Red Beans and Rice

Yes, you read that right. Don’t adjust your browser. I am giving you a recipe today. This is kind of an experiment. I’ll be sharing recipes with you on Fridays (can we say “Foodie Friday?”) for the next few weeks. If you like it, let me know (gasp – I have opened comments!). If you would rather not, be kind to me anyway.

I get a lot of requests from friends and family for my yummy recipes. I can say they are yummy because I’m not taking credit for them. They are from my mother’s extensive cookbook collection which I inherited several years ago. What my mom told me as a teen is true:

It doesn’t take anything to be a great cook. Just read and follow the recipes.

I am delighted to find that many of the home-cookin’ greats in America’s Best Recipes and Southern Living cookbooks can be modified for allergen-free cooking if they are not allergen-free already. So whether you are preparing meals for someone with special dietary needs or you simply love comfort food, I hope you’ll like these.

This Red Beans and Rice recipe comes from America’s Best Recipes 1989 edition. I am so grateful to have nine of these volumes in consecutive order from 1989 on (NINE! Why couldn’t my mother have bought JUST ONE MORE?!). They are each a compilation of recipes from church cookbooks, PTA’s, and women’s clubs around the country. A slice of Americana on every page. Love it!

Anyway, this recipe takes some time, but it is totally worth it. I made it for lunch last Tuesday, beginning the process when I got up for devotions at 6am. It was ready before lunch, and the simple “stir and add more ingredients” was easy to keep up with during homeschool subjects. I used a ham bone I had frozen from Grandma’s Christmas Dinner (YUM!) and the children and dog stood at the stove salivating all morning. I make a lot of bean dishes, but the children said this is the best beans they have ever had. I agree — they are great!

[recipe title=”Red Beans and Rice” servings=”6″ time=”2hrs” difficulty=”super easy”]

• 1 lb dried red beans
• 1 meaty ham bone
• 2 quarts of water
• 3 cups chopped onion
• 1 cup chopped green onion (I forgot the green onion! You can omit and it’s still yummy)
• 1/4 c tomato sauce (I used tomato juice I had left in the fridge)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T salt
• 1 T Worcestershire sauce
• 1 t pepper
• 1/2 t sugar
• 1/4 t dried oregano
• 1/4 t dried thyme (take the thyme to make this, you won’t regret it! har-har)
• 1/8 t ground red pepper
• 1/8 t hot sauce (I don’t know what that means. I think it means don’t use the entire bottle, just most of it)
• hot cooked rice
• additional chopped green onions (if you don’t forget them like I did)

Sort and wash beans; place in a Dutch oven.

Add ham bone and water; bring to a boil and boil 3 minutes. Remove from heat, and let stand for 1 hour [this is the bean prep stage; if you soak your beans overnight you can skip this part].

Return mixture to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 3 hours.

Remove ham bone; remove and discard fat [or feed it to your dog which is going crazy in the kitchen because of the delicious ham smell] and bone [again, use as a dog quieter]. Shred meant and return to bean mixture. Stir in onion and next eleven ingredients (that means everything through hot sauce bottle). Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer one hour.

Remove 1/2 cup beans; mash beans, and return to Dutch oven [I skipped this step entirely because my beans were already plenty thick. I actually added a little more tomato juice part way through cooking to loosen them up a little. No one wants uptight beans. So play this by ear].

Serve beans over rice. Top each serving with green onions (if your name ain’t Lea Ann) and a generous shaking of the hot sauce (if your name IS Lea Ann). [/recipe]

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