Vegetarian baked beans

This week, we got a small bag (~8 oz) of dried Marfax beans in our box.  (I only know that they are that type of bean because of the email from the farm.  I do not have a deep knowledge of bean types.)

The email included a recipe for baked beans, using beer and maple syrup.  As I'm not a fan of beer, I decided to change the recipe a bit.  I looked online for other recipes to see what other people put into baked beans and then created a recipe that blended the things I liked from the set.  I also decided to make the beans in my crock pot for an easy cook over the day.

Vegetarian Baked Beans

8 oz dried beans
1 medium to large onion
1-2 T olive oil
1/4 c molasses
1/4 c maple syrup
1 T dijon mustard
2 T tomato paste
1 t salt with herbs
2 T cider vinegar
2 c water (you may need to add a bit more during cooking)

Soak the beans overnight in water. 

In the morning, chop the onion and saute it in 1-2 T of olive oil.  When softened (5-7 minutes), add it to your crock pot.  Drain the beans and add them to the crock pot.  Then add all of the ingredients in the list above.  Stir.

Cover the crock pot and set it to cook on low for 7-8 hours.  You might need to add a bit more water towards the end of the cooking to prevent the beans from getting too dry (baked beans should have some sauce).  We had to add about another 1/2 c of water around hour 6.

After cooking, your beans will look like this:

Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.  (I didn't need to add anything.)

I served the beans with some carrots cooked with David Chang's recipe and parsnip biscuits (also a recipe from the farm email; post coming soon).  Husband also had chicken.

Thoughts: You might want to cut the tomato paste down to 1 tablespoon instead of 2, if you'd like the beans to be a bit less tomato-y.  I thought they were fine as is, but the tomato seemed a bit stronger than the other flavors.