Week 14: Small Red Beans

I am actually posting the same week I made something! Spring must be in the air for me to have caught up!

This week I grabbed "small red beans" from my box of future deliciousness, in the basement. Sadly, I only have snapped a couple pictures, and none of the finished product. I'll try to update that when I serve more of them.

The recipe I used as the basis was picked after searching through a myriad of red beans and rice recipes online. I can't say this was the tastiest looking recipe, but not only did it have ingredients I already had in the house (or at least was tweak-able to be the case), it wasn't vegetarian (a concession to my husband, after weeks of not cooking meat).

Red Beans and Rice
Ingredients:

• 1 pound small red beans, dried
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 15-oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1 can diced tomatoes & green chilies (such as Rotel)
• 1 pound diced chicken sausage
• 1 cup diced, cooked chicken
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar (helps with acidity/bitterness of tomatoes)
• 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
• 1 teaspoon oil
  

Procedure:

• Sort, rinse and drain dried beans. Cover by ~1inch water in a deep pot. Add diced tomatoes, Rotel, paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, salt and chicken. Bring to a boil over high heat then reduce to a simmer.
• Saute chopped onions and garlic in oil, over medium heat, until soft. Add chopped chicken sausage and saute until warmed through. Add to bean pot.
• Simmer over low heat until beans are soft, 2-3 hours.

Notes:

• Serve over cooked rice.
• Significantly better after ~24-48 hours, as the flavors blend.

Apologies again for the lack of pictures. I guess I can't both get the post out the week of cooking AND get pictures taken :)

Have a great week!