This recipe for Balkan baked beans (prebranac) is comfort in a bowl! Packed with smokey charred capsicum, plenty of paprika, onions and creamy white beans, it’s a classic, hearty Balkan dish. This version is vegan, (perfect for Great Lent as it’s posno/fast-friendly). Served with some thick slices of rustic homemade sourdough bread, it’s so utterly comforting, your family will love this on those colder days!
Balkan baked beans (prebranac) is basically a baked dish of layered beans, onions, and paprika. The onions and paprika give the dish most of its flavour and colour. So prepare to use lots of onions and paprika! I love to add charred, smokey capsicum (bell peppers) to mine for the extra flavour and texture. Plus the bits of red look beautiful in the tray!
The end result is a luscious tray of baked beans coated in a velvety, flavourful sauce with delicate ribbons of jam-like onion. Just look at how gorgeous and saucy it is!
Prebranac is not meant to be swimming in liquid or sauce. We’re not making soup here, that would be closer to pasulj! But it shouldn’t be dry or pasty either. The goal is a creamy dish of tender beans, held together by a rich onion, capsicum and paprika base. Once your dish of Balkan baked beans (prebranac) is baked, the liquid thickens and the top develops a gorgeous, deep red crust. And once you dig open that crust, you’ve got incredibly flavourful, perfectly velvety beans inside.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It’s the ultimate comfort food. Baked beans are a classic soul-warming food, and this recipe for Balkan baked beans (prebranac) is no exception! Dishes like this are best served by plonking the entire baking dish in the middle of the dinner table. Everyone can help themselves! Who doesn’t love a communal dinner?
- It’s budget-friendly. This is a humble dish through and through. Beans, some spices, and some vegetables. But treated with the right care, they’re transformed into something truly special! Plus, a tray of these Balkan baked beans (prebranac) will easily feed a large family. Or, you can make a large batch and portion into containers for a filling, inexpensive meal prep option!
- Vegan (perfect for Great Lent or posno). ‘Posno‘ refers to fasting food in Serbian (my husband is Serbian if you’re new to this blog!). So this is a meal we have on rotation during Orthodox fasting periods. It’s solid, reliable, packed with flavour, and hearty. With some thick slices of homemade sourdough bread, you’ve got a rustic, comforting, delicious meal.
What are the Best Beans to Use for Baked Beans (Prebranac)?
The best beans to use are Great Northern beans! They’re large, white, and deliciously creamy when cooked with the right care. If you can’t find them, cannellini beans, navy (haricot) beans, or butter (lima) beans are good alternatives!
I use dried beans for this recipe, but you can use canned if you want the convenience. I just find that dried beans have a creamier texture without going mushy, and have a more robust flavour. Plus, you get to control the sodium with dried beans, and retain more of the micronutrients!
Ingredients in these Balkan Baked Beans (Prebranac)
Besides Great Northern beans, you’ll also need brown onions. A lot of them. Prepare for lots of tears 🥲 Totally worth it though! Most of the flavour of this dish comes from the caramelised, sweet onions, as well as garlic.
You’ll also need smokey paprika, and sweet paprika. And to elevate that paprika flavour to the max, you’ll need red capsicum (bell peppers) too! We are charring them for this recipe for that extra layer of smokiness. But feel free to use a jar of store-bought fire roasted peppers instead.
For the rest of the spices and herbs, you need bay leaves, salt, black pepper, and red chilli flakes. And to bring the flavourful base together, you’ll need extra virgin olive oil! Finally, this recipe would not Balkan without Vegeta, the popular European vegetable stock powder/seasoning!
Note: Vegeta contains MSG, which can cause headaches or digestive upset in some people. And excessive amounts of it can be damaging. Everyone’s different, and if you personally can’t tolerate MSG, feel free to substitute the Vegeta with salt, or an MSG-free stock powder. The dish is still delicious! But I do think the Vegeta gives an authentic Balkan taste to the dish, and extra flavour you don’t get from salt alone.
How to Make Balkan Baked Beans (Prebranac)
Why Do I Need to Soak Dried Beans?
If using dried beans, soak them the day before (I like to soak for 12-24 hours). This helps them cook faster and more evenly. Soaking dried beans also breaks down some of the anti-nutrients like phytic acid (which prevent the absorption of certain minerals). So it makes them more nutritious by making the minerals more bioavailable, and utilised by your body.
