Red Beans and Rice

Traditionally Red Beans and Rice were served in New Orleans on Monday. This is because Monday was wash day, and the women could place the pot of red beans on the stove in the morning and let them cook all day while they did the laundry.
As far as I'm concerned, any day is a good day for this dish! Nothing better than a flavorful pot of Red Beans with Andouille Sausage served over rice.

Ingredients

1 pkg of Red Beans
1 Tbls olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, seeded and chopped
Chopped fresh parsley, about 1 handful
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbls Tony Chachere’s seasoning
14 – 16 oz Andouille Sausage, sliced into rounds (If you cannot get andouille, you could use a kielbasa)
1 ham hock
1 quart of chicken broth
1 ½ cup water

Cooked long grain white rice

Directions

Prepare the red beans. Soak overnight in water. Or, you can use the fast prep method described on the package. Do not use canned red beans. This recipe requires the long cooking time.

Whichever method of preparing the beans you choose, make sure to drain the soaking water completely and rinse the beans. It is said that disposing of this water will help reduce the amount of flatulence you get when eating beans.

Prepare the bell pepper, parsley, onion and garlic.

Heat the oil in a soup pot. (Make sure that you use a large enough pot so that there is room for the beans to boil for a prolonged period of time. The blue pot in my picture below was not large enough. I ended up having to transfer the mixture to a larger pot.)

Add the garlic to the oil and cook until it starts to sizzle. Be careful not to let it burn. Add onions to the pot and cook until translucent.

Add the bell pepper and parsley to the pot. Cook until the vegetables wilt.

Add the beans, chicken broth and water to the pot. Add the ham hock.

Bring to a boil. Add the Andouille sausage and the Tony's to the pan. Lower heat to a simmer. Cook until the beans are tender and then mixture has thickened. This will take about 3 - 4 hours.

Serve the Red Beans over hot white rice. You can adjust the amount of Tony's up or down depending upon your taste. I actually added a bit more to my recipe - but I like my red beans spicy.