Foodie Friday - Mediterranean Baked Bean Bake

If you were to look in my kitchen cupboards, there are several things that you would always find, tinned tomatoes, tinned vegetables, and of course that comfort food staples, baked beans. I've always loved baked beans, be it on toast or as part of a quick lunch or a cooked breakfast but sometimes they can, well, be a bit boring. I sometimes pimp up my baked beans with a bit of sweet chilli sauce or a bit of curry paste or stick them in a stew or a chilli, but recently I've been searching for more ways to cook the humble baked bean. I started off by looking through one of my staple vegetarian recipe books "The New Students' Veggie Cook Book" by Carolyn Humphries (click here to buy it. I would thoroughly recommend it for new veggies or for those on a budget). The book contains a recipe for a Baked Bean Loaf, which is great as it is but I've altered the recipe quite a bit to make into more of a bake with a Mediterranean style twist.

Mediterranean Baked Bean Bake

1 Can Baked Beans

2oz Sweetcorn

1 Large Onion 

2oz Cheddar Cheese

2 tbsp Tomato Ketchup

1 tsp Marmite

Small Handful Fresh Basil 

A Few Pickled Jalapenos 

2 Slices Bread or 1 Bread Roll

1 Egg

Salt And Pepper

1. Pre heat your oven to about 180 and then start off by crumbling your bread into small pieces. There's no need for a food processor just use your fingers. I'm using a gluten free ciabatta roll but you can use what ever you like.

2. Pop your sweetcorn into a large mixing bowl. If it's tinned drain it, if it's frozen make sure it's defrosted. Then add your baked beans, any brand that you like, this is a 410g can of Branston Baked Beans.

3. Then add your crumbled bread.

4. Roughly chop your fresh basil and pickled jalapenos or what ever herbs and spices you like

and roughly chop an onion

and chop your cheese into rough cubes. I'm using cheddar here but you can use whatever cheese your like.

Then add all of that to your mixing bowl.

5. Then add your Marmite (or vegemite :) and the tomato ketchup

and give it a good mix.

6. It's a good idea to give it a quick taste at the moment, and then add salt and pepper to suit your personal taste. The Marmite is quite salty but the ketchup and the beans are quite sweet so it depends what you like. Then crack an egg into a smaller bowl and beat well.

Add the egg to your mix 

and stir well.

7. Once all the ingredients are combined it's time to bake it. The original recipe was intended to be turned out but my mixture and to be honest the original still seems a bit soft to do that so I would recommend that you pop it into either a greased baking dish or a loaf tin or like I'm using a silicone loaf mould.

8. Bake your bake for around 30-40 minutes until it's browned and feels a little bit firmer to the touch.

Leave to cool for a little while and then serve. This would easily serve 4 people - it is great with veg, salad, pasta or even like I'm showing you here with fried new potatoes, the intention was to serve with a bit of salad but our poor bagged leaves didn't survive this weeks tropical temperature so we ate the lot and it was yum :)

If you fancy trying the original recipe omit the sweetcorn, the cheese, the jalapenos, and the basil, and add a pinch of mixed herbs instead. I've tried this recipe and as I said it was equally nice as it was, again it doesn't set that well so if you want a slice able loaf you could double the amount of bread and add an extra egg to firm it up a bit and of course make sure that your line your loaf tin. You could also form the mixture into patties, fry it off and make your own bean burgers. This is another one of those recipes that you can play with and add what you like depending on what you have in and what herbs, spices and flavourings you like. This is a really cheap quick and easy vegetarian meal that doesn't require a huge amount of cooking skill. Are you a fan of the humble baked bean? how do you eat yours? let me know in the comments xx