Beans on Toast from the Tomb Raider Cookbook
One of the most relevant dishes out of Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide is Beans on Toast. As a British staple, it was mentioned in Lara Croft’s original biography from 1996 as her favorite food. The irony is, it’s actually a reverse export from America. Whereas a lot of dishes of European origin in America are the result of colonization, it wasn’t until the settlers arrived in what is now the United States that they discovered beans, a staple crop of Indigenous peoples. Baked beans in particular became very popular, and made their way to the United Kingdom as a popular canned product, particularly made by Heinz.
Despite being a proficient cook from her days at finishing school and having sampled most of the exotic delicacies of the world, Lara usually opts for beans on toast when at home.
The Tomb Raider cookbook includes a recipe for Beans on Toast, along with the favorite snack of the Survivor Trilogy’s Lara, Jaffa Cakes (more on that in another post). A close friend of mine who is British scoffed at the notion. “You don’t need a recipe for Beans on Toast!” he said. I thought the same thing, and figured the ‘recipe’ in the book was telling you how to make the baked beans part from scratch. I was correct.
I’m not against using canned beans at all. In fact, I used canned baked beans for a ‘falafel’ recipe from Nadiya Hussain quite a while ago. I do like to make things from scratch when I can. Aside from that, Heinz is a company I have long boycotted because they closed a factory in my region of the world and laid off all the workers. Greedy corporations can kiss my -
Moving on, I made them as a meal for myself on a night when I was alone. All you do is simmer the beans with the various sauce ingredients for 20 minutes, toast and butter some bread, and pour the beans on and top with shredded cheddar. I like to think Lady Croft would want to share some Beans on Toast with me.
It was very good! I can see why it’s so heavily consumed in the UK. Obviously, it’s easy to open a can, warm them up and eat them that way, but when you can take the time to do it fresh and simmer your own beans, why not do it?
If you want to make this recipe for Beans on Toast yourself, you can find it in Tomb Raider: The Official Cookbook and Travel Guide, or posted on the official Tomb Raider account here. You can read an archived copy of Lara Croft’s 1996 bio here.
