You've seen a similar meal to this before. I did not have my beloved vegetarian beans in tomato sauce (Heinz), but I did have a can of store brand vegetarian brown sugar baked beans, and I figured I could give it a similar treatment. I
tried to have it as it was, with just some sauteed onions and bell pepper, but it tasted like canned food (I do not know how to explain this) so I added rice vinegar and some soy sauce and it was really nice. It was very different than my "Chinese-inspired saucy beans" but still good. And it went well over rice.
I know 100% what you mean about "tasting like canned food" and yes, the cure for it is doctoring, either with fresh veggies or herbs/spices or with an acid or fat to take it from wherever it is towards something not-institutional-canned-tasting.
ReplyDelete(the bizarre thing, really, is that so much canned food *doesn't* taste like that nebulous whatever-it-is. Bizarre and good, that is.)
I have so many baked beans (in the Heinz style, not in the US style) in my cupboard, we are never without them! Sounds like you did a good job fancying up that tin of beans.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many styles, I'm not sure one can say there is a specific US style--but I am glad there is a vegetarian version of the Heinz beans. Usually baked beans in tomato sauce have pork in them and are called "pork and beans."
DeleteI don't know if you have watched Buffy at all but I cannot hear the phrase 'pork and beans' without laughing about the fifth episode in Season One, Never Kill A Boy On The First Date. This Very Bad Person gets turned into a vampire and they end up in the funeral home with him at night and one of the things he does to be scary is just to growl 'Pork and Beans! Pork and Beans!', and it is honestly pretty funny.
DeleteI never watched Buffy, but a joke in The Office now makes sense to me!
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