In reading one of my cookbooks, Listen to Your Vegetables, the author said that if you think you don’t like beans, then you’ve been having canned ones. This rang true for me, so I took up her challenge to try laboriously homemade beans the way she recommended, and wow, she was right.

This is basically a three day process, but it’s worth it. It is not difficult, but it does take time. One day I put the beans on to  soak, and they soaked overnight. The next day, I cooked the soaked beans, which took a couple hours of simmering. The third day, I put the cooked beans into this recipe for Tuscan Baked Beans.

I purchased the exact heirloom dried beans she recommended: Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye beans, which are available online, but I found them at Whole Foods.

We served these as a main dish with toasts, along with a side of salad, but they would be good as a side dish themselves next to anything.

There are enough beans here for a crowd, or enough for great leftovers. If you are not vegan, topping them with parmesan would be good, but our favorite way of eating them was reheating them with a little cheddar melted on top, and then eating them on avocado toast (see last photo below).

This is a very affordable, delicious, nutrient dense recipe.

Vegan Tuscan Baked Beans Recipe

Day 1:

1 pound dried beans (yellow eye or cranberry)

Soak the beans overnight. Sort through them, discarding anything that is not a bean. Place the beans in a large bowl, cover with cold water and soak overnight.

Day two:

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 dried bay leaves
sea salt

Drain and rinse the beans when you are ready to cook them.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil, onion, carrot and celery, and saute until softened. Add the beans and bay leaves and cover with water one inch above the top of the beans. Bring to a boil, and boil rapidly on high for 10 minutes. Skim off the sum that rises to the surface if there is any. Reduce the heat to low, cover partially, and do not touch for an hour.

After an hour, add a bit of water to keep the beans submerged. Continue to cook until tender. This could take 1-4 additional hours depending on the kind of bean you are using, and how fresh they are. (These Yellow Eyes took 2 hours.) Rotate the pot every half hour to prevent a hot spot in the cooking process. Right before they are fully cooked, add several pinches of salt (you wait so the beans can absorb the salt and you are not just seasoning the water.)

Store the beans in their liquid in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Day 3:

Two cans organic whole peeled tomatoes
1/4 cup olive oil
8 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh sage, chopped
sea salt
Your cooked beans
sage leaves, for garnish
fresh black pepper, for garnish
toasted bread for serving

Drain the refrigerated beans, and save the bean cooking liquid to use as a vegetable stock since the starch from cooking the beans will add body to any soup or sauce (I froze mine in a ziplock for later use, probably as the water when I make stock).

Set a colander in a large bowl and drain the whole peeled tomatoes, crushing the tomatoes with your hands, and allowing their juice to escape into the bowl. Reserve both the tomato juice, and the crushed tomatoes.

Preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Set a foil lined baking sheet on the bottom rack.

Heat a 12″ oven proof skillet over medium heat and add the olive oil and garlic and cook until garlic turns golden brown. Add the sage and two pinches of salt, and cook for a minute. Turn up the temp to medium-high and add the crushed tomatoes and a bit more salt. Stir them until they caramelize a bit and turn a richer more red color, about 10 minutes. Add the reserved tomato juice, and bring to a rapid simmer. Add the dried beans and stir gently to combine. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Add a few more pinches of salt.

Transfer the pot to the middle rack of the oven and bake, uncovered, until the sauce has cooked down and absorbed, 45 -50 minutes. Turn on the broiler to high and broil until the top is toasted around the edges, about 5 minutes.

Garnish with some chopped sage leaves, some cracked black pepper, and mybe a drizzle of really good olive oil. Serve with toasts.

Yum! That’s remarkably good!

Enjoy.