Greedy Girl : Best Baked Beans Ever!

Summa Summa Summa time!

Did I leave the best for last? I’m pretty sure I did. You can almost bet money that baked beans will be at the next summer BBQ you attend. I can assure you however, that they won’t be like this. You know I had to add my own little special twist to the traditional fare as usual. In the case of these beans think zest!

As a lover of baked beans it’s interesting to note that this is my first baked beans recipe. Normally I’m the girl who buys the canned versions with no shame whatsoever. I love Bushes, Heinz and even Grace Foods BBQ backed beans is delicious. While all delicious they generally all taste the same. My recipe uses orange zest and juice to transform the traditional bbq baked beans. And the addition of the orange to the mix really brightens things up.

This is probably the second time I am preparing a recipe the same day I am posting. I decided to spend the weekend in a garden paradise and abandon my cooking duties. However I do realize this save it to the day cooking thing does not work for me. I had to get up super early to go get the beans, and turns out they didn’t even have the beans I wanted (great northern beans) however I made due with the pinto beans I found.

All in all it’s a great end to summer side dishes month. You guys have a plethora of yummy stuff to choose from. So if you’re throwing a BBQ or taking a dish to one, don’t forget I got you covered.

Ingredients (printable recipe)

2 tablespoon coconut oil

2 medium onions

3 garlic cloves

1 tablespoon fresh rosemary

2 oranges (zest and juice)

1 cup ketchup

¼ cup molasses

½ cup brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon smoked paprika

1 ¼ tablespoon liquid smoke

2 can pinto beans

Instructions

Preheat oven to 300 degrees
Cut the onions into fine bits
Finely chop the rosemary leaves
Shred the garlic cloves
Remove Zest from the oranges
In a cast iron pot or Dutch oven heat the coconut oil and sauté the onions, garlic, rosemary, and orange zest
Strain the canned beans and set aside
In a bowl combine the juice from the 2 oranges, ketchup, molasses, sugar, salt, smoked paprika and liquid smoke. Stir until sugar and molasses are dissolved completely
Pour the liquid mixture and the beans into the sauté onion mixture
Place in the oven covered for 2 hours
Remove the cover and cook for another two hours uncovered to thicken up and develop a rich dark color
Serve when slightly cooled or at room temperature

Greedy Tips:

Great northern beans, navy beans or cannellini beans would be the ideal beans for a baked bean recipe. But as luck would have it I found none. So I used Pinto beans and they worked out just fine, they are a little larger than the traditional baked bean size but still turned out great.

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