This is a healthier, vegan, or vegetarian version of one of my favorite Creole dishes that is also suitable for Lent. Since ham hocks are not usually used to prepare this dish, it naturally contains less salt and fat. It is generally served on Mondays in Louisiana. Include it in your weekly routine! Each diner at the table is welcome to add their own amount of Cajun seasoning and Louisiana spicy sauce.
| Prep Time: | 10 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Additional Time: | 8 hrs |
| Total Time: | 10 hrs 25 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 6 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 (16 ounce) package dry red kidney beans
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 6 large cloves garlic, peeled
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 8 cups water, divided
- 4 dashes liquid smoke flavoring
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup uncooked white rice
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Place red beans into a large container and cover with several inches of cool water; let soak, 8 hours to overnight. Drain and rinse.
- Add celery, onion, bell pepper, and garlic to a blender and process until just shy of a puree.
- Add vegetable oil to a saucepan or stockpot over medium heat. Cook and stir vegetable mixture for 5 minutes. Add thyme, oregano, black pepper, cumin, and cayenne pepper. Cook, stirring regularly, for 2 minutes more.
- Add 6 cups water, the beans, liquid smoke, and bay leaves. Stir to combine and turn heat up to high. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and let simmer until beans begin to fall apart, 2 to 3 hours.
- Bring remaining water and rice to a boil in another saucepan. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until rice is tender and water has been absorbed, 20 to 25 minutes.
- Pour most of the cooking liquid from the beans into a bowl and reserve. Remove bay leaves. Mash about 1/3 of the beans, adding as much of the reserved liquid as necessary to reach preferred thickness. Mix with the unmashed beans and season with salt. Serve beans over rice.
- More or less rice may be needed, depending on your preferences. I like brown rice to make it even healthier. After cooking, you can stir in 1 tablespoon butter to add some vegetarian-friendly (but decidedly not vegan) richness.
- This will thicken a lot upon cooling. You may want to reserve the extra liquid in the refrigerator if intending to keep leftovers.
- The number of servings indicated is for eating as a main dish. As a side, it will make approximately twice as many servings.
Reviews
Really good. I like to use vegetable broth with beans to round out flavor so used half water and half broth. YUM.
Cracks me up that the prep time is given as “10 mins.” Taste profile is NOLA authentic. Sauciness not an issue for me, but using raw beans necessitated cooking much longer than 2-3 hours to achieve desired tenderness. I was surprised that originator did not factor in the tenderizing capacity of salt by including it from the start; I ended up using about 1 teaspoon total and added it during the simmer. Also, no meat made the finished product lack umami; my solution was to add one tsp. of wine vinegar, 1 Tbsp. of Worcestershire Sauce, and 1 tsp of a granular vegetarian Umami additive available at Trader Joe’s. (One final note – cooking rice at 2:1 ratio of water to grain makes for a mushy result, so I usually go for a 1:1 ratio or add just a bit more water to achieve the desired separation of grains. I will likely make this recipe again. It was easy to follow, well-documented, and yields a delicious result.
An okay dish. I needed something to serve a vegan guest, and this worked. In spite of all the spices, it was surprisingly bland. If I make it again, I would probably at least double them. I didn’t have any liquid smoke, so maybe that was part of the problem (otherwise I’d say it earned three stars – but I’m sure it would taste better with the liquid smoke). I did like the consistency. I didn’t drain any water, and it was a little gooey without being soupy. In retrospect, it would have been good with fresh-baked bread on the side.