Today my friend Lea from Nourishing Treasures is sharing a great side dish with us – baked beans. I think this calls for us all to have a cookout. 🙂
Making my own baked beans has been on my list of things to do for a while now. I think the only canned things I buy now are olives and tuna fish. I don’t know what took me so long, really. But when Elizabeth shared her Barlett Baked Beans recipe with me, I knew I could do it.
Because I can’t leave well enough alone, I did tweak the recipe. Here is mine:
Crock Pot Baked Beans
- 1 pound navy beans, previously soaked overnight and drained
- Water to cover beans
- 1/3 lb turkey bacon
- 1 chopped onion
- 1/3 cup sucanat
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 TBSP arrowroot (a thickener)
- 1 teaspoon mustard powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- Place in crock pot and stir together.
- Cook on low for 12-24 hours – the longer the better.
Now is that simple? No more excuses to buy BPA-lined canned baked beans…
Lea Harris is a mom and certified health coach who is passionate about her family’s health and well-being. Founding Nourishing Treasures in 2006, Lea encourages others to take baby steps in the direction of health, providing natural alternative information that promotes health and prevents disease by using traditional foods and nature’s medicine. Lea can be reached on her website, on twitter, and via e-mail.
Jessica, I have this Stevia Barbecue Sauce pinned. 🙂
http://www.nourishingdays.com/2009/05/better-barbecue-sauce-stevia-sweetened/
Stacy, Have you made these THM way yet and if so how did you do it? Thinking about it for the 4th of July. Or do you have a BBQ sauce THM way.
Beans in the crock…now I just hope I can keep myself from opening the lid 🙂 Thanks for all your great ideas, Stacy!
🙂 You’re welcome. There’s another Baked Beans recipe in my cookbook!
No sucanat on hand…what to sub? I have 100% maple syrup 🙂
I’d use brown sugar….but maple syrup would work too – it would lend a nice, mapley flavor.
Can you tell me if you can can these once they are done or just freeze them? Thanks so much.
I haven’t tried canning these – but they freeze beautifully 🙂
I wanted baked beans for labor day so I tried these. There didn’t seem to be much liquid in the mix. Ended up throwing them away because they were soooooo burnt after just a few hours in the crock pot. Hard as a rock too. Did I miss something? Help.
Yikes! In the comments it was discussed to cover with water +1/2 inch over the beans. Stacy – could you edit the post to include that, please? Thanks!
Got it!
I started this around 9am this morning and plan on serving it around 5 or 6pm. I didn’t realized when I started making it that you wrote it should cook for 12-24 hours. Do you think it will be okay still or should I have a backup plan for dinner?
I’d plan for something else tonight – it will be worth it to wait until tomorrow ):
Made a huge thing of pulled pork this week and these beans will be part of the BBQ portion of the pulled pork. My husband does not like the fact it has to cook so long, he said the torture of smelling it will be longer and just make him more hungry! Thanks!
Hillary, I have that problem with a lot of crock pot recipes…especially Crock Pot Whole Baked Chicken. It about drives me batty to smell it all day. 🙂
I am going to make this TONIGHT!
What would be a substitute for arrowroot? If using agave nectar (instead of sucanat), do I use the same amount?
You can always use cornstarch in the same ratios as arrowroot. 🙂 I found this information online (we don’t use agave): For each cup of white sugar replaced, use 2/3 of a cup of agave and reduce other liquids by 1/4 cup. Hope that helps!! 🙂
Excited to try this recipe with pulled pork. This seems like a silly question. But do I need to cook the bacon first? Maybe I shoul check the initial recipe.
Thanks for your site. I love it! Come here often to “research” stuff.
Nope, don’t cook the bacon first 🙂
Thank you so much for posting this recipe! Baked beans is one of my all time faves, especially when grilling out. Since we found out I have a preservative intolerance and can not have anything except natural foods I have missed my canned baked beans. Now I can have them again!! Thank you!
Isn’t it so much fun to find recipes like this? 🙂 Makes me excited for you! Woohoo!!!!
Exciting, isn’t it??!? 😀
How much water do you add to the crockpot with the rest of the ingredients?
Just enough to cover the beans – up to 1/2 inch over.
I’m going to try this recipe this week. Can you tell me what you usually serve it with? Fresh homemade bread seems like a good option, and some steamed veggies maybe?
Lea might not say the same thing, but I like serving beans with cornbread and fruit. 🙂 Although, it’s always hard to go wrong with homemade bread!
We like baked with hot dogs 🙂
Love homemade baked beans! I like that this recipe doesn’t have any tomato products, so you can just dump it all together in the crock pot from the beginning.
Dump….one of my favorite words when it comes to cooking. 🙂
good morning, I have been wanting to make real baked beans instead of buying the canned ones. This looks like a very good recipe, thank you for posting it.
I was wondering about freezing the extras and when I looked at the original post, I see that she does. Wonderful!
It is so hot in Oklahoma right now, I just can’t turn on the oven when it is 110 degrees so crockpot recipes are very appreciated.
I love all recipes that can be frozen! 🙂
This recipe freezes beautifully!
Not only can you freeze them but you can pressure can them as well. i hour an 2o minutes for pints and 1 hour and 35 minutes for quarts. Works great when I need a really quick meal – no thaw time, and saves on the freezer space. When I can them, I don’t cook them quite as long in the crock pot.
Elizabeth
Thanks for the great information, Elizabeth!!!
Thank you for this recipe. My husband loves baked beans, so much that he seems to appreciate them even when I think I’ve failed, but this recipe looks and sounds perfect. I will definitely give it a try.
Baked Beans are very manly. My dad and Barry love them too.