Cooking beans in a crockpot is super easy. It’s an effortless hands-off process with a wonderful payoff of delicious saucy beans, which are also freezer friendly. If you haven’t cooked dried beans before, don’t let it intimidate you. Learn about dried beans and how to cook here.
Ingredients
- 2½ cups dried beans* great northern or navy (450 g/16 oz)
- 8 cups water
- 1 large onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2-3 bay leaves or ½ tsp bay leaf powder
Ingredients for the sauce – do not add until after the beans are cooked
- 1 can tomato paste (156 ml)
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ cup dark balsamic*
- 1 Tbsp dry mustard
- 1½ tsp liquid smoke
- 1 – 1½ tsp salt, optional
Instructions
- Sort and wash beans then add them to crockpot along with the water, onions, garlic and bay leaves. Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours or on high for 5-6 hours.
- When beans are tender, if using remove bay leaves. Evaluate the amount of cooking water. If it seems excessive, ladle some out and keep it aside in case you want to thin down the sauce after adding the sauce ingredients.
- Add tomato paste, molasses, balsamic vinegar, dry mustard, liquid smoke, and salt. Mix well into the beans. While leaving the lid off, with heat on high, leave beans for another hour or two until flavors have combined. To prevent sticking to the bottom, stir occassionly. If you are rushing, then simmer for a shorter time (20 to 30 minutes). The longer time allows for the sauce to thicken and flavors to meld.
- Enjoy these beans warm or cold. They also freeze well.
Notes
- Save time and money. ¾ cup of dried beans will yield 1 can. Two and one half cups dried beans (one package 450 g/1 lb) will yield 5 cans of beans. It takes the same amount of time to cook ¾ cup beans as it does to cook one package. Then portion and freeze.
- For BBQ Calico Beans use a mixture of two or three different kind of beans. I like to use red kidney, great northern, and canary beans. Check Latin groceries stores for canary beans.
- Flavored vinegars. I use Costco dark balsamic. For another flavor profile you might want to try using Vermont Maple dark balsamic from Evoolution.
- If too much liquid, allow the beans to cook, uncovered, and the liquid will slowly evaporates. To prevent beans from sticking to the bottom of the crockpot be sure to stir occasionally. Alternatively, if the sauce is too thick, add some of the bean water that you saved.