Red beans and rice are a mainstay in Southern cooking, often used as a side dish or part of a main course. If you have ever made red beans and rice from scratch using dry beans, you know what a hassle it can be.
You can actually make a vegetarian red beans and rice recipe from canned beans though, as long as you purchase beans that don’t include sugar or dextrose added. Not only are these additives bad for you, but they can ruin the flavor, so be sure you are purchasing unsweetened red beans for this recipe for an authentic flavor.
When you make red beans and rice using the traditional slow-cook method, the beans have a nice “creamy” consistency. Here, you will be taking a short-cut with a food processor to achieve a similar consistency. This recipe saves you time, and produces surprisingly tasty results.
Prep Time
15 Minutes
Cook Time
45 Minutes
Yield
6
Difficulty Level
Easy (Beginner)
Ingredients
1 onion
½ green pepper
2 stalks of celery
3 garlic cloves
45 ounces of red beans (3 cans; don’t forget to steer clear of sugar-added)
15 ounces of fire-roasted tomatoes (1 can)
Liquid smoke for seasoning
2 tsp hot sauce
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
½ tsp black pepper
¼-1 tsp cayenne pepper (season as you desire)
Cooked brown rice
Instructions
1. 1. Turn your stove onto medium high heat, and then chop up the celery and pepper, onion and garlic cloves. Use a food processor if you have one. Otherwise, be sure to finely mince the onion if you are chopping by hand.
2. 2. Add your chopped vegetables to the saucepan. Stir them and add 2 tablespoons of water to the vegetable mixture. Cook on medium-high for 6-10 minuets, or until the vegetables are softened.
3. 3. While you are waiting for your vegetables to soften, rinse the beans and drain them. Add half of the beans (1.5 cans worth) into the blender with half the can of tomatoes. Use the blender to puree the beans. Stop before they are completely blended; you want them to have a “coarse chopped” texture. This is how you replicate the softness you get when you soak the beans overnight and use a slow cooker.
4. 4. Once your vegetables are softened in the saucepan and the beans are blended, add the mixture from the blender into the saucepan, along with the rest of your tomatoes and beans (the tomatoes and beans you didn’t throw into the food processor). Now add all the seasoning except the liquid smoke (or smoked salt, if you prefer that as an alternative). Cover the saucepan, drop the heat on the stove to low (very low), and cook for half an hour. Stir the mixture every 5-10 minutes and add a little bit of water. The water should be enough to moisten the beans and keep them from drying out, but you don’t want this to turn into a soup, so be sparing with your additions. If you want, you can cook longer than the allotted half hour—that is a minimum. Remember, these taste best if they are slow cooked, so the longer you are willing to cook them, the tastier the result will be. In fact, if you have more time, feel free to use an actual slow cooker. If you are going to slow cook, you can skip the puree step.
5. 5. Once you have cooked the beans to your satisfaction, you can season with liquid smoke or smoked salt. Stir it in well, and serve on top of as much cooked brown rice as you would like.
Servings : 6
Ready in : 60
Course : Main Course
Recipe Type : Dinner, Lunch, Vegan Recipes
