VEGAN BAKED BEANS
I went plant based for a few weeks and my challenge was to make dishes I usually enjoy vegan. Some were successful, some were not. These baked beans however are awesome. I love having baked beans with and egg and toast on weekends. Since I would be omitting the egg and basically having beans and toast, I decided to add some veggies to the beans to make it more substantial.
VEGAN BAKED BEANS
Ingredients
- 2 cans baked beans in tomato sauce
- 4 plant-based sausages recommended: Beyond Meat
- 1 red onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 2 red chilies minced
- ½ cup cremini mushrooms sliced
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1 cup baby spinach
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Remove casings from the sausages and break up and put in a pot.
- Turn on heat to medium and let sausages fry.
- Add the onions. Let fry till softened.
- Add the garlic, chilies, and mushrooms. Mix well.
- Deglaze the pot with the vinegar. Stir to make sure you get all the brown bits – that's all flavour.
- Add the spinach and let wilt.
- Add the baked beans. Fill one can up half way with water and add to the pot. Mix well.
- Add salt and pepper if needed.
- Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes.
- Serve with toast.
Notes
Why do I start with a cold pot?
This is a technique I use so I’m not adding extra fat. Sausage have fat in them and if they starting slowly cooking as the pot warms up, they release their fat which in turn fries the sausage and the veggies.
If you put it on a preheat pan, the sausages will sear, which is nice but not needed for this recipe.
I leave the salt and pepper to the end because the sausage and baked beans have salt, so you have to salt accordingly as every brand will have different salt levels.
As for the pepper, we are adding chilis so it may be spicy enough. It’s your preference.