How to Make Vegan Baked Beans in Cast Iron

My vegan baked beans is a from scratch, easy recipe. Its great for family event, like summer BBQ’s or a comfort food on a cold cozy winter day at home. This recipe taste way better then the canned baked beans. Baked beans are good with chicken, stake, pulled pork, and potatoes, burgers, corn on the cob, cornbread, coleslaw… There are a number of delicious meals you can make with baked beans as a side.

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Ingredients for Baked Beans

Navy Bean

1 1/2 cups dry 4 1/2 cups cooked 3 cans

I use navy beans, but other beans work as well. I’ve also used pinto beans in the past, I’ve seen other use red beans but I believe navy beans are the most common for baked beans. You can get canned beans or use dry beans. Dry beans are so cheap and I buy them in bulk. They last forever in my food grade 5 gallon buckets so I also have them on hand.

When cooking dry beans remember they 1 cup dry beans becomes 3 cups cooked. You should soak your beans before cooking them for 8 hour but I don’t always soak them that long and they cook just fine. The soaking is more for the nutrition benefits of the bean rather than the cooking process. Soaking the beans will make them easier to digest as well.

Onion and Garlic

Onion and garlic are pungent and full of flavor. Both have great nutritional value and have been known to super foods when it comes to cleansing the blood. They have even been known to help decrease cancer risk. Eating them often is just another way of adding great nutrition to your everyday diet.

Ketchup

Ketchup is so easy to just pull out of the fridge and add to your baked beans but you can also substitute ketchup by simple adding 1/4 cup tomato sauce (or 1 tablespoon tomato paste) and a teaspoon of apple cider vinegar. I never like opening a can of tomato sauce for just a quarter cup but sometime I have frozen tomato paste in the freezer that I’ll use.

Mustard

You can use any type of mustard for this recipe. I think this time I only had yellow mustard and it worked just fine. Dijon mustard would also be really good or you can use a mustard powder (Azure Standard or Amazon). If you do use the powder use about half of what the recipe calls for. 1 tablespoon mustard = 1/2 tablespoon mustard powder.

Molasses

For a bold depth of flavor I use blackstrap molasses. There are so many good benefits from blackstrap molasses I try to include a little in a lot of my recipes. You can use regular light molasses for this recipe but I recommend blackstrap molasses for its density in nutrients and its bold flavor.

Learn more about blackstrap molasses here or find it on amazon here.

Here are more recipes with blackstrap molasses

Brown Sugar

To sweeten our baked beans we need brown sugar. Light or dark, either one will work for this recipe. If you don’t have any brown sugar but you do have molasses you can make your own just by mixing regular while sugar and molasses together. I use a homemade dark brown sugar that make with blackstrap molasses.

Salt and Pepper

I like to add salt and pepper at the end as I taste test it. I don’t know how much I usually add so I encourage you to taste everything and adjust to your own liking.

Rosemary (optional)

I had never added rosemary to my baked bean until this time and I really liked it. The rosemary added another layer of sweet earthy flavor that elevated this recipe to a new level for me. I will be adding it regularly now.

How to Make Baked Beans

1. Soak and Cook Dry Beans

First step is to soak your dry beans for 8 hours or over night. Sometimes, if I’m low on time I will do a quick hot soak by heating the water before add in the beans and then soaking. The hot soaking method works but the longer the soak the better it is for the beans. When soaking the beans release oligosaccharides and antinutrients into the water making the beans easier to digest and easier for your body to take in the rich fibers, vitamins and minerals that beans contain.

When soaked cook your beans for 1-2 hours until soft.

2. Saute Onions and Garlic

When making baked beans first dice and saute the onion and garlic till fully cooked and soft. If you don’t saute them they will not cook as well or soften fully when mixed with the other ingredients.

3. Mix All Other Ingredients

Add the cooked beans, molasses, ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, rosemary, and salt and pepper. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer in your cast iron skillet for 30 minutes.

If you don’t have cast iron this can be done another type of pan but the cast iron holds on to higher heats longer and more evenly, giving it more of the baked texture. Also I usually just use the cast iron skillet on the stove top but you can put the skillet in the oven at 350 for a true baked beans.