I hate baked beans. The ones that come in tins. Loathe them. If there is a hell and I end up there, baked beans will be the only thing to eat. Nasty, nasty things, it’s the bean juice, tastes horrid and soaks into everything else. I have come a long way from the 5 year old that would refuse to have a tomato on her plate but I still refuse to go anywhere near baked beans.

However, lots of people have told me that proper baked beans (ie not out of the tin) are really nice and I happened to have a recipe for baked beans (in Small Adventures in Cooking by James Ramsden) and this month is all about new recipes and trying new things, so I thought I’d give it a go. I’ve now made these 3 times and yes, I’ve mucked about with the recipe somewhat. I’ve also made them slightly more liquid and in this version adding sausages and serving in with peas and green beans for dinner, they do work well without the sausages though and you could quite happily eat this on toast for dinner or breakfast, maybe put some grated cheese on top if you fancied

So I will eat baked beans now but only if they don’t come out of the tin! Next I’ll be eating raw tomatoes!

What

2 tablespoons of olive oil

4 sausages

2 medium sized onions, chopped

1 teaspoon paprika

180ml tomato ketchup (I use Branstons which I like much better than Heinz)

a few shakes of Worcestershire sauce

half a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar

salt and pepper

300g haricot beans (I’m guessing that if you bought a 400g tin, it will end up about 300g of beans, but because I didn’t use a tin I don’t know)

How

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Heat the oil in an ovenproof saucepan and brown the sausages

Remove the browned sausages and set aside

Add the onions and cook until translucent.

Add the paprika and stir in

Then add the ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and salt and pepper and let it heat up.

Add the beans and the sausages, mix it all together. (at this point if it looks too thick, I add some water, but the sauce does get more liquid as it heats up so don’t panic!)

Cover and cook for about 90 minutes.

Eat..