My gochujang butter beans get their saucy texture from a simmered apple cider and gochujang sauce, with two cans of butter beans doing the heavy lifting. The cider reduces alongside the gochujang, tamari, and vegetable broth until it’s thick enough to coat a spoon, no extra thickeners required.
How Apple Cider Became My Gochujang Sauce Secret
Butter beans are my favorite bean, hands down. Between my zesty butter beans, marry me butter beans, crispy butter beans, butter bean stew, and butter bean curry, they’re some of the most popular and best-reviewed recipes on the whole blog, so I’m always looking for a new way to cook them.
This one started with fall on my mind. I wanted to work apples into a butter bean recipe and kept coming back to apple cider, figuring it would simmer down into a real sauce instead of just adding flavor around the edges. I was right. As it reduces with the gochujang, tamari, and broth, the cider brings a complex, subtly sweet depth that plays perfectly against the gochujang’s savory heat. It’s a match made in heaven. Gochujang gets a reputation for being spicy, but here it’s doing more for flavor than heat, so even my kids ate these beans without complaint.
Ingredients Worth Talking About
A few quick notes on the ingredients that matter most. Find the full ingredient list and instructions in the recipe card below.
The Keys to Getting This Sauce Right
- Don’t rush the simmer. The sauce needs the full 10 minutes to reduce and thicken. Pull it too early and you’ll end up with thin, watery beans instead of a clingy sauce.
- Mash gently, not aggressively. You’re only mashing some of the beans against the pan, not pureeing. Overdo it and you’ll lose the texture that makes this dish feel hearty instead of like a dip.
- Keep it at a gentle simmer, not a hard boil. A hard boil can break the butter beans apart before the sauce has had time to reduce properly.
What to Serve with Gochujang Butter Beans
- Spoon it over a bowl of garlic fried rice to soak up every bit of the sauce.
- Pile it onto toasted gluten-free bread for a saucy, open-face meal.
- Serve it alongside my Korean cucumber salad to balance the richness.
- Top it with extra cilantro and a squeeze of lime for brightness.
More Saucy Bean Recipes You Might Love
Apple Cider Gochujang Butter Beans
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter divided, use dairy-free butter if necessary
- 1 small yellow onion finely diced
- 3 garlic cloves minced
- 2 tablespoons gochujang use gluten-free if necessary
- 1 cup apple cider
- ½ cup vegetable broth
- 2 15-ounce cans butter beans drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon tamari or coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- fresh cilantro chopped, for garnish
- Cooked rice or toasted bread for serving
Method
- Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 3–4 minutes, until softened.
- Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute longer. Stir in the gochujang and cook while stirring continuously, about 30 seconds longer.
- Add the apple cider, vegetable broth, butter beans, and tamari. Stir well and bring to a gentle simmer.
- Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce has reduced and thickened slightly.
- Lightly mash some of the butter beans against the side of the pan to make the sauce creamier while leaving most of the beans whole.
- Stir in the apple cider vinegar and remaining tablespoon of butter. Remove from the heat.
- Top with cilantro and serve over rice or with toasted gluten-free bread. Enjoy!
Notes
- Mash some, not all, of the butter beans against the pan for the creamiest texture while keeping some whole.
- Let the sauce fully reduce before pulling it off the heat. It thickens a bit more as it sits, too.
- Storage: Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Reheat gently on the stovetop, adding a splash of broth if the sauce has thickened up too much.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is automatically calculated using a third-party calculator and is an estimate only.
