Monday, April 6, 2020

Please don’t laugh at my recipe

Or “recipe.” It’s appropriate for tough times, a way to make a can of baked beans into four sweet and spicy lunches. It’s my memory of Western Beans on the Range, a recipe I read on a can of Heinz Baked Beans back in my student days. I loved this dish then and still do. Like liverwurst, it’s something I must have at least a couple of times a year:

Chop one medium onion. Brown in a pan with a little oil.

Add one large (28 oz.) can of vegetarian baked beans, after pouring off the sauce at the top.

Add some ketchup and chili powder, stir a bit, and let everything heat up. I have found that it’s impossible to add too much chili powder.

Serve with cheese, American or cheddar, and buttered bread. For added elegance, substitute potato chips for bread.

comments: 5

Anonymous said...

This recipe sounds awesome as i love baked beans. Definitely going on my list to try.

I grew up eating baked beans made in one of those bean pots.

Mmmm, liverwurst is also one of my favorites.

Kirsten

Michael Leddy said...

Good luck with this. :)

Elaine said...

Wait! Beans from a can? when you can make a whole pot of beans for about the same price if you start with dries beans? Cranberry October beans, Great Northerns, Michigan yellow-eyes, ...But I may thaw some beans and try your dish!

Michael Leddy said...

The Elaine in our house is an ace with dried beans. (Her trick is adding a pinch of baking soda to offest our hard water.) But this is a recipe from my days as a grad student who barely cooked. Nostalgia demands the can. :)

If you do try, I think you’d need to add the sauce and seasonings for baked beans first. Some of that should be in there to blend with the ketchup.

Michael Leddy said...

P.S.: If you try it, let me know. Maybe I can persuade my Elaine to sample a from-scratch version of this dish.