Baked beans

We love beans on toast in this house and I enjoy making my own version with a rich tomato sauce and a mixture of beans for different colours and textures.  This evening The Woo's out with Annie at a Girlie Night so we decided to have a quick version for supper before she headed off.

This is a great budget meal and really ramps up ordinary baked beans into something a little bit special. You can add more of less of the things you want or, more importantly, if on a budget as a student etc -  whatever's in the fridge or cupboards.  For example, for the chorizo part of this meal I used about a 6" length but just a few slices will give as much flavour if you need or want to stretch things out a bit.

So...I softened a small sliced onion in a little olive oil and added a couple of chopped garlic cloves.  In went a couple of roughly chopped chillies from the garden, the sliced chorizo, a few sliced mushrooms, a squeeze of tomato puree, about a third of a teaspoon of smoked paprika and some salt and pepper.  I also added a small glug of red wine to ours but only 'cos I was opening the bottle anyway!

This was all cooked together until the chorizo had leeched out its lovely paprika oil and then a tin of baked beans was added and stirred in.  Heated until the beans were warm through and then onto some lovely buttered rustic bread.  Topped with grated cheese it certainly hit the spot!