These vegan baked beans are a simple and easy to make classic. Serve them as a side at a barbecue or over your favorite toast for breakfast. They’re a flavorful and gluten free recipe that only takes about 10 minutes of prep!
The key to really easy vegan baked beans? Use canned beans! Once it’s all said and done, it tastes just the same as using dried beans and saves you so much time.
Navy beans are usually used in baked beans, but I used cannellini because that’s what my grocery store had. Any small white bean will work well!
Baked beans are usually made with bacon or other animal derived ingredients, so they aren’t vegan or even vegetarian friendly. However, they are very easy to veganize!
Just leave off the bacon and make a few sauce substitutions and you have a recipe that tastes just as good as the classic.
How to make this recipe
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic and add to a large pan or dutch oven with the oil. It’ll save a step to use a cast iron pan so it can go right in the oven!
Saute until the onion starts to look translucent. Add all remaining ingredients and stir to combine.
If using a cast iron pan or dutch oven you can keep it right in there, otherwise transfer to an oven safe baking dish.
Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
Remove the foil, stir, and serve warm. If you want it more saucy, add a splash of veggie broth and stir.
FAQ’s
Baked beans are traditionally served over toast for breakfast, but they’re also great as a side dish at a barbecue served with macaroni salad, burgers, and grilled corn.
Yes! Once prepared, this recipe will store well in the fridge for about 5 days. It makes a fairly large batch so it’s perfect for big gatherings or if you just like having leftovers on hand.
Ketchup is often used in baked beans to add flavor and sweetness, but to keep the sugar a bit lower than usual, I opted for tomato sauce.
As written the recipe is still quite sweet, but not too sweet, so feel free to add more or less maple syrup or brown sugar to your liking.
They can! But for these vegan baked beans I tried to be mindful of the sugar content because I don’t like a mid-morning sugar crash!
We’ll be using a bit of maple syrup and brown sugar to sweeten, then molasses for that classic flavor. You can very easily adjust the sugar content to your liking to make them more or less sweet.
I only used 3 tbsp of molasses in this recipe because I prefer the taste that way, but for a more traditional flavor, go with 4, or even more if that’s your thing!
Pro tips
I like baked beans on the thicker side, if you prefer them more saucy, you can use 1 cup of tomato sauce instead of 2/3 cup or add vegetable broth before baking until it looks nice and saucy.
The flavors in this recipe are very easy to tailor to your own preferences, so don’t be afraid to taste and adjust as you like!
Traditional baked beans uses par boiled, then baked, which results in a soft but still slightly firm texture.
Because we’re using canned beans in this recipe, the final texture will be pretty soft, but I personally prefer it this way. It’s great with the nice crunch of toast!
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Vegan Baked Beans
by: claire cary
Ingredients
- 3 cans cannellini beans or navy beans drained and rinsed
- 1 yellow onion
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- ¾ cup tomato sauce plain, from a can
- 3 tbsp tomato paste
- 3-4 tbsp molasses
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 2 tbsp light brown sugar see notes
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp vegan worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp paprika
- 2 tsp hot sauce or to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Finely chop the onion and mince the garlic and add to a large pan or dutch oven with the oil.
- Saute until the onion starts to look translucent.
- Add all remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Taste and adjust flavors as desired. The "strength" of the flavors will deepen as the beans bake, but it's always a good idea to taste now and add more of anything you see fit.
- If using a cast iron pan or dutch oven you can keep it right in there, otherwise transfer to an oven safe baking dish.
- Cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes.
- Remove the foil, stir, and serve warm. If you want them more saucy, add a splash of veggie broth and stir.
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