You've gotta try these beans!

I learned about a fantastic savory bean recipe last year.  I have had friends from Britain and the surrounding Isles who would occasionally pine for their "beans and toast."  Apparently, this is a quick and easy comfort food in England and shared by her neighbors.  A noticeably healthier alternative to our usual preferences of mac'n cheese (343 calories), PBJ (432 calories), and ramen noodles  (180 empty calories).  The sugar content is impressively lower (197 calories) than the Boston baked beans (387 calories) to which we're accustomed.  These have a cleaner taste, with more tomato flavor.

While we call ours "Boston baked beans" as is sold by Bushes, B & M, and Van Camps, Europe has Heinz "baked beans".  I learned also that the only place it could be purchased here in the Twin Cities was at World Market.  The stores we had near us have closed, so my next idea was to find a recipe.  This proved to be quite a task!  I searched through various recipe sites, found myself on British blogger sites, and finally found this tasty recipe on a sort of write-in site.  I don't know what the site was, but I was so glad to find it I wrote it down immediately.


English-Style Beans


250g   dried pinto beans  (1 heaping cup)
200g   bacon  (about 1c)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove
2 Tbsp treacle (molasses)
800g tomato, chopped  (3 1/2 cups)
2 Tbsp tomato puree
chopped parsley