Help me with dinner - red beans & rice

[Night Elf]

I grew up in New Orleans so I adore dishes like this. DH and I usually buy the Zatarain's brand of red beans & rice in a box and just add turkey sausage. But I really want to do it from scratch. But how???

 

I remember my grandmother soaking the beans in a big pot. I bought a bag of red beans and it says I can do a quick soak by heating them up and then letting them sit. But first, what does it mean when it says 'rinse and sort' the beans? Sort them how?

 

I have turkey sausage and leftover cooked chicken to toss in.

 

DH and I are on Weight Watchers so we need a WW friendly meal. Now what do I add to beans besides the meat to make a slightly spicy dish?

 

I'm beginning to regret this impulsive purchase of dry beans. I should have stuck with Zatarains. I'm not a cook. I feel intitimdated by dry beans!! :tongue_smilie:

[unsinkable]

You can do it!

 

Rinse and sort means to wash with running water and pick out any non-bean items. All kinds of cr@p can get in there.

 

You can cook the beans with onions & celery& garlic til almost soft then add seasoning (like cajun or creole) and your sausage.

 

Don't add salt until they are almost done.

[Ellyndria]

I can't help with the recipe part, but...

 

When you sort beans, you pour them out and look for things that shouldn't be in there, like rocks. (Yes, sometimes little rocks get in with the beans.) I also take out any beans that look weird. I usually do this by pouring out a little at a time into a lid of a pan, so that there's a single layer, which is easier to pick through. Once you've gone through them all, then you can soak the beans, etc.

Edited November 10, 2011 by Ellyndria

[unsinkable]

should have add this link:

 

red beans and rice

 

This is one of my favorite food blogs. It is my favorite southern food blog. :D

[BarbecueMom]

Here's my recipe. Not sure about WW points, but you can just simmer the veggies rather than cooking them first in the oil to eliminate that. I grew up eating Zatarains too, and this is the first recipe I've made that didn't taste like bean and rice slop. I'm not southern, so this is not authentic, but it's what works for us.

 

1 pound dry red beans, cooked, with reserved juice (I use canned lately)

1/4 cup olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

2 Tablespoons minced garlic

2 bay leaves

1 T. molasses

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or less)

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried sage

1 Tablespoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning

1 pound cooked sausage, sliced or crumbled

2 cups cooked rice

 

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Cook onion, bell pepper, garlic, and celery in olive oil for 3 to 4 minutes. Stir cooked vegetables into beans. Season with bay leaves, molasses, cayenne pepper, thyme, sage, parsley, and Cajun seasoning. Simmer for 30-45 minutes. Stir sausage into beans, and continue to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Serve beans over steamed rice.

[MeaganS]

We have red beans and rice every other week or so. Here are my instructions. We have used both canned and dried beans, and prefer dried. We have also used both white and brown rice, and prefer the brown rice. It compliments the beans very well.

 

1 lb dried red beans (you can use 4 cans instead, but if you do, use less water)

½ Hillshire Farms smoked turkey or chicken sausage, cut up

1 large onion, chopped

2 large stalks of celery w/ leaves, chopped

½ green pepper, chopped (we don’t like green pepper so I leave this out)

4 large garlic cloves, minced

1 bay leaf

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried oregano

¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper

 

Soak beans overnight. The next morning rinse them very well and put them in a pot with 6 cups of water. Cook them for about a half hour or so. Then add all the rest of the ingredients except the sausage. Cook on low all day (stirring every so often) or in the crock pot. We like our sausage added at the very end.

 

 

Also, I've started adding chicken bouillon to the pot as I cook it. We like it quite a bit, but you can do with or without it. I also serve cut up green onions to put on top and my husband enjoys Frank's Red Hot on them. They make great leftovers too!

 

 

For the rice, we’ve found that brown rice works very well with this. I use Alton Brown’s brown rice recipe but I leave out the butter and didn’t notice a difference. It has produced fantastic brown rice for me every time I’ve used it.

[duckens]

I'm beginning to regret this impulsive purchase of dry beans. I should have stuck with Zatarains. I'm not a cook. I feel intitimdated by dry beans!!

 

Oh, don't be intimidated! You can do it!!!

 

If you think you may use more dried beans in the future, consider a pressure cooker. After beans are soaked over night (or for several hours during the day), the time to cook red beans in our pressure cooker: 3-6 minutes!

 

We've found dried beans to be the cheapest to purchase and the easiest to store. They take up less space, and they keep forever!

[unsinkable]

Hey Beth!

 

How was dinner?

 

:D