Homemade baked beans in the slow cooker

Homemade baked beans in the slow cooker

I have a paying guest staying in the spare room at the moment. He’s quite lovely, a wonderful story teller and has shown an appreciation for great food. He’s paid me to cook him breakfast each morning. I made eggs and bacon (free range of course) on his first morning, but have been to get adventurous. He also wants to eat at 7am, which is a pretty big effort on my part.

I had some cooked sausages left over from the BBQ on the weekend. I’d been thinking about using them in baked beans and had an open bottle of passata that needed using. When I cut the rind off the bacon rashers yesterday, I thought they’d be tasty in beans too. When it dawned on me I could do the beans overnight in my slow cooker, I was stoked.

These beans were outrageously delicious and fabulously frugal. What’s not to love about wholesome homemade baked beans in the morning, without you needing to lift a finger! Well, you’ll have to toast some bread and butter it, but that’s all. The rind melts away, the sausages add and absorb flavour, and the sauce reduces to the perfects cooping consistency. Please note, I didn’t add salt to this recipe. I found the bacon rind and sausage added plenty of seasoning.

Serves 4-6

160	grams (1/2 a bag)	dried white beans
1	large	onion
2	teaspoons	fat or oil
½	teaspoon	celery seeds
4		bacon rinds, diced
2		cooked sausages, sliced
500-600	grams (3/4 of a bottle)	tomato passata
½	teaspoon	white pepper
1		bay leaf
2	teaspoons	apple cider vinegar
2	teaspoons	raw sugar

Soak the beans in cold water all day.

Dice the onion and cook in a covered pan with the fat or oil over a very low heat till soft and sweet. Take as long as you can with this. I cooked mine for an hour while I was watching tele.

Drain the beans and place them in the slow cooker with the celery seeds, diced bacon rind, cooked sausage and passata. Fill the passata bottle with water, shake it around and pour that into the pot too. Then add about half as much water again. Add the cooked onions, white pepper, bay leaf, vinegar and sugar.

Turn the slow cooker onto high, cover with the lid and go to bed. Let the beans cook for about 8 hours.

Wake up, slice bread, toast bread, butter toast, scoop over beans. Enjoy.

Thank me now. Thank me later. I don’t mind.