Red Beans

I generally consider a recipe more of a set of suggestions than a strict formula…and yes, I know that won’t fly for baking. But I liked the sound of this one so I substituted for whatever I didn’t have. I had no cilantro, achiote or annato, so I used 1 tsp Goya Adobo and 1/2 tsp chipotle molido and skipped the salt. Instead of ham, I used dried portobella mushrooms and for the olive oil, I used bacon grease. Instead of potatoes & pumpkin, I used leftover sweet potato chunks. I didn’t puree anything, and though it might sound like a proper dog’s breakfast, it was actually very tasty. I served it to myself & my son over rice with a sprinkle of fresh lime juice, fresh shreds of sharp cheddar cheese and a handful of pepitos. He finished his plate and went to the kitchen and put the rest of the pot on his plate!

I made a complete meal by adding potato cubes directly with rice and cooked together.

For all you who are not latin, latin people called it pumpkin but it is NOT the Halloween pumpkin that you’re thinking of and the who wrote the recipe should have stated this. It’s called calabaza which is a squash. Most stores do not have it but do NOT use a Halloween pumpkin for this, substitute squash.

I have made this twice now. Once on the stovetop and once in a slow cooker. I loved the recipe but did not like using canned beans when dry beans taste better, are cheaper and so easy to make. Besides I’m Cuban and my mother would disown me if I used canned beans. That’s like an Italian serving canned spaghettios for a special occasion. It’s just not done. I soak a bag of red beans according to package directions. I’ve used small and kidney beans. I use the smallest bag size (1 pound I believe). I soak according to directions with only 1 variation. I only drain 1/2 of the soaking water and replace the water I removed with fresh water. I don’t puree anything. I brown the meat, onions and green pepper then put in all the ingredients except the potatoes. Cooked the beans according to package directions and put the potatoes in at the end so that they wouldn’t get mushy. Used butternut squash. No pumpkin available. Keeping with Cuban tradition, I had to add 6 slices of bacon cooked and chopped along with 2T of the bacon renderings. I also added 3 or 4 thumb size spanish chorizo sausage (NOT MEXICAN CHORIZO please). I peeled off the sausage casing and diced the sausage. I use exactly 8 packets of Sazon Goya instead of achiote powder. I used Sazon Goya’s achiote version one time and the saffron flavor the 2nd. Both good. Since there are more beans than in the one can used in original recipe, I tripled up on the amount of veggies and meat. However, I only used one large green pepper.

difficult recipe for finding ingredients. but worth it. I doubled the amount of seasoning. I ALSO USED BOTH HAM AND BACON O SEPERATE OCCASSIONS AND FELT BACON WAS A BETTER FLAVOR. i PRETTY MUCH SCALED EVERYTHING ELSE TO TASTE, I RECCOMEND YOU DO THE SAME. I COULDNT FIND PUMPKIN WHOLE, SO I USED CANNED, IT ADDED A REALLY NICE FLAVOR ELEMENT AND THICKENED THE BROTH. I DONT EVEN THINK I CARED IT WAS PUREEED INSTEAD OF CHUNKED. I THINK THE RIGHT FLAVOR IS MORE IMPT THAN HAVING IT FRESHLY CUBED AND BE A LESS FLAVORFUL SQUASH

Yummy!!! I didn’t have ham, but used leftover porkchops… Big mistake! I didn’t think it would affect the flavor much, but it did. I also cooked them in the crockpot and substitued butternut for pumpkin. My family loved it!

Excellent! A bit time consuming to prep but worth it for the complex flavors. Great spices without being hot. Double the recipe, you’ll want to freeze a batch. We didn’t have pumpkin so we substituted butternut squash.

This is fabulous, fabulous, fabulous! I did not have pumpkin, so I used acorn squash instead……FABULOUS! This will be the only red bean recipe I use. Thanks a million!

This recipe is so yummy! I use butternut squash instead of pumpkin. I also use a Sazon with annatto packet of seasoning instead of the annatto alone because I have so much of it in my pantry already. Its so great!

My mom is Puerto Rican, and I lived in Puerto Rico as a child. I have been craving the red beans and rice I remember from this period, and this recipe totally hit the spot, I am so pleased. I didn’t puree anything, just kept everything at a fine chop. I used smoked sausage instead of ham, yellow squash instead of pumpkin (even though I really wanted pumpkin – it’s what I remember), and I had to use two packets of Sazon Goya instead of the annatto or achiote powder (I am going to keep trying to find these). It was SO GOOD, and had the exact flavor I remember and love. Next time I make it I am going to use more liquid, my husband wanted more “juice” for his rice. I thought it was perfect as is. Excellent, excellent recipe!

This was fantastic! It’s the achiote powder that makes it so special, so don’t skip it. I found a recipe online for making it. I don’t know the difference between that receipe and storebought achiote powder, but it added a wonderful smoky richness. Thanks so much for this!

Another good recipe by itself or to get creative with. As usual, I went the creative route. I prefer my meat:vegetable ratio to lean a bit more to the vegi side, so I used a large onion, large green pepper, 9 cloves of garlic (I love garlic) a half bunch of cilantro (I love garlic almost as much as I love cilantro) and 3 potatoes. I didn’t have any fresh pumpkin, so I doubled the potatoes… I actually think the pumpkin would taste great too. I also used my own seasoning rather than the annatto powder, which I didn’t have. Go with your gut on that. Finally, I squeezed half a lime and added a dash of Sherry wine into the processor mix. I followed the other ingrediants and preparation method as prescribed. Result? Very good. I was impressed with the variety of flavors, without the cilantro or garlic taking over. (now to others, that might be too much, so use according to taste) Makes a great side dish. Supercords

Really good. I didn’t have pumpkin, but I used yellow squash instead and it was great.

I have not yet tried the recipe. However, I am thankful for the red beans with latin flavor and will try and review soon.