Baked beans are so good but so bad usually. The beans are full of great nutrition but they come swimming in a sauce that is mainly sugar and salt!! Making your own version is really easy and the kids love it! You’re in control of how much salt and sugar goes in. This recipe makes around 2 1/2 tins worth of baked beans. It uses 1-2 teaspoons of sugar. The equivalent amount of Heinz beans would contain almost 8 teaspoons of sugar!! So you can see how much better it is to do it yourself!

They can also be frozen so if you love the convenience of beans- make a batch and freeze it in portions so you can take out what you need and simply warm it up like you would with a tin!

Ingredients-

One onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 small carrot

Olive oil

1 tablespoon of paprika (smoked paprika would be even better!)

3 cloves or 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves

500ml of Passata

1 teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon of black treacle or brown sugar

1/4 teaspoon of sugar

Tin of cannellini beans (I also ended up adding half a tin of butter beans too)

Finely dice the onion, finely chop the garlic and finely grate the carrot

In a medium sized pan heat a tablespoon of olive oil on a medium heat

Add the onions and cook for 5-8mins until soft

Add the garlic and carrot and cook for another 2-3mins

Add the cloves and paprika and stir through

Add the passatta

And the Worcestershire sauce. Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer. Leave simmering for 15-20mins to allow the sauce to thicken.

Add the black treacle and sugar and stir through

You can keep the sauce lumpy if you like or blend it into a smooth paste. I blended mine a little so it was smoother but not completely smooth.

Add your beans! Pretty much any beans will work- once I’d added the cannellini beans it looked a little sparse so I topped it up with some butter beans. Kidney beans would also work great.

Serve on toast, in jacket potatoes, alongside fish fingers or however else you like! Full of goodness and so much better for you than the Heinz variety!!