Baked Beans by John Ash

To go with the previous post of Chicken Chipolte Rolls, I made baked beans from my new cookbook by John Ash: Cooking One on One. These are a slightly heathier variation of my mom's delicious summer beans which contain lots of molasses, brown sugar and ketchup. John's had a great taste with the carrots and soy sauce, which is unconventional in my mind.

¾ cup thinly-sliced onions (I chopped mine)
½ cup diced carrots
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
⅓ cup white wine
3 cups cooked Esther's Swedish beans (I used two 14 oz. cans Great Northern Beans)
⅓ cup dark molasses
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
Salt; to taste
Freshly-ground black pepper; to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a saute pan saute the onions, carrots and garlic in olive oil over moderate heat until lightly browned. Combine with remaining ingredients and place in a lightly-buttered or oiled casserole. Bake uncovered for 35 to 40 minutes. This recipe yields 6 to 8 servings.

I baked them for about 45 minutes. The sauce was still kind of runny. I like my baked beans extra thick, which probably is due to the hours of slow cooking and tons of sugar my mom traditionally uses. But these were very good! Sweet and savory.

A meat (bacon or pancetta) could be added but I really enjoyed them vegetarian.

Of course, I could not find Ester's Swedish beans at our local Giant, but I'll keep my eyes out for them when I'm elsewhere because I'll definitely make these again.