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
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1/3 cup molasses
- 1/4 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 1/2 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!
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
JoAnne
This looks like a fabulous recipe, and I love that it doesn’t have a ton of sugar in it! I am thinking of making several batches for a graduation party — have you ever tried freezing them? I was hoping to make a couple batches a week and freeze them until the party later in June.
Liz DellaCroce
I never have but that’s a great idea. Will you let me know how it turns out?
jean reed
I freeze the beans I make all the time because I am the only one in my family who is vegan. We have a food saver so I freeze them in 2 or 3 portion sizes and then I have enough for a couple of days when I defrost. Beans freeze great, doesn’t even change the texture of them.
Liz DellaCroce
Such a great idea!!
Mary
Love this recipe and am gathering ingredients! But I did have a question… So you just soak the beans overnight but you do not begin cooking them until they are mixed with the other ingredients? The beans will cook soft enough?
Thanks!!
Liz DellaCroce
Yes exactly! You cook once they are mixed with the others!!
Shannon
I really really wanted these to be great!! But 13 hours in the slow cooker and they beans are still crunchy! Crunchy baked beans are not good :(
Liz DellaCroce
Hi Shannon – I’m so sorry these didn’t turn out for you! Do you know if your beans were expired? I know that often the cook time can vary if the beans aren’t fresh. We buy ours from a local farmers so we know they were fresh and I wonder if that is part of the reason yours didn’t cook in 13 hours. So sorry!!
Mrs.Pat
The age of the beans do not matter if you pressure-can them before adding to recipes. Store bought are never as good as home cooked. Use extreme caution to cook outside of jars. Over frothing would glog the vent pipe and cause a hazard. Tender and delicious never tasted so good. Thanks for sharing. Cant wait ti taste them.
Liz DellaCroce
Enjoy!
TommyPatron61
I found this recipe when searching for a vegetarian recipe, Spanish paprika is the answer to that lovely smokiness of baked beans, and you can use a vegetarian Worchester sire sauce. However I disagree with Joanne above, this recipe does have a ton of sugar “diabetes anyone “. I have reduced the sugar in this recipe from two thirds of a cup, to 2 tablespoons of molasses, I also cut the amount of beans in half, but keeping all the other ingredients the same. I use a non-prepared mustard, something that has a nice strong bite of real mustard, I also eliminated the vinegar because these types of mustards tend to be more vinegary, plus the vinegar in the ketchup.
I have found that soaking your beans overnight results in a tough skin no matter how long you cook them. I simmer my beans in plenty of freshwater until tender but not done, drain the water and replace with 2 1/2 cups of fresh boiling water, and all the other ingredients. I cook them in the oven at 350° uncovered until the liquids cooks down to a nice thick deliciously delicious sauce. Do not salted beans until this last cooking phase in the oven, that also tends to make your beans tough and takes longer to cook them. Not sure how this would all work in a slow cooker, probably would be just fine.
magreen
I doubled the recipe and the flavor is promising, but 5 hours later on high and I have soup. I transferred to a pot and am hoping to steam off some fluid although, it’s hard to imagine the sauce getting thick and caramelized with the beans. It seemed like a lot of water to add, but I was trusting the recipe! Maybe I’ll try again with half the water. It’s nice to see a recipe that works with raw beans. Everyone uses canned these days!
Liz DellaCroce
Oh no – soup??? Yikes!! One thing I’ve noticed is that everyones beans are a little different in cook time based on how old they are. Keep me posted how it turned out!