When you’re ready to cook, rinse them after soaking and pop them into a large pot with cold water. Bring to the boil, simmer for 20 minutes, then drain them.
This ‘first boil’ brings out complex sugars (oligosaccharides) like raffinose, stachyose and verbascose. To put it nicely, this is the stuff that make beans a musical fruit! 🤪 They cause gas, discomfort, and that bloated feeling you get when eating beans. So draining this first batch of water significantly reduces this, making beans much more pleasant to eat!
Making the Onion, Paprika and Capsicum (Bell Pepper) Base
Char your capsicums (bell peppers) over an open flame to blacken the skins. You can also do this in the oven or use store-bought fire roasted capsicum. But store-bought just doesn’t have that same level of smokiness (and sometimes sits in vinegar, or sugar – flavours we don’t want here!).
Once you peel the skins off, chop the capsicum into small chunks and set aside.
Then make a start on the onions! Slice your onions thinly. Try not to chop your finger off as onion-tears stream down your face 🥲 You can use a food processor to chop them instead, but slices just give a beautiful textural contrast with the beans. They turn into the most delicate ribbons! Chopped onions seem to get ‘lost’ in all that sauce.
Add the onions, garlic, and olive oil to a pan, and pop the lid on to let them steam. Don’t be alarmed by the sheer amount of onions! They will cook down significantly, and flavour these Balkan baked beans (prebranac) wonderfully. Honestly, the onions are almost as important as the beans in prebranac!
Once steamed, take the lid off and let the onions and garlic slowly caramelise and soften. Because there is so much oil, it’s more of a confit!
Add the spices and capsicum to the caramelised onion and garlic to make a thick, luscious sauce. This base is going to coat the beans and is really the hero of flavour in this dish!
Assembling and Baking the Beans (Prebranac)
Once the beans are tender, lift them out into a baking dish with a slotted spoon. Do not drain them! You’ll need some of the reserved liquid. Mix through your onion, paprika and capsicum base.
Then, spoon some ladles of the reserved liquid into the dish, until the water is barely reaching the top of the beans. Gently push the beans around so the liquid reaches the bottom. The beans should be sitting (not drowning) in a thick liquid, like this!
Bake for 25 minutes covered, then 25 minutes uncovered to develop a gorgeous deep red crust on top. If you can resist, let the prebranac sit for a few minutes to set. But let’s be honest, when the edges are bubbling and blipping away once you pull the dish out of the oven, it’s pretty hard to resist just digging in!
What To Serve Balkan Baked Beans (Prebranac) With
Prebranac is such a hearty, comforting dish, it’s perfect to eat simply on its own! I often make it for my posna Slava where we honour our family’s patron Saint, Saint Nicholas! But it’s also a great vegan (posno) option for Great Lent or other fasting periods.
If you’re making this as part of Balkan feast, then serve as a side dish along sarma (Balkan stuffed cabbage leaves) or Balkan stuffed capsicums/bell peppers(punjena paprika)! And why not indulge in a classic Balkan dessert, with these Balkan-style crêpes (palačinke)😋
But I think the best way to eat these Balkan beaned beans (prebranac) is piled high in a big bowl, with some thick slices of homemade sourdough bread for mopping up all that delicious onion and paprika sauce. There’s few things more comforting than a rustic, hearty bowl of warm, rich baked beans.
I truly hope you enjoy this recipe! If you tried it and loved it, I would be so grateful if you left a 5-star review and a comment to let me know how it went! xxx
Balkan Baked Beans (Prebranac) Recipe
Description
This recipe for Balkan baked beans (prebranac) is comfort in a bowl! Packed with smokey charred capsicum, plenty of paprika, onions and creamy white beans, it's a classic, hearty Balkan dish. This version is vegan, (perfect for Great Lent as it's posno/fast-friendly). It's so utterly comforting, your family will love this on those colder days!
Ingredients
Method
Cooking the Dried Beans (if using canned beans, skip to step 5)
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Soak the beans in a large bowl with cold water for 12-24 hours (see Note 4). Drain and rinse.
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Place the beans into a large pot and cover with 5cm (2 inches) of cold water. Bring to the boil, and simmer for 20 minutes. Then drain and rinse the beans under warm water.
