On the Table: Vegetarian BBQ Beans (and Bonus Zucchini!)

The weather has been BEAUTIFUL (well, other than the hurricane over the weekend) and COOL(ish) for the past few days, and I am starting to get into a fall mood.  I really want to enjoy summer food just a little bit longer, though, so last night I decided to go full summer spread - hot dogs, zucchini, and baked beans...although I am calling them BBQ beans since they're not baked.  The beans were delicious!  They would be completely awesome with some bacon in them too (obviously), but I decided to keep them vegetarian this time.  They were pretty sweet, so if you don't like super-sweet things, I would cut down on the corn syrup.  They had a great balance of sweet and spicy and just a hint of vinegar-y.  Yum yum yum.  To prepare:

Dice up one small yellow onion.  Put a medium-sized pot over medium heat and thinly coat the bottom of the pan with canola oil.  When the oil gets hot, add the onions to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the onions become translucent.  A little browning around the edges is good too.

Add the following to the pot: 1.5 cups of ketchup; 1/2 of a teaspoon of ground cloves; 1/3 of a teaspoon of ground ginger; 1/3 of a teaspoon of ground mustard; 3 teaspoons of honey; 1 teaspoon of maple syrup (grade B, ideally); two 15.5 ounce cans of kidney beans (drained but not rinsed - I used one can of light kidney beans and one can of dark kidney beans); 1/4 of a cup of dark corn syrup; 1/4 of a cup of brown sugar (I used light, but dark might be better if you have it); and salt.  Stir well to combine.  Bring to a simmer, cover the pot, and turn down the heat so the liquid just maintains a simmer.  Cook for about an hour (stir every once in a while), or until the beans soften.

Since this post was seriously lacking in pictures, I took some pics of the zucchini I made...

Slice the zucchini lengthwise, rub it with canola oil and sprinkle it with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook it at 400 degrees until the zucchini just starts to soften (grilling it would also be great!).

I served the zucchini topped with plain Greek yogurt (it tastes almost like sour cream), which was just delicious.

Beans, zucchini, and a hot dog topped with pepper jack cheese and mustard...that says end-of-summer to me!

Enjoy!