Baked Beans a la @lucyburdette #recipe

 LUCY BURDETTE: I love baked beans, any kind, even straight out of the can. My Aunt Barbara used to make some killer beans that we loved, baked with bacon and onions covering the top of the dish. Oh heaven! But of course they are loaded with sodium (and sugar probably too) and so not on my diet. But I figured I could make a batch that would be very tasty while leaving out the parts that aren’t very healthy. 

You will get to see my newest, new obsession in this recipe. It’s a vegetable based Sriracha with medium heat, no mystery ingredients. 

This is another recipe that is very flexible – take the measurements that I gave you and then taste as you make the sauce and adjust as meets your taste buds. More syrup or molasses? Or hot sauce? More or less vinegar or mustard? You be the judge.

Ingredients

Three cans low-sodium organic pinto beans (feel free to swap out for another kind of beans)
2/3 cup no salt ketchup
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons good mustard
1 tablespoon molasses
2 tsp Sriracha or to taste
One large onion, chopped

Chop the onion and sauté it in a little olive oil until soft and beginning to brown. Mix the other ingredients together (not including the beans) and taste just to see what needs to be added.

Add the sauce to the onions and simmer for a few minutes. 

Dump the cans of beans into a strainer in the sink and rinse them. Stir the beans into the sauce. You can either heat them up right on the stove or put them in the oven for half an hour while your ribs heat up! Next time I think I might add a second onion and also chop up a green pepper for a little extra zip.

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mysteries--find them wherever books are sold! Find her on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest--Instagram too...DEATH ON THE MENU will be in bookstores on August 7!