Molasses War Beans

Posted in Beans & Legumes, Dinner, Gluten Free, North American, Vegetarian

We grew soldier beans in our garden and dried them for baked beans. The recipe is a culmination of many recipes I have made in the past. We named them Molasses War Beans in recognition of the soldier bean. If you look at the bean lengthwise you can see a small red soldier on the white bean. We make these beans on one of those cold, wet wintery days. The heat from the oven helps keep the kitchen warm and the beans keep the house smelling yummy. This recipe makes a lot but I figure if you are going to run an oven for 5-6 hours you might as well get your monies worth. Freeze leftovers for those days when you need a quick, filling meal.

Ingredients

2 lbs soldier beans
1/4 cup butter
1 tbls prepared mustard
2 tbls apple cider vinegar
2 tbls tomato paste
1 large onion, large diced
3/4 cup molasses
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
1 teas salt
1/4 teas fresh ground black pepper
2 bay leaves

Directions

Soak beans overnight in water. In the morning drain the beans. Place in dutch oven, cover with fresh water and bring to a boil then simmer for apprx 1 hour. The beans need to be done at this point as they cook very little when put in the oven. The beans should be soft but not mushy. Drain beans reserving the cooking liquid.
Mix all the sauce ingredients in the dutch oven, add the beans back to the dutch oven and cover with the reserved liquid.
Bake in a 325F oven for 5-6 hours. Check the beans every couple of hours and see if they need any more of the cooking liquid.

Serving Suggestions
We always serve beans with homemade brown bread, unless you are having them for breakfast. Here in the Nova Scotia we eat our baked beans with eggs and toast for breakfast.

I have made these in a slow cooker as well when the weather outside was just too warm to have an oven on for 5-6 hours.