I never have baked beans without heating them up with 1 simple ingredient chef loves using
If you've picked up a tin of baked beans from the supermarket that taste a little bland, they won't if you add one simple ingredient to them, and you only need one tablespoon of the stuff.
Like many Britons, I turn to beans on toast for the occasional breakfast or lunch when time is tight, and I'm not in the mood for cooking. Affordable, quick and satisfying, baked beans are packed with protein, fibre, calcium and potassium whilst remaining low in fat and even count towards your five-a-day. Having tried adding smoked paprika and Worcestershire sauce to the pan when heating up baked beans, the latter is by far the best – it dramatically transformed the taste, leaving me genuinely impressed.
Worcestershire sauce is an amazing all-purpose condiment that adds depth of flavour to savoury dishes, particularly beans. I first heard about this nifty tip to add flavour to baked beans through Chef Carol on her food blog, From a Chef's Kitchen. Ever since tasting the results, I haven’t had baked beans without Worchestershire sauce.
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For this cooking tip, I start by tipping one of those small tins of baked beans into a saucepan and letting them bubble over medium heat for roughly five minutes.
If I want the sauce of beans to be a little thicker, I sometimes like to add butter, but it’s not essential.
Afterwards, I add a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and allow the beans to bubble away for another two minutes.
A tablespoon proved ideal as it doesn’t dominate the baked beans, but introduces a subtle umami dimension to them.
Given that baked beans tend to be rather sweet, I welcomed the more savoury and salty contribution of the Worchestershire sauce.
Once the two minutes are up, I switch off the heat, and it's time to spoon the baked beans onto my toast.
Having experimented with various methods of enjoying baked beans, this ranks among my top choices, and I'll likely incorporate Worchestershire sauce again, particularly as I always keep a bottle in my cupboard.
Likewise, soy sauce is reported to produce comparable results when mixed with baked beans, lending them a salty and sharp edge that would otherwise be absent.
