Homemade baked beans

By: Louise Fulton Keats
From: Something for Everyone
Serves: 2-3
Photographer: Ben Dearnley

Baked beans are a wonderfully nutritious food – homemade are definitely better than anything you’ll find in a tin. For a start, tinned baked beans tend to have extra additives, such as thickeners and salt, which are best to avoid where possible. Secondly, making the beans yourself means you can include a lovely serve of vegetables at breakfast time. The end result is so much healthier (and tastier) than even the best store-bought options.

Although not essential, adding tomato sauce may come in handy for children who are used to tinned beans, as it makes the flavour more like what they’re used to. Eventually, with a bit of luck, you can wean them off it altogether.

Ingredients

Quantity	Ingredient
400g	tinned cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
250ml	Five-vegetable pasta, omit pasta and parmesan
1 tablespoon	tomato sauce, (optional)
	wholegrain toast, to serve

Method

Place the beans, pasta sauce and tomato sauce in a saucepan over low–medium heat. Cook the beans, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes, or until warmed through. Serve the warm beans with toast.

Cooking dried beans

If you have dried cannellini beans on hand, soak them in plenty of cold water for 5 hours or overnight. Drain, rinse and transfer them to a large saucepan. Cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Scoop any foam off the top, reduce to a simmer and cook, partially covered, for about 2 hours or until tender. Keep an eye on the water level, topping it up if needed.

Baby’s serve

For a younger baby, blend the baked beans until smooth, adding a little extra liquid if needed. For an older baby, keep the puréed consistency lumpier – or you can mash or chop the beans instead of blending – so that he experiences more texture. You can serve toast fingers on the side as finger food.