Beans, Beans, Good for the Heart...... {One Pot Boston Baked Beans}

Exceptionally good for the heart are beans. Also good for the heart and general well-being is food that is natural with no artificial additives, step in to the spotlight Kikkoman Soy Sauce. I love Kikkomen sauces especially their soy sauce, mainly because I think it tastes great and I love the fact it is made from all natural ingredients. When the lovely people at Kikkoman asked if I would like to create a recipe using their soy sauce I jumped at the opportunity, especially when they said they didn't want it to be an Asian dish as they want to show the versatility of soy sauce in all variety of dishes. This is great for me as I often use soy sauce to substitute for Worcester sauce as I prefer the taste - just as savory but not as strong. 

After having a ponder, as one likes to do I decided to use the soy sauce for my classic American, one pot, winter warmer dish: Boston Beans. The savouriness and richness of the soy sauce really helps bring out the smokiness of these BBQ style beans. Often you find recipes for Boston Beans call for bacon or pork belly as the meat but I like to go for chorizo as I think it adds so much more flavour and colour to the dish. You can be flexible with what beans you use, cannellini beans work well for this dish. I just love the way you basically throw everything into the pan and leave it bubble away in the oven whilst your house smells of lovely BBQ food - it's the perfect comfort food as the dark night draw in and would be a great addition to any bonfire parties! 

Boston Baked Beans 

150g chorizo, cubed

1 onion, finely diced

1 tin (400g) kidney beans 

1 tin (400g) haricot beans 

1 tin (400g) butter beans 

3 TBSP soft brown sugar

2 TBSP black treacle

4 TBSP Kikkoman soy sauce

2 TSP English mustard powder

½ TSP smoked paprika

400g chopped tomatoes

300ml chicken stock, or you could use beef if you prefer

crusty bread, toasted

cook the chorizo and onion in a large pan or casserole dish until the onions are soft and the chorizo crispy. Stir through the beans, sugar, soy sauce, treacle, mustard powder, treacle, paprika and chopped tomatoes. add the stock making sure beans are covered. cover pan with a lid and either cook in oven at 180OC for two hours or simmer on the hob for the same amount of time, until beans are soft and the sauce had thickened. Serve on the toast.  

***Thank you to Kikkoman for asking me to be involved in this recipe challenge and sending the bottle of soy sauce to create this recipe***