Baked beans are a cheap and cheerful dish that can help to liven up an otherwise rather plain lunchtime snack.
They’re great served on a piece of toast, or as in combination with cheese slathered over a jacket potato, and what’s best is they take mere minutes to prepare. While there’s nothing wrong with tucking into baked beans just as they come, food experts say they can be made even tastier with one slight addition. Enhancing the flavour of baked beans doesn’t have to be a complicated process – in fact, it’s as easy as adding in some chopped chorizo.
Beans and sausage is a classic for a reason – because it tastes damn good. But opting for chorizo instead will add that extra kick of flavour that will really elevate the dish with very little effort.
Chorizo is a spiced pork sausage which can be bought fresh and cooked, or it can be dried and cured which means you don’t need to do anything with it.
The sausage gets its flavour from paprika and other seasonings, like garlic and chili peppers, and will lend the beans a deliciously smoky flavour, while the spicy kick perfectly balances the sweetness of the tomato sauce.
Additionally, as chorizo cooks it releases oils which, when mixed with the tomato sauce of the baked beans, adds a wonderfully rich, savoury flavour.
Recipe expert Ivy Manning at Simply Recipes said: “I have figured out an upgrade that makes my baked beans the star of the cookout, and it’s as simple as adding a single shelf-stable ingredient.
“The idea came to me while browsing recipes for baked beans. Recipes dating back as far back as the mid-19th century add a little pork—I’ve seen ones that use everything from fatty cubes of salt pork to bacon to pork shoulder.
“The saltiness and fattiness of cured pork perfectly balances the sweetness of the molasses and sugar in baked beans, so it’s no wonder that “pork and beans” is an enduring pairing.”
“When I was experimenting, I didn’t have any of the typical pork products used in baked beans on hand. I did, however, have a little Spanish chorizo kicking around in my fridge, leftover from a tapas grazing board.”
She added: “I was thrilled to discover that when I added this smoky cured meat to my favorite canned baked beans, it elevated them and had my guests clamouring for the recipe. The flavour and texture made the classic dish taste homemade.”
Food experts recommend sauteing chopped chorizo in a pan for around five minutes until it begins to brown and then add in the baked beans. Allow the ingredients to simmer on a low heat for around 10 minutes to allow the flavours to come together and then serve either on toast, as a jacket potato topping or simply as a side dish.
Recipe expert Janice from Farmer’s Girl Kitchen said: “Baked Beans with Chorizo is a hearty dish of beans with spicy sausage and a rich tomato sauce.
“The smoked paprika chorizo sausage adds a wonderful flavour that is absorbed into the beans as they cook. It’s perfect to serve with some crusty bread to mop up the sauce or as a side dish for barbeque or other grilled meats.”
