezing / Storing
This recipe freezes well. It’s a great dish to prepare on the weekend and pop in the freezer ready for those nights when you know you are going to be rushed. Simply get out of the freezer the night before or in the morning, pop them in the fridge, then reheat later for dinner.
How To Use These Beans
There are so many ways you can use these beans. Here’s just a few of the ways we use them.
For breakfast
Toast up some sourdough and serve warm beans on the toast. You can even make it real cafe style and a poached egg, add some cooked mushrooms, and wilted spinach on the side. That will be $15-$18 dollars please!
Another great idea is to get 2 pieces of mountain bread on top of each other, place some beans down the centre of the wraps, add some cheese, some baby spinach, then fold the sides of the bread in. Then dry toast this in a flat pan over medium heat until the mountain bread starts to brown, then flip it over. There you have a breakfast burrito.
For the lunchbox
Oh our kids get so excited to have these beans in their lunchbox because add a good handful of natural corn chips so they can use them to scoop up the beans. But you could also include them on a sandwich or in a wrap. You could also use the breakfast burrito idea from above and include that in the lunchbox.
For dinner
Our favourite is to serve them in the centre of the table with a host of fresh vegetables all grated or cut up, along with lettuce cups (watch this short facebook live to see how I make lettuce cups). Then everyone fills their own lettuce cups with the beans, and whatever vegetables they want from the centre of the table.
You could turn these beans into nachos by serving with corn chips, shredded lettuce, grated cheese, sour cream etc.
Another way is to add a bit more broth to the beans, and cook them so they still have quite a bit of soupy sauce, then stir through some cooked quinoa. Serve the beans mixed through the quinoa in a bowl, top with some avocado and serve with a side of broccoli and green beans.
You can brown some mince and stir through the means to boost the meal up.
Turn the beans into pies
The Story Behind The Recipe
After a long day of driving, I can always guarantee this will be a meal which gets eaten without any complaints at the dinner table. There is never I don’t like that, everyone just digs in to make their own. And it’s dead simple to make, and when I am organised enough, it’s already made and all I have to do is just reheat it. For this reason, this is one of my favourite recipes from the bus.
Just a reminder, you don’t need to be a master chef, or have a big spotless kitchen to make awesome nutritious meals or snacks for your family.