Haricot or Navy Beans..Baked. Can We Do Better Than Heinz I Wonder?

hi Janey I love baked beans but so help me all the canned ones here in the USA are so sugar loaded it shoots my blood glucose up to nearly 300 and beans are supposed to be so good for diabetics? I used to make my own version using plain canned navy beans and my own tomato sauce with some splenda in place of molasses which most top grade canned ones use and a little garlic and some chopped cooked onion . its not super sweet but I liked it very much and it keeps my blood sugar down to normal. I loved to just buy dry navy beans and cook them with some ham chopped in and not make any kind of baked anything from them . they are good without being made into baked beans. now here I do not get to do any cooking.

Can't help ya on this one, Heinz are the best but then Tescos with a good dollop of tomato sauce in them do the trick It might be fun to make your own baked bean recipe, until now it is something I have not thought of but you got me curious

the US version of almost everything has more sugar..too much so,most of the time. i usually throw the beans in a chicken soup.we have an imported brand here called goya that isn't terribly expensive.

Hi Janey, We get Haricot and lots of different beans in tesco. There are dried ones or in cans, but we make sure that is says, "in water" and "no added salt or sugar". They can be put into stews or various dishes as they are cooking. The dried ones tend to need soaking over night - at least I think they do haricot as dried ones, but it has been many years since we soaked beans since the sugar-free variety has be available in cans. We don't eat baked beans any more. It was one of my addictions before. I would eat them at every meal for convenience! We found the sugar-free variety were sweetened with fruit sugar! Harricot beans taste similar to baked beans without the sauce or additives. And they have a lot of protein too. _Derek

I had to research to see what bean you are calling haricots. This is what we (US) call navy beans. I don't buy baked beans. I use a recipe and bake my own. I start with the dried beans and do the presoak and all that and then add the recipe ingredients to the beans. Can you not buy the dried beans there? Guess that is what you're calling the "bare" versions.

I reckon you can do better, Janey. Maybe with a bit of help from your truly? It makes sense that the US variety has more sugar in it, because they grow & process the stuff over there - heaps & heaps of it! I can't think of any big UK sugar cane growers, can you? It's also quite heavily subsidized over there too & probably this would make baked beans cheaper there too? Funny you should bring this one up now, as I was just emailed the latest from "supermarketsdeals" from "dealsdirect" & it shows a 420g can of Heinz Baked Beans for only $1.69! Do you get these emails too? I have used haricot beans before & I don't find them as good as most of the other 96 varieties of beans available that my local supplier always stocks: http://www.goodiesandgrains.com.au/ Maybe you have something like that over there too? This is really cheap & good quality organic stuff. What you need to remember when preparing any type of beans for cooking, is to soak them in drinking water for at least seven hours before draining, washing them & then cooking them as you wish. This alone makes a h u g e difference to reducing or eliminating any resulting digestive problems / flatulence, etc. Try to scrape the froth off the top whilst cooking as well. This gets rid of phytic acid & enzyme inhibitors, giving any beans a huge protein & nutrient boost as well. Sprouting & eating the sprouts is even more beneficial, with a protein boost of 1000% & a vitamin / mineral boost of 300% available in the end! Now waiting that long to eat something is really distressing, but if you are able to plan ahead, it's well worth the wait! Incidentally, this was common knowledge & practice in the UK & USA right up to the industrial revolution. Researching ancient recipes is wonderful stuff - just don't try any of the ones for making gold out of lead!

I've only used the canned baked beans. We don't make it regularly and I indianize it a bit with sated onions, mustard seeds and curry leaves. My mother would make it this way and we loved it growing up. But we grew up outside the country. Baked beans aren't common here in India (though we do get the canned ones in the store)....and besides having it with toast, not many people buy it. And since it's not a regular thing at our home, I'm not bothered with making it from scratch. I cook baked beans when I am lazy to do elaborate Indian cooking and need something quick...or when the kids ask for it.

"Haricot" is French for "bean", So I don't know what you mean...

I am not aware of this product, here in india we have several types of beans, the general name in hindi is 'chana', i and hubby are very fond of beans, it is a must in our night meal with chapati or paratha, because we both have diabetes, we need lot of proteins, we take different types of beans on different days. Happy posting, cheers. Kalyani

It amazes me to hear that navy beans are baked and added sugar to them.Among the beans,I dislike navy beans the most.We usually cut it into slivers then stir-fry.