Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Nutritious and Economical

Three Bean Casserole

Name: Three Bean Casserole
Yield: 10 servings
Ingredients: 1 package frozen lima beans; 3 medium cans pork and beans; 2 cans kidney beans; 227 g smoked sausage or ham; 1 can tomato sauce; 120 g ketchup; 50 g brown sugar; 1 medium onion; 2 tsp salt; ½ tsp black pepper

A hearty, sweet-and-smoky bean bake — limas, pork and beans, and kidney beans with browned sausage in a brown-sugar-and-ketchup sauce. The cookout casserole that feeds a crowd.

15 min prep 1 hr bake

Effort ●●○○ Time ●●●○ Some Doing

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Brown the sausage, then bake it all uncovered. Cooking the limas briefly and browning the sausage first means everything finishes together in the oven; an hour uncovered cooks the sauce down sweet and thick.

Easier, if you like

Canned limas (drained) instead of frozen — skip the 10-minute cook.
Pre-cooked smoked sausage just needs a quick browning for color.

Method

Cook's notes

Three beans for three textures — creamy limas, saucy pork and beans, firm kidney beans.

It's a big-batch, take-to-the-cookout dish (about 10 servings) and reheats well.

Bake uncovered so the sauce reduces and the top caramelizes a little.

Smoked sausage gives the most flavor, but cubed ham works just as well.

Vegetarian or gluten-free with swaps

Vegetarian: leave out the sausage/ham (and use vegetarian baked beans in place of pork and beans), adding ½ tsp smoked paprika for the smoky note.

Gluten-free: check that the sausage and baked beans are GF (most are).