Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole Recipe – The Best Baked Bean Casserole Ever

Although my baked bean casserole recipe is easy, homemade, southern, dairy free, soy free, nut free, gluten free, grain free and ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS, it is not vegan or vegetarian. However, it is the best baked bean casserole you’ll ever cook and eat.

I really like meals that I can divide and freeze in individual portion sizes and this is one of those meals that keeps perfectly when frozen. After I get the freezer stocked with basic entrees, on the days that I don’t feel like cooking or I’m in a huge rush, I still can eat a nutritious and delicious home cooked meal.

In my Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole recipe I state that you can use Navy beans or Great Northern beans. In this recipe the two beans are totally interchangeable. So let me explain the difference. Great Northern beans are a little bit larger, hold their shape a little better, and cook a tad bit slower. Just so you know, the “official” baked bean recipe is made with Navy beans which are also called Haricot, Pearl Haricot bean, White Pea bean, or Pea bean.

What do Navy beans and Great Northern beans do for the body?

For just a minute, let’s talk about what Navy beans and Great Northern beans do for your body. Beans are SO GOOD FOR YOU! Here a few things that these wonderful beans will add to your diet and do for your health:

Folate: B-vitamin; supports your red blood cells; make DNA and other genetic material; necessary for the body’s cells to divide

Choline: usually grouped within the B-complex vitamins and necessary for the health of the body’s cell membranes

Calcium: build strong bones and teeth; blood to clot: nerves send messages; muscles contract .

Protein: build and repair tissues; make enzymes, hormones; building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood

Dietary Fiber: promotes the movement of material through your digestive system

Magnesium: regulating muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure and making protein, bone, and DNA

Phosphorus: build strong bones and teeth; present in cells and tissues throughout the body

Potassium: necessary for electrolyte regulation, nerve function, muscle control, and blood pressure; found within all cells of the body; regulate water and mineral balance throughout the body

Iron: to synthesize oxygen-carrying red blood cells

Beans are such a fantastic food and so easy to use in many dishes, but today they were the main ingredient in my Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole. Last month I promised that the next time I made my Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole, I would share the recipe and write a tutorial. Well, today that’s exactly what I’m doing, so I hope you enjoy!

Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Cut the bacon strips into 1 inch pieces, then place in a large skillet over medium heat. It’s important that the heat remains at medium so that the bacon will become crisp on the outside, but still chewy on the inside. That’s how I always cook my bacon because I think it ends up more flavorful.

Fry the bacon pieces until light brown in color and crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and and set aside in a bowl. Discard the drippings in a metal or glass container. Do not pour them down the sink.

Wait a minute. I want to just stare at the bacon for minute. Isn’t it beautiful. LOL I can’t help myself. I’ve always loved bacon and I don’t even waste the bacon crumbs.

In the same “bacon dirty” skillet over medium heat, brown the sirloin burger with the diced onions. By cooking on medium, the liquid from the onions keep the sirloin burger from sticking in the non-stick pan.

And add the chopped garlic to the pan so it will brown also. While the meat is cooking, continually break it into smaller pieces.

When the sirloin burger, onions and garlic have browned, add the molasses.

Add the prepared mustard.

Add the zest from one orange.

Peel 2 oranges, cut them in half, and dice each half into 16 pieces.

Add the diced orange pieces to the pan of meat mixture.

Add the ketchup. If you eat grain free, be very careful which ketchup you use because most brands have corn syrup as an ingredient. “Corn” is a grain. Mix all the ingredients well.

Drain and rinse the beans in colander. Pour into the 9×13 casserole pan.

Add the meat mixture and mix well. Then add the honey and maple syrup.

Add the cooked bacon. Mix well, but do not smoosh or mash the soft, cooked beans.

Pour the mixture into a 9×13 inch casserole dish and flatten all the ingredients with the back of spoon. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Serve hot.

Yum.

The hardest part of making this dish is smelling the tantalizing aroma that fills every room for hours!

The juice from the orange pieces has permeated the dish with just a hint of the citrus flavor.

Of course, the flavor mixture of the bacon and sirloin burger together is phenomenal.

I used to add 1/4 cup of brown sugar instead of the honey, but I’ve seriously cut back on my processed sugar intake and save it for desserts only. The beans soak up all the flavors and each bite is better than the last one. It is seriously hard to stop eating even when I’m full!

Well, your bowl is waiting. I’ll see you when you get here. 😉 Hurry because I have very little self-control with these baked beans!

Easy Homemade Baked Bean Casserole

Ingredients:

1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 pound of sirloin burger
1 medium organic onion, diced
2 tablespoons organic garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon molasses
1/2 tablespoon prepared mustard
Zest from one orange
2 oranges, peeled and diced (save the peels)
21 ounces ketchup
4 pounds cooked organic Navy beans or Great Northern beans, organic
2 tablespoons honey, local
2 tablespoons maple syrup, local

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large skillet over medium heat fry the 1 inch cut bacon pieces until crisp. Remove the bacon from the pan and and set aside. Discard the drippings.

In the same “bacon dirty” skillet over medium heat, brown the sirloin burger, diced onions and chopped garlic.

Stir in the molasses, mustard, orange zest, orange pieces and ketchup. Mix well.

Drain and rinse the beans in colander. Pour into the 9×13 casserole dish. Add meat mixture to the beans and combine. Add honey, maple syrup and bacon. Mix well, but do not smoosh or mash the soft, cooked beans. Smooth all the ingredients with the back of spoon to make the top flat. Cover mixture in casserole dish with aluminum foil and bake for 2 – 2 1/2 hours. Serve hot.