Hearty Red Beans & Rice

Monday means red beans and rice in New Orleans, and this version does it right with dried beans cooked from scratch. The flavor you get from simmering dried kidney beans for hours with ham, smoked sausage, and aromatics is something canned beans can’t touch.

The beans get a quick soak, then simmer for an hour and a half with garlic salt, Worcestershire, and hot sauce building a savory base. Meanwhile, diced ham and smoked sausage get browned in a skillet, followed by the holy trinity of onion, celery, and garlic sautéed in the drippings. Everything merges into the pot with tomato sauce and bay leaves for a final 30-minute simmer.

The secret to that thick, creamy gravy? Mash two cups of the cooked beans and stir them back in. It thickens the pot liquid into a velvety sauce that clings to every grain of rice without adding any flour or roux.

Pro Tips

• Don’t skip the quick soak. Two minutes of boiling plus an hour of standing rehydrates the beans enough to cook evenly
• Brown the ham and sausage well before adding to the beans. That fond in the skillet carries into the finished dish
• Remove the bay leaves before serving. They’re bitter if you bite into one
• The beans taste even better the next day after the flavors have had time to deepen overnight

Variations

• Use andouille sausage for a spicier, more authentically Louisiana version
• Add a ham hock to the pot during the initial simmer for deeper pork flavor
• Serve with hot sauce on the side and a sprinkle of sliced scallions