Recipe: Brasilliant Red Beans and Rice

Inspired by Brasilliant’s posting about making red beans and rice and the other night, I felt compelled to ask her for the recipe she used. I figured she’s a Southern girl, so if anyone knows how to make this dish, it would be her.

The recipe didn’t disappoint. While I doubt mine came out as authentic as her’s does, I found it a perfectly satisfying and balanced dish. The veggies practically melt in your mouth. The sausage reaches a near-perfect consistency. And adding a little Tapatio to the plated dish gives it just the right amount of spice.

Like any dish made from dried beans, making red beans and rice takes some time. Erring on the safe side, I’d put aside four hours of total cooking and prep time, but most of that requires very little attention.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. dried red beans (kidney or chili beans)
• 2 links andouille sausage (kielbasa or other spicy sausage will do), cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. dried oregano
• 1 tsp. dried thyme
• ½ tsp. cumin
• 1 tsp. cayenne
• 6 c. low sodium chicken broth
• salt to taste

Instructions

Place the beans in a pot and cover by several inches of salted water. Bring to a boil for two minutes, cover, turn off heat and let stand for an hour. Rinse and set aside.

In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil and brown the sausage (3-5 minutes). Remove the sausage and set aside.

Add the veggies to the dutch oven, sauteeing for about 10 minutes and making sure to scrape all the bits left by the sausage. Add garlic and spices and sautee for about 2 minutes longer.

Add the broth (it really helps if you heat the broth beforehand) and beans. Bring to slow boil and then reduce heat. Cover pot with lid slightly open and cook for about two hours or until beans are fully cooked. Periodically check on the beans, making sure too much liquid hasn’t evaporated or been absorbed. Add more liquid if necessary.

Once beans are ready, add the reserved sausage and cook uncovered for another 30 minutes.

Service

The most obvious way to serve red beans is over long-grained rice. We used jasmine rice. Like I said, it went great with Tapatio, which is a Mexican chili sauce, but Tabasco is probably a little more traditional. Since it’s being served with rice, you should be able to get at least 10 servings out of this recipe.

How much this will set you back

Sausage: about $5/pound ($.50 per person); Red beans: $1.80/pound ($.18); Veggies: $1 ($.10); Broth: $2 ($.20); Miscellaneous spices: $1 ($.10); Rice: $1 ($.10). Total: About $12 or about $1.20 per serving.