Tonight's dinner: Smoky baked beans with cheese and onion toast

A real rib-sticker of a dish. The treacle and smoked paprika give a depth of flavour which mean you can get away with rustling this up quickly for a mid-week dinner rather than waiting on a lengthy slow cook. It's a great way of using up store cupboard bits and bobs. Borlotti or haricot beans work best because they're nice and soft, though butter beans and cannellini would also work fine. Just not the dreaded kidney bean - however long you cook them for, they'll still end up like little bullets. Use dark muscovado sugar if you don't have any treacle. 

SERVES

INGREDIENTS

• Olive oil 
• 120g chorizo, roughly chopped
• An onion, finely chopped
• A rib of celery 
• 2 carrots
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp smoked paprila
• 2 x tins chopped tomatoes
• 1 tbsp black treacle 
• 2 x tins borlotti beans
• A loaf of good bread 
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 150g mature cheddar 
• 6 spring onions, finely sliced

METHOD

1. Heat a little oil in a deep sided pan over a medium heat. Fry the chorizo until beginning to brown. Then remove from the pan and add the onion and a little more oil if the pan is too dry. Turn the heat down and pop the lid on. Sweat for two minutes until the onions have begun to soften.
2. Add the celery, carrots and garlic to the pan with a good pinch of salt. Stir, put the lid back on and leave to sweat for a further five minutes.

Turn the heat up and put the chorizo back in the pan along with the bay leaves, tomato puree, and smoked paprika and stir well.

Pour in the chopped tomatoes and treacle and simmer covered for five minutes.

Add the beans and their water, along with and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Simmer, covered, for 15 minutes.

Taste and adjust the seasoning, and a little more treacle or paprika if you think it needs it. The beans should be glossy and thick, so take the lid off for a couple of minutes if the liquid needs to reduce a bit. 

In the meantime, toast your bread. Spread with a slick of mustard, top with slices of cheddar and the finely chopped spring onions. Either pop the pieces of toast under the grill or top them with another slice of toasted bread and fry in a little butter.