Baked Beans

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound dry navy beans
• 1 cup unsalted chicken bone broth
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 1/2 can tomato paste
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup splenda
• 1/4 cup sweet onion (try yellow, try more)
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire
• 1 tsp liquid smoke
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 tsp lite salt
• 1 cup cooking liquid from beans

Instructions

Remove any pebbles from dry beans. Rinse and soak overnight in plenty of water (4 cups). Drain, rinse, and start cooking beans. Simmer for 1 - 2 hours.

Meanwhile, put the vinegar, bone broth, tomato paste, splenda, and onion in a saucepan and start simmering.

Add the other ingredients (from Worcestershire to Lite Salt above) to taste.

When the beans are a bit firmer than the final desired texture, drain them, reserving some of the liquid.

Put the beans and sauce in an oven-safe container with room to spare.

Add in some cooking liquid from the beans until the liquid is about half again as deep as the beans. (if the beans are 1" deep, the top of the liquid should be at 1.5").

Bake uncovered at 350 until the liquid level is about even with the top of the beans. 30 minutes - 1 hour.

Variants

This is a super-cheap dish that is crazy healthy (virtually all the calories come from dietary fiber and protein), so it's worth experimenting with to find your favorite version or versions. If you come up with a few losers along the way, toss them and try again. When you get it right, it makes a great staple dish.

More vinegar = more sour/tangy, more splenda = more sweet, adjust to suit.

Garlic is an anti-flatulent, supposedly, and it's good for you in other ways. Go long on the garlic.

Add some cayenne or extra jalapenos for more heat.

Add other things you think might be interesting. Adding some milder peppers is nice.

Puree the sauce before putting it on the beans to make the beans the only texture.

Keep the veggie chunks fairly large and don't puree the sauce to add some veggie texture variety.

I find meat superfluous, I'd just as soon have my meat separate, and I don't think it adds to the flavor, which is already pretty bold. It increases the cost without justifying itself.

Barbecue sauce is just Southern US Sweet & Sour. Try another region's sweet and sour sauce.

Getting Close

• 1 lb navy beans
• 1 cup vinegar
• 1 cup splenda
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 head garlic
• 1 Tbsp liquid smoke
• 1 Tbsp Fish Sauce
• Cayenne pepper

Really good but too strong. Try using half the sauce and add unsalted chicken bone broth.