I love baked beans. Absolutely love them. They're creamy (I know that sounds weird), and just full of all kinds of awesomeness. But -- have you ever looked at the nutrition facts on the back of a can? Holy crap! I would still heat up a can as an occasional treat, but it was something I avoided because of how ugly they are. It got easier when I found out about my tomato allergy, because they have tomato in them.
I was trying to pull something together quick one night and got a craving for baked beans. I had a can of Great Northern beans in the pantry and thought, "Why not? I'll try to get close." They ended up spicier than the canned version, but were still pretty darn good. Next time I'll tone down the spice a bit. I used some dehydrated onion flakes for flavor, but the consistency of the onions and beans together didn't work. So I modified that here to use onion powder instead of flakes.
Back when I was cooking a lot of vegan recipes, I learned pretty quickly that liquid smoke was a good substitute for "bacon" flavor in quite a few dishes. Liquid smoke is the key to capturing that pork flavor in the beans.
Ingredients:
1 can Great Northern (or Navy) beans, drained and water reserved
5 dashes Frank's Red Hot
3 T. brown sugar
10 dashes liquid smoke
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Bragg's Liquid Aminos
Sea salt & ground black pepper to taste
Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, then adjust seasonings if necessary. Simmer for about ten minutes or until sauce starts to thicken. If sauce gets too thick, add a little of the reserved bean water.
If the beans get too spicy, add a little more brown sugar to counter. Too sweet? Add a little more spice.
Makes about 3 servings.
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