Baked Beans - a wonderful fall meal...

Although I am not eating right now, I still cook every day for my family and want them to have nourishing delicious meals. Yesterday I was wondering what I might make that I haven't made in a while and thought of baked beans.

You know me, I love these clay pots - so I got out my bean crock pot and put some haricot beans in soak for this meal. I am starting to wonder if meals cooked in clay pots are that much less acidic, as people claim. Maybe time will tell - our bodies should digest the food better or something?

So, today I wanted to make baked beans- one of my favourite dishes especially good with a warm slice of buttered bread right out of the oven. I even made some spelt bread with loads of herbs and walnuts for a little twist to go with the beans. 

Haricot beans are a lovely bean to cook, easy to digest -- I always cook beans with seaweed in the pot as opposed to salt which would make them tough. Once the beans were done, I scooped them out of the pot and used some of the water as a base for the sauce.

Haricot beans in bean pot

To make the sauce I used beetroot, carrot, pumpkin, squash, onion, garlic and leek. The onion, garlic and leek were sautéd separately first and then added to the cooking root vegetables. These would have taken at least an hour or more to blend completely.

For extra taste and flavour, I love using warming spices such as turmeric, cumin and thyme and fresh herbs from the garden oregano, chives and lovage. These were gradually added during the course of cooking. Once the sauce was well cooked I added in 1 large tablespoon of corn starch to thicken it a little more.

Then I pureed the vegetables into a smooth sauce -- you could never tell there are no tomatoes in there! The colour is lovely! This was poured into the crock pot with the beans and baked in the oven for about 45 minutes or so. 

It got a thumbs up from my taste testers and I have enough sauce left over to freeze for when my fasting is over.... Great days work

April

Baked beans in extra sauce!