After my fabulous birthday weekend celebration in Galveston, it was back to reality on Sunday night. The kids were in bed early, so I was able to prep Monday’s dinner on Sunday night so that all I had to do this morning was add everything to the crockpot and turn it on. There’s nothing like a good pot of red beans to make your Monday a happy one! It is only lunch time and the kitchen already smells heavenly… I can’t wait for dinner.
Making a good pot of beans is easy, cheap and nutritious. The tradition in Louisiana is to eat red beans on Mondays, so the late night chopping of onions and celery at our house is a common Sunday ritual. Why, you ask? Anyone in NOLA will tell you, “Monday is laundry day.”
To make good beans, you have to start the night before so plan ahead!
- 1 bag red beans (I prefer camellia brand beans because they get really good and creamy, but if you can’t find those buy the small red kidney beans)
- 2 links of andouille sausage, sliced into thin pieces (see note)
Note: When in New Orleans, I use “pickled pork” instead of sausage, but you can’t find that outside of the New Orleans area. And no, pickled pork is not the stuff you see in jars in convenience stores. If you are in New Orleans, you can buy it in the meat isle in any grocery store next to the ham hocks. You can always use ham hocks or smoked sausage if you can’t find andouille, but andouille gives the best flavor. Skip the German sausage varieties because the spices will make your beans taste weird. My Dad makes the beans with a little Tasso in addition to the sausage or pickled pork, but that is even harder to find outside of Louisiana. Use it if you find it, but use it sparingly because it can be really spicy and will overwhelm your beans if you aren’t careful.
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 4 stalks celery, diced
- 1 handful of fresh italian parsley, chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 to 1 tsp crushed red pepper (depending on how spicy you want it)
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 carton of chicken stock
- water
- Salt & pepper to taste (or Tony Chachere’s - my personal choice)
- couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce
The night before you want to eat red beans, place the dried beans in a large bowl of water and cover. Soak overnight. In the morning, drain the beans and rinse them. (Rinsing the beans will remove whatever it is about beans that causes people to get gas.)
My make ahead tip is to chop everything the night before and put all the ingredients other than the chicken stock and water in a ziploc bag. Put the bag in the fridge while the beans are soaking. This makes your Monday morning task a very easy one you can do before leaving for work.
Even easier prep for the end of the day happens if you have a rice cooker with a cook timer on it. I put the rice and water in the cooker on Sunday after I finish chopping onions. Once you turn on the crock pot full of beans in the morning, you can set your rice to be ready at the same time that you arrive home from work. My tip to a stress free Monday night dinner. All you have to do after work is show up!
- Put everything in your crock pot. Add water to the pot just until the beans and other ingredients are covered. Cook on high for about 12 hours, or all day until the beans are cooked and the sauce around them is creamy.
- Season to taste with more tabasco sauce and Tony Chachere’s. Remove bay leaves. Serve on top of cooked rice with sliced french bread or corn bread.
3 Responses to “New Orleans Style Red Beans & Rice”
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August 2nd, 2010 at 12:39 pm
I am going to try this with smoked turkey sausage since it’s hard to find turkey andouille. I don’t believe I can ever make it taste as good as yours, M-H, but I’m certainly going to try! Thanks for sharing your secrets.
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
I’ve used turkey sausage before and it worked great! You can also make it without the meat, use mushroom stock and then add a little ground corriander for flavor. I think it makes up for the missing smokey sausage taste if you are cooking for vegetarians.
August 3rd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
I absolutely love your new website. As I’ve said for years, my favorite place to eat “out’ is at your dinner table. It looks like I’ll actually, finally, pick up a few recipes I can attempt myself.
Vick