Thursday, 20 May 2010

Easy no-bake "Baked beans"

This is one of those accidental inventions. I was saving time by preparing my beans the night before and then cooking the next morning. And when they were done, they looked and tasted like baked beans! with no added sugar!

Ingredients:
Juice from 5 lbs of carrots
1-3 cups water
1 lb (16 oz, 453 g) white or yellow beans
1 medium onion
2 parsnips (optional)

The night before: Rinse the beans. Juice the carrots and add to the beans. Add water to cover with an inch or two on top. Chop the onion and add. Peel and chop the parsnips and add. Let them soak overnight in the fridge. Next morning: put on the stove and cook for 2-4 hours, to desired tenderness. You'll probably need to add 1-2 cups water. The carrot juice makes them look orange, just like baked beans:














The carrot juice and parsnips make them nice and sweet. Yum! The parsnips even look kinda like those blobs of bacon you get in the canned beans, but they don't taste like it! (which for me is a good thing).

Note: you can make this with any other kind of beans and just call the result "sweet beans" or something. I think I'll be making this a lot.