Southerner Approved Red Beans and Rice Recipe

One of the articles I read about teens and chores and making sure you are turning out respectable human beings into the world mentioned having “your teen make dinner for the family”. This makes a lot of sense to me. It is helpful but also practical in that there is a high likelihood of willingness and them being able to cook for themselves.

Mulling this over, my marriage to a southern boy has inherently come with a wifely mandate of monthly red beans and rice. Red beans and rice legit never goes bad in this house. It is consumed and consumed again until it is gone and – who loves it the most? Aria.

So, Aria – our 14 year old, who is virtual on Wednesdays – agreed to learn how to make red beans and rice. And not just any red beans and rice. I am teaching Aria how to make the red beans and rice recipe we have been iterating on. (Yes, we have agile recipe development in this house.)

This is the current version I have captured for our household red beans and rice. Try it out :)

Oh – and here’s our playlist she made from our roadtrip this summer you are welcome to enjoy while you cook up some red beans! We did.

Prep

Chop 1 yellow onion, 1 green pepper, 2 cloves of garlic and 2 celery stalks and set aside in a bowl

Chop up a package of andouille sausage and set aside in a bowl

Get out Worcesterhire sauce, 2 quarts of broth, your spices and your mustard (we use spicy brown or stone ground)

1. Heat 2 – 3 T olive oil on medium high in a pot
2. Add chopped veggies to pot
3. Stir chopped veggies up so they are covered in oil
4. Add as least two shakes of liquid smoke to the veggies – more if you want it smokier. Stir it up.
5. Lower heat to medium and cover while you do the next step
6. Add 1 T Worcestershire sauce and 1 T fancy mustard to the sausage and loosely mix
7. Add sausage mix from step 6 to translucent veggies and give it a good mix
8. Add 3 T taco seasoning, 1 tsp celery salt, 1 tsp salt and give it another good mix
9. With the base of veggies and sausage mix all working well together, add 4 cans of drained red beans
10. Add 2 quarts of chicken or veggie stock
11. Taste the broth and see if you want to add a little bit of sugar. Not proud of this move, but we like it with a twist of sweet
12. Bring to a boil, pray over it ya know and then lower to simmer for 30 – 45 minutes

Make your rice to complete the dish. Enjoy. :)