Vegetarian Boston Baked Beans are the ideal side dish for summer grilling season and they could not be any easier to make from scratch. Using dried beans gives this dish a delicious bite and nutty texture but canned beans work fine too.
Vegetarian Boston Baked Beans are the ideal side dish and they could not be any easier to make from scratch.
It probably isn’t a huge surprise that my husband who was born and raised in Boston adores baked beans. Of course, he would be perfectly happy re-heating them from a can but that’s no fun. (And don’t get me started on some ingredient lists I’ve seen.)
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When I realized how easy these were to make, I kicked myself for not making them more often. But truth be told, my Aunt Patsy is the Baked Beans Queen of our family and serves them at almost every warm-weather gathering. Aunt Patsy showing up to a summer gathering without baked beans would be like me showing up to Thanksgiving without a platter of hummus.
If you know anything about my Aunt Patsy, you know she would never make a batch of beans without massive amounts of smoky and delicious bacon. I’m not anti-bacon, I just rarely have it sitting around in our fridge. To give these beans that unmistakable smoky flavor we crave, I relied on my BFF, smoked paprika. Let me tell you – it did not let me down. My husband and 21 month old devoured these and I know your family will too.
Your fork is waiting.
📖 Recipe
Slow Cooker Boston Baked Beans
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried beans (navy beans,Great Northern, pinto, etc.)
- 1 medium onion diced
- ⅓ cup brown sugar
- ⅓ cup molasses
- ¼ cup ketchup or tomato sauce
- 2 tablespoons yellow mustard
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce Omit if you're looking to make vegan
- 1 tablespoon white balsamic vinegar or cider vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Rinse and sort dried beans then place in slow cooker covered with 2 inches of water and let soak overnight.
- In the morning, drain the beans then add back to the slow cooker along with all remaining ingredients.
- Add 2 ½ cups fresh water plus a good pinch of salt and pepper.
- Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4 hours.
- Check for seasoning before serving.
Standa Thanh
I am trying them for the 3th. I’m really excited about What I care most about is that eating this does weight gain? Because I’m on a diet
Liz DellaCroce
Weight loss happens when you have a calorie deficit so I can’t answer that without knowing how much you’re eating and how much you’re exercising. I recommend meeting with a nutritionist!
Donica M Robinson
Not a nutritionist.
Portion control is a biggie with this. If you love this style of beans be aware that there is a lot of excess sugar (and calories as a result). But since there is a ton of fiber and nutrition, it’s far better for your diet than drive thru fries or a slice of cake.
Liz DellaCroce
Agree!
sophia
Look so delicious, i want eat them now
Liz DellaCroce
Enjoy!!
Valerie
I made these baked beans. I soaked them overnight, cooked in slow cooker following the recipe.after 6 hours on high beans were still very crunchy. Left them in the slow cooker until after noon, the next day, on low. They were finally at the right consistency. IF I try this particular recipe again I will precooked the beans. These were fresh beans.
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Valerie,
I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you! That’s quite surprising the beans were still crunchy – I’ve never experienced that after soaking overnight and six hours of cooking. Are you sure the beans were fresh?
Simone
I used to have similar issues with chickpeas, I’d cook and cook and cook them and they would never get soft. Then a very kind person tipped me off to adding some baking soda to the soaking water. It never fails, and it actually even considerably shortens “traditional” cooking times for me (I have not tried it for the slow cooker yet but I will very soon!). Hope this helps :)
Liz DellaCroce
What a great tip!!
Jack
I really loved the flavours in this recipe; however, you state in the recipe that dried beans can be substituted for canned beans. I made this recipe with canned beans, following all the directions, and ended up with soup. I had to remove everything from the slow cooker (after 5 hours on high) and transfer it to the stovetop and simmer away all the liquid for about an hour. Then I was reading through the comments to see if this happened to other people, and noticed a comment from the author that this recipe was never tested with canned beans. Don’t write in the recipe then that canned beans can be substituted! I also agree with one of the other commenters, normal Worcestershire sauce is NOT vegetarian, unless you find a brand without anchovies.
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Jack, Canned beans work great – I use them all the time! Out of curiosity, did you still add in all the water even though you used canned (cooked) beans? The water is only added to cook the dry beans. :)
Standa
What I care most about is that eating this does weight gain? Because I’m on a diet.
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Standa, You will only gain weight if you eat more calories than you burn in a day and since I don’t know what other activities you’re doing or foods you’re eating I can’t tell you.
Deb
Worcestershire sauce is not the difference between vegetarian and vegan; it is the difference between vegetarian and NOT vegetarian! Please omit “vegetarian” from your title or omit “Worcestershire sauce” from your recipe. Thanks!
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Deb – You can leave it out to make it vegetarian! I’ll make a note of that in the recipe!
Jen
Thanks Liz. I made these tonight and my whole family lived them. No soaking just cooked on high for about 8-9 hours and added extra water at the end. I’m vegan and used a vegan Worcestershire sauce no problem. I was happy to stumble onto your recipe!!
Liz DellaCroce
Oh that sounds so so good!
H J Hannah
I ommited the Worcestershire sauce and added 1 tbsp Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, natural soy alternative. I also ommited table salt and used Himalayan Pink Salt (but not as much as usual, because of the soy alternative.)
I am cooking now for lunch tomorrow. I will let you know the response.
Also, I doubled the amount of beans for a large gathering at my church luncheon.
Thanks for the recipe…♡♡
Liz DellaCroce
Perfect!! So glad it worked out!
Ecfinn
Annie’s is indeed vegetarian. It’s the only brand of W sauce that’s vegetarian.
barley
you can buy vegan worcestershire