New Orleans Red Beans

Soak Red Beans over night!! This is important! If you forget, you can boil your beans for 10 minutes and let them sit for an hour, instead.

Drain your beans from the overnight soak or the 1 hour rest after boiling. Add fresh water to the pot approx. 1-2 inches above the beans.

Add bell peppers, onion and garlic to the pot with all seasonings. DO NOT add sausage until later! Cover with a lid and simmer for 4 hours.

After approx 4 hours of simmering, stir the beans and check the tenderness of the red bean. There should still be a decent amount of water in the pot at this time. Add a little more if necessary.

If your beans are still a little hard, or not quiet as soft as youd like, add one hour to simmer time and recheck. Continue this until youve reached your desired tenderness.

Once your beans have reached your desired level of tenderness, remove the lid and add in sausage. I like to chop my weenies in four (long ways and then in half) to get a price of sausage in each bite! Pour in any sausage juice from the package!

Allow the beans about 30 minutes or so to cook down excess water and to allow the sausage flavor to be soaked up by the beans. If youd like to grill the sausage before adding to the pot for a layer of char, Id highly recommend it, but I typically dont.

Once your beans are done, turn off the burner and start your desired amount of rice. I only use Jasmine rice (it added a whole new layer of flavor to the beans!) and I highly recommend using it! Hopefully you know how to make rice, but if not, see step 9!

The trick with rice is to do one part rice and two parts water! I.e., 1 cup of rice and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil for 10 minutes or until the water level has reached the line of rice and bubbles begin to be visible between the rice. Turn off the burner and cover for about 10 minutes (leave on the hot burned to continue to cook the rice)!!

Serve with Jiffy Corn bread (I like to add a tbsp if honey) and cooked spinach, both topped with a little bitter and salt!