Crockpot Baked Beans

Do I need to explain every time I don't post in a month and a half that my life is insane and I'm always going in 20 different directions??

Good, cause that would get boring.

After 15 years as a vegetarian, I sometimes still find myself stuck in an omni mindset about certain foods. Baked beans, for example, are a side dish -- right? .... Why? I use beans as a protein source in a million other things, why can't baked beans take center stage for dinner? Because I'm prejudiced, that's why. In an effort to expand my horizons (and damn do I love baked beans) I decided I was going to make some for dinner one night, with some fabulous other sides. That night was tonight. I had planned them with collard greens and roasted sweet potatoes, but then I was thinking biscuits would be great to sop up the baked bean juice (sauce? gravy? liquid?) so I made whole wheat biscuits instead.

My quest to find the perfect baked bean recipe took a few weeks, and even still the one I made I altered. I was finding that most baked bean recipes were baked onion recipes with beans mixed in. Alright, forgive my use of hyperbole, but I don't see why one would need 2 onions in baked beans. Other recipes were basically beans in premade BBQ sauce or ketchup with some spices. BLEH. What I ended up with does have some onion powder, which I'm fine with, and some ketchup, also ok, but I think beans are really the star. The sauce is sweet, but not TOO sweet, and mildly smokey. Some fake bacon bits round out the dish in the way only odd smokey salty bits of facon can.

This also is also part of my continued quest to learn to cook legumes from dry, instead of from a can. A can will probably always be my favorite for convenience, but man is dry cheaper, and for something like this I think they really absorb a lot of the sauce. If you want to use canned beans instead, go for it. You'd need about 4 cans of beans, drained and rinsed, to equal the dry, and you'd want to cook it much shorter or on a lower temperature since they're already soft.

Crockpot Baked Beans

1 lbs bag of navy beans (dry)
Water for soaking
2 cups vegetable broth
2 cups water
2 tbsp facon bits (You can usually find these at the supermarket labelled something like "Bac'n" -- read the ingredients, you'll be surprised)
1.5 tsp salt
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup blackstrap molasses (or whatever molasses you keep on hand)
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp liquid smoke

1. Soak the navy beans overnight in the fridge (about 12 hrs) in about 4X as much water as you've got beans.

2. Drain and rinse the beans and put them in a medium pot with about 3X as much water as beans. Bring the beans to a boil and boil for about two minutes, then drain ... again.

3. In the crock pot, add all the other ingredients and whisk together into a smooth sauce. Stir in the beans. Cover and set the crock pot to high, and cook for 8 hrs or until the beans are soft (this could vary depending on how fresh the beans are, how hard your water is, how long they soaked, etc... Mine were perfectly tender after 8 hrs, and may have been sooner, but I wasn't home).

Mexican-Style Bean Salad

In order to get the boy to eat more veggies, I've been making serving sized veggie bags/cups/things for him to bring in his lunch every day. First week I just made assorted raw veggies and included cups of horseradish hummus. Last week I made an Asian coleslaw. This week I made a Mexican-style Bean Salad, inspired after another invention of mine (a black bean, avocado, tomato, corn salad thing. I'm sure it'll turn up on here this summer). It was really quick and easy but is pretty and colorful with a variety of tastes and textures. This is a rare onion sighting in my cooking. The boy does love his onions, and this was for him, so there they are. I made this mild, but you certainly could kick up the heat easily enough!


Mexican-Style Bean Salad
1 small red onion, diced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 cup diced radishes*
2 ears of corn, kernels cut off the cob, raw
1 15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed
1-2 tbsp cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
Juice and Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground chili powder
salt and pepper to taste

1. Toss the veggies together in a large bowl. Whisk everything else but the salt and pepper together in a small bowl and toss with the veggies. Add salt and pepper to taste.



*I used Daikon because that's what I had. Jicama would be a good alternate, but I wanted the rest of it to snack on in class :P

Pasta & Kale

A long time ago in a kingdom far away -- my old apartment -- I was planning to go to the Troy Farmers Market. I invited the, then, "boy I was dating" (now "domestic partner") to come with me and he scoffed. I said "Oh, then I'll just bring you something back.. how about some KALE do you want some KALE??" "What the hell is Kale?" was he response. Foolish mortal. Kale is DELICIOUS and this is probably my favorite way of preparing it. The boy has learned to love Kale and good thing! This stuff is packed with as many vitamins and minerals as it is deliciousness. If you haven't tried it, you really should. Just a warning though -- if it's bitter, you got bad Kale -- don't blame all Kale for the shortcomings of that one bunch.

I serve the Kale over Pasta here, but it goes just as well over brown rice or barley or on baked pizza dough or crusty bread...


Pasta & Kale
1 Bunch Kale
2 cups diced or crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1 can white kidney beans (or whatever else you like in a canned bean)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Handful fresh basil, torn
1/2 lbs pasta (here we've got whole wheat)

1. Put on a large pot of water to boil for the pasta. Continue to prepare the pasta according to package directions, then drain it. Meanwhile...

2. Rinse off the Kale and cut or tear the leaf off of the tough stem as seen in the picture...

See the light green "backbone"? That's tough and needs to go!

3. Chop or tear the leaves into smallish pieces, as you would lettuce for a salad.

4. Heat oil in a large pan. Add the garlic and cook over medium-low until the garlic is fragrant (about 1-2 minutes). Add all your Kale and the vegetable broth. It will look like a crazy mountain of Kale, but it will cook down quite a bit. Put the lid on the pan, turn the heat up to medium-high and let it simmer for about 5 minutes until it shrinks down.

Kale Mountain!

5 Minutes Later -- Kale plains

5. Add the tomatoes and simmer for another 5 minutes. Then add the beans and toss to heat through. Remove from the heat and fold in the basil.

I used frozen garden tomatoes that I cooked down this fall so it's a little bit wetter than the canned kind.

6. Toss the Kale and Tomato and Bean mixture with your pasta. Enjoy!