Red Beans & Rice

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Red Beans & Rice

Course Main Course

Cuisine Creole, Soups, Stews, Chowders

Keyword fat tuesday, mardi gras

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 8

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp bacon grease (or vegetable oil)
• 1 cup yellow onion chopped
• 1/2 cup green bell pepper chopped
• 1/2 cup celery chopped
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 andouille sausage sliced on bias
• 1 lb dried small red beans soaked overnight and drained
• 1 ham bone
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 sprigs thyme

Instructions

• In a large heavy bottom pot over medium high heat, saute onion, green bell pepper, celery and garlic until softened, about 3-5 minutes. 
• Add andouille to the pot and saute for another 3 minutes.
• Add soaked red beans, ham bone, broth, bay leaves, salt and pepper, cayenne and thyme.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 3 hours.  When finished, remove ham bone and thyme springs.  Serve with steamed white rice and garnish with sliced green onions.

Make plans to simmer a pot of these Creole Red Beans and serve it up with rice this weekend. You’ll be ready to Laissez les bons temps rouler, as they say in the Big Easy. 

This dish was traditionally made on a Monday, which was laundry day, and back when we washed clothes by hand on a wash  rack it took most of the day, which left little time for cooking.  A leftover ham bone, some dried beans soaked overnight and the faithful trinity of onions, green bell pepper and celery quickly became the go-to meal for feeding the family.