David Atherton’s recipe for homemade baked beans - MW

Tinned baked beans have long been touted as the perfect post-exercise snack. They are a great source of protein, fibre and resistant starch, which helps to feed our gut bacteria. They are also quick and easy to prepare. Yet shop-bought beans can be laced with needless sugars and additives – and they are so easy to make. I love having homemade beans on toast after a weekend run. You can experiment with whatever beans you want. I prefer haricots as these remind me of the classic baked beans, but going for a mix will give you more texture and flavour. Whatever you choose, they taste better after a couple of days in the fridge.

300ml passata
50ml vegetable stock
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp smoked paprika
¼ tsp allspice
5ml sherry vinegar
5 drops of Worcestershire sauce
5ml soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 cans of beans
Bicarbonate of soda (optional)
10ml olive oil (optional)

Bring the passata and stock to a simmer in a large saucepan.

Add the salt, spices, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and half of the garlic.

Continue simmering until half the volume and thick.

Simmer the beans in the water from their cans, plus 100ml extra water, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, for 10 minutes. (This makes them softer, like tinned baked beans. If you want to keep more integrity to your beans, ignore this step.)

Add the beans and 40ml of the water to the tomato mix, plus the remaining garlic, and warm through.

Adding the olive oil will give them a glossy sheen, but this is optional.

I suggest serving on sourdough toast with an egg, cooked according to your taste.

MW