Anyone like baked beans ? I like to eat them on toast and a sausage make a brilliantly quick and nutritious lunch.
Dried Cannellini beans are one of my favourite store-cupboard essentials and have so many uses. Homemade baked beans are easy to make, cheap and a world apart. And they certainly taste better than the canned versions. Make a big batch and freeze in portions for up to three months.
My tomato sauce is made with real tomatoes, rich with homemade garlic powder and chicken powder and any hard herb. As for the beans are not baked but boiled.
Ingredients
350 g Cannellini Bean
1 Carrot
Half Onion
3 pcs Bay Leave
Tomatoes Sauce
1200 g Cherry Tomatos
4 Tomatoes
Half Onion
6 pcs Dried Pepper Flakes
Herbs
1 Fresh Basil
1 Fresh Rosemary
Seasonings
2 tbsp Demerara Raw Cane Sugar
1/2 tsp Himalayan Salt
1 tsp Homemade Chicken Powder
1/2 tsp Homemade Garlic Powder
Instructions
1. Soak beans in water overnight.
2. Cherry tomatoes cut into half. Bake in oven 160ºC for about 1 and a half hour until the tomatoes are half dried. Blend with a food processing machine.
3. Cut onion to half, 1 half finely chopped. Big tomatoes diced.
4. Drain the beans. Transfer to a large pot. Cover beans with 10 inches of water. Add the beans salt and bay leaf.
5. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover the lid and simmer until beans are tender but not bursting, about 45 mins to 1 hour. Drain, and remove onion, carrot and bay leaf, discard.
6. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Meanwhile, hull the stems from your tomatoes and slice a shallow “X” in the bottom. Fill a bowl with ice and water and set it next to the stove. Working in batches, drop several tomatoes into the boiling water. Watch for their skins to start to wrinkle and split, 45 to 60 seconds, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon and transfer them to the ice water bath. Once cooled, transfer the tomatoes to a cutting board. Use your fingers or a paring knife to peel back the tomato skins. Coarsely chopped.
7. Heat oil in another cast iron pot. Add chopped onion, cook until little brown and tender. Add chopped tomatoes, basil and rosemary. Bring it to boil. Add baked cherry tomatoes. Blend it to tomatoes using a hand blender. Season with sugar, homemade chicken powder, garlic powder and salt.
8. Add tomatoes sauce to the beans and simmer, stirring occasionally, until tomato sauce thickens. Cover with lid and remove from heat. The beans will keep warm inside the cast iron pot. Dizzle with oil and sprinkle with Parmesan Cheese just before serving.
9. If the stew is made in advance, be sure to remove bay leave and let the beens cool before refrigerating. It can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. It should be reheated gently over medium-low heat.