Easy baked beans for a cookout side dish on Meatless Monday

Baked beans are must-haves with barbecue -- but they're a great dish on their own. This version (adapted from Veganomicon) is very easy -- the only prep involved is chopping onions, peeling garlic and draining beans -- and the dish gets better as it sits. So make it a day...

By Amber Taufen

June 24, 2013

Audio By Carbonatix

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Baked beans are must-haves with barbecue -- but they're a great dish on their own. This version (adapted from Veganomicon) is very easy -- the only prep involved is chopping onions, peeling garlic and draining beans -- and the dish gets better as it sits. So make it a day or two ahead of your friend's cookout -- if you can resist eating it yourself.

You will need:

2 medium onions 3-4 tablespoons olive oil 6 cloves garlic 2 15-ounce cans tomato sauce 1 cup molasses 4 teaspoons ground mustard 2 teaspoons salt 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice 3 small bay leaves (or two large) 4 15-ounce cans white beans

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F; rinse and drain your canned beans.

2. Finely chop the onions. 3. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a large, oven-safe pot.

4. Add the onion to the heated oil. Saute for ten to twelve minutes, until the onion is golden-brown -- caramelized -- but not burned.

Just like this!

5. Press the garlic into the onion.

Cook, stirring, for about another minute -- not too long. 6. Add the tomato sauce, molasses, mustard powder, salt, allspice and bay leaves.

Stir together and cook for another five minutes. 7. Add the beans. Stir together, then cover your pot and put it in the oven. Bake for thirty minutes, remove and stir, then return to the oven and bake for thirty more minutes. Serve as a side dish -- but I also like to eat these on toast for breakfast.

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Amber Taufen has been writing about people, places and things in Denver since 2005. She works as an editor, writer, and production and process guru out of her home office in the foothills.

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