MAPLE BBQ BAKED BEANS
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Maple BBQ Baked Beans topped with hemp hearts and microgreens.
Baked beans are total comfort food around my house. Hubby could eat beans-on-toast multiple days a week — for breakfast, lunch or dinner! Good news is, these homemade beans are nutritious, delicious, and super easy and inexpensive, too!
The ingredient list may look long, but these beans come together quickly and have a deep, rich flavour with a wonderful combination of spicy, tangy, sweet, and smoky.
This recipe uses pinto beans, which are the most popular beans in the United States. Pinto beans are a good source of many vitamins and minerals as well as plant-based protein and both soluble and insoluble fibre. One cup of cooked pinto beans contains roughly 15 grams of protein, 15 grams of fibre, and 75% of the recommended daily intake of folate. Consumption of fibre-rich legumes such as pinto beans may help to lower cholesterol, stabilize blood sugar, increase satiety, and improve digestive health.
Here I have used my Instant Pot. However, a slow cooker (for approximately 8 hours on low) would also work.
Ingredients for 8 servings:
2 cups dried pinto beans (or navy beans)
8 cups water for soaking
1 teaspoon salt
1 tsp avocado oil
1 cup finely diced white or yellow onion
1/2 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp smoked paprika
3/4 cup BBQ sauce (I like to use Good Food For Good BBQ Sauce)
1/3 cup pure maple syrup
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp tomato paste (or Good Food For Good ketchup)
2 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
1 Tbsp liquid smoke (optional)
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 cup water, vegetable stock, or bone broth
salt to taste
Directions:
Put dried beans, 8 cups water, and salt into a bowl and soak overnight (8 to 16 hours). Drain, rinse well with cold water, and set aside.
With instant pot on sauté setting, add oil, onion and red pepper. Sauté for 3 to 4 minutes. Add the cumin and smoked paprika and cook for another minute, stirring frequently.
Turn pot off and add BBQ sauce, maple syrup, vinegar, mustard, tomato paste, molasses, liquid smoke, and red pepper flakes. Stir well to combine then stir in soaked beans and 1 cup of water or stock.
Secure lid and cook on high pressure for 45 minutes followed by a natural pressure release (see note below*). Once pressure has been released, carefully open the lid, stir, and season to taste.
*Note: If using navy beans, increase pressure cooking time to 1 hour.
Maple BBQ Baked Beans can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a week or frozen for up to 2 months.
Maple BBQ Baked Beans on sourdough toast with vegan cream cheese, scrambled eggs, microgreens, watercress, hemp seeds, and flaked salt.
Maple BBQ Baked Beans made with navy beans and served on gluten-free toast with dairy-free smoked gouda spread, spicy mustard microgreens, and Eaton Hemp hemp hearts.