Discarding this first batch of water reduces the compounds that create gas and discomfort when eating beans! See Note 5. -
Return the beans to the pot, and cover with hot water by 5cm (2 inches). Boiled water from the kettle works perfectly! Add the bay leaves and 2 teaspoons of salt, bring to the boil, and reduce to a simmer for 40 minutes, or until the beans are tender and cooked.
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When the beans are cooked, lift them out with a slotted spoon into a large baking dish. Reserve the cooking liquid for step 11!
Making the Smokey Onion Base
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Place the whole capsicums over an open flame on your gas stove for 10 minutes, turning every minute until the skins are blackened. Alternatively, place them in the oven at 200°C (390°F) fan on the grill function for 40 minutes, flipping halfway.
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Place them in a heatproof bowl for 15-20 minutes and cover tightly with cling film. Peel the skins, discard the seeds and stem (wet hands help with this process). It's fine if some black flecks remain. Cut the capsicum into 2-3cm (1 inch) chunks.
If using store-bought charred capsicum, simply drain and cut! -
Add the olive oil, garlic, sliced onions and pinch of salt to a large pan on low heat. Place the lid on, and sweat the onions for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
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Remove the lid and increase the heat to medium-low for 20 minutes, stirring frequently until the onions caramelise. Do not rush this step! See Note 6.
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Add the paprika, smokey paprika, pepper, vegeta, red chilli flakes, and the remaining 2 teaspoons of salt, and stir for 30 seconds. Turn off the heat, add the chunks of capsicum, and stir.
Assembling and Baking the Prebranac
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Preheat your oven to 200°C (390°F) fan forced. Gently mix through the onion and capsicum mixture into the drained beans in a large baking dish. Adjust for salt.
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Pour 2 ladles (roughly 250ml) of the reserved bean cooking liquid (or just hot water, if using canned beans) over the dish. Gently move the beans so the liquid sinks in. The water should sit just below the surface.
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Cover with foil, and place into the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil, and bake uncovered for 20-25 minutes, or until the top develops a deep red, golden crust.
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Optional, but let the prebranac sit for 20 minutes to set (see Note 7). Otherwise, dig in and enjoy!
Note
- 1. If you can't find Great Northern beans, close alternatives include navy (haricot), cannellini, or butter (lima) beans.If using canned, cooked beans, and store-bought roasted capsicum, simply make the onion base, mix everything together and bake! For this recipe, you'll need 10 x 400g tins of beans. Once drained, you'll have roughly the same weight in beans as 1kg dried. Rinse them to get rid of excess sodium before using.
- 2. Continental grocers sell large jars of jarred, roasted capsicum. For this recipe, a 1kg jar is ideal (remember, some of that weight is liquid). Try find one with the least amount of ingredients. Some have sugar, or vinegar, which messes with the flavour profile of this dish!
- 3. Vegeta contains MSG, which can cause headaches or digestive upset in some people. And excessive amounts of it can be damaging. Everyone's different, and if you personally can't tolerate MSG, feel free to substitute the Vegeta with salt, or an MSG-free stock powder.
- 4. Some will say you don't need to soak dried beans. This is technically true (it just means you have to cook them for longer). But, soaking dried beans makes them much more nutritious and digestible, which is why I soak them for 12-24 hours.
Importantly, soaking dried beans breaks down some of the anti-nutrients like phytic acid (which prevent the absorption of certain minerals). Through soaking, minerals in the beans become more bioavailable (your body more readily utilises them)! - 5. This step may seem unnecessary, but it's really not! This 'first boil' brings out complex sugars (oligosaccharides) like raffinose, stachyose and verbascose. To put it nicely, this is the stuff that make beans a musical fruit! 🤪 They cause gas, discomfort, and bloat. So draining this first batch of water significantly reduces this, making beans much more pleasant to eat.
- 6. Slowly letting the onions soften and confit in the oil is something you shouldn't rush. It's really the foundation of flavour in this dish, so you want the sugars in the onions to slowly caramelise. But to speed up the process, add a small splash of water to your pan as the onions cook down!
- 7. Kind of like you would do for a lasagna! Leaving the prebranac for 20 minutes allows the texture of the sauce to become more cohesive and thicken. So if it looks slightly too watery once out of the oven, leave it to set, and it'll have thickened. If reheating, just add a splash of water if needed to loosen it up!
