Spicy Baked Bean Dip
This simple bean dip is great for vegetarian crudités and can easily be adapted for a kids’ menu. Just heat through the baked beans and place in a food processor, add a touch of Tabasco or fresh chilli and let down with a little vegetable stock, to achieve the desired consistency. You can also add many other flavours to this; try sweating off onions, garlic and peppers until soft, then blending back into the baked beans.
Baked Bean and Cheese Pin Wheels
This is a twist on the classic Chelsea Bun. Blend baked beans in to a soft bread dough, using a dough hook, incorporating fully. Roll the dough into a rectangle and sprinkle with grated Mozzarella cheese. Roll up the dough like a Swiss roll and cut into slices 25-30mm thick. Place the ‘pin wheels’ approximately 1cm apart in a deep sided and lined baking tin. Leave to prove until well-risen then sprinkle with a little more Mozzarella. Bake at 220°C for approximately 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Leave in the tin to firm for a short time, then serve warm.
Baked Bean Chilli
Sauté onions and peppers for five minutes until softened. Remove the peppers and onions and dry fry some beef mince (without oil) until brown Add the peppers and onions back to the beef mince, then place in chilli powder, paprika, cumin, marjoram, tomato puree, a crumbled stock cube and enough water to cover the ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes, then add the baked beans and bring back to a simmer. Adjust the seasoning and serve with rice or in taco shells.
Pizza
Lightly crush baked beans with a fork and spread them over a pizza base. Top this with thinly sliced pepperoni and top with a mixture of grated cheddar and Mozzarella cheese. Scatter over some fresh oregano and pecorino, then season to taste with cracked black pepper and bake in a preheated oven at 220°C until golden and crisp. Serve immediately.
Sausage and Bean Cassoulet
In a large pan, sweat off some onion, garlic and bacon lardons for a couple of minutes. Add in some cooked slices of sausage, baked beans, tomatoes and enough stock to just cover everything. Then add a bay leaf with fresh rosemary, thyme and sage. Place in the oven at 180°C for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle over some dried breadcrumbs with a little parsley. Place back in the oven for approximately a further 15 minutes until golden brown, then serve with a buttery mashed potato.