Red Beans and Rice
by Chungah
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Louisiana red beans and rice! With smoky andouille sausage, the holy trinity, and the creamiest red beans, topped with white rice.
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Why you’ll love this red beans and rice recipe
- Comfort food goodness. Firstly, this dish is quintessential comfort food, consisting of thick, creamy, tender beans, smoky andouille sausage, and Cajun seasoning.
- Budget-friendly. Red beans and rice is not only budget-friendly, but also incredibly filling, making it an economical, high protein, and high fiber dinner for the entire family to enjoy.
- Versatile and flexible. This recipe can easily be customized with different proteins or made vegetarian-friendly!
- Makes for the best leftovers. The flavors meld even more overnight, making for the most perfect leftovers and meal prep.
What is red beans and rice?
Red beans and rice is a classic Louisiana dish made with red beans, sausage, and the “holy trinity” (onions, bell pepper, and celery), typically served over white rice alongside cornbread and hot sauce.
Monday tradition
This dish was served on Mondays known as the “wash day” tradition, a day devoted to laundry. Cooking a pot of red beans, a slow cooked, no-fuss meal, allowed more time for chores to be completed.
How to make red beans and rice
- Cook the rice. Cook the rice to package instructions. Long grain white rice (ex. jasmine) is generally the gold standard for red beans and rice.
- Brown the sausage. While the rice is cooking, brown the sausage in batches until lightly browned; set aside.
- Add the holy trinity. Stir in the onion, bell pepper, and celery until tender.
- Cook the aromatics. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, and Cajun seasoning until fragrant.
- Simmer. Add the red beans, chicken stock, hot sauce, bay leaf, and cooked sausage, simmering for 15 minutes covered, and then an additional 15 minutes uncovered.
- Mash the beans. Using a wooden spoon, mash the beans for a creamier consistency.
- Serve. Top with the cooked rice, garnished with parsley, and served alongside some cornbread.
what to serve with red beans and rice
Red Beans and Rice: Frequently Asked Questions
Not at all! There is no need for an overnight or quick soak here. This is a super quick recipe using canned red beans – perfect for when you just don’t have the time to soak dry beans.
I recommend using small red beans or kidney beans.
Traditionally red beans and rice is prepared with spicy andouille sausage but kielbasa is also a solid option.
The spice level can be adjusted to mild by using mild andouille sausage and omitting the hot sauce.
Absolutely! Similar to lasagna, red beans and rice taste better the very next day, allowing the flavors to meld and intensify overnight.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the rice (or else they will get mushy) in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding freshly cooked rice when serving.
Red Beans and Rice
Video
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 (12.8-ounce) package smoked andouille sausage, thinly sliced
- 1 medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 ½ teaspoons Cajun seasoning, salt-free
- 3 (15-ounce) cans small red beans or kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 1 teaspoon hot sauce
- 1 bay leaf
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Working in batches, add sausage, and cook, stirring frequently, until sausage is lightly browned, about 3-4 minutes; set aside.
- Add onion, bell pepper and celery. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in tomato paste, garlic and Cajun seasoning until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in red beans, chicken stock, hot sauce, bay leaf and sausage; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Uncover; continue to simmer until reduced, an additional 15 minutes.
- Using a wooden spoon, mash beans until slightly thickened, if desired; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately, topped with rice and garnished with parsley, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Serve with long grain white rice. Use long grain, basmati or jasmine rice – all light and fluffy to absorb and soak up the creamy, saucy beans. Avoid short grain, sushi rice or instant rice.
- Tomato paste adds so much flavor. Tomato paste adds body and richness in small amounts without adding too much liquid. Opt for tomato paste in a tube, using up only what you need at a time without having to open up a whole can.
- Use small red beans or kidney beans. Soaking dry beans is not required here. Canned red beans (or kidney beans) allows this recipe to come together so fast, making it a true weeknight hero.
- Mash the beans. Add the finishing touches by mashing up about 1 cup of the softened beans off to the side of the pot – this is what makes the red beans and rice so thick and velvety creamy.
- Make it vegetarian. For our vegetarian friends, substitute plant-based sausage for the andouille sausage, and vegetable stock for the chicken stock.
- Pair with cornbread. Serve with a scoop of rice and a side of cornbread, a quintessential pairing.
Did you make this recipe?
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Hubby loved this from the first bite and has requested it quite frequently. I am now in the process of making it for dinner tonight. Since no particular Cajun seasoning was mentioned, I wanted to let readers know that I use “Prudhomme’s Blackened Redfish Magic” which is a Cajun/Creole mix.
This was really good and really easy! I omitted the peppers because we don’t like them but other than that I followed the recipe exactly. I would totally make this again. 5 stars for the fact that everyone liked it, it was quick and easy, and inexpensive. I served it with a side of coleslaw.
This is in our regular rotation. Loved by adults and kids alike! We serve with jasmine rice and sweet cornbread. Thanks for another stellar go-to recipe!
Excellent recipe. The only thing I did different is we added some crawfish tails. Great flavor and very filling. We will definitely try this again.
Excellent!
Red beans. As in kidney beans?
No they are literally called red beans but, I only had one can red beans so I added a dark kidney and light kidney bean can in addition and it turned out delicious
This was soooo good. I can’t wait to make it again for a potluck
So simple and so good. Me and my wife are trying new recipes almost every week and this will for sure stay as one of our go to recipes, It is kind of addictive and you will just crave for more after each spoon you taste. We did not have hot sauce so we added habanero sauce instead, which probably made it spicier than what it calls for, but that was just perfect for us since we like it spicy.
By red beans do you mean kidney beans?
You can use kidney, but they are drier than red beans. Red beans will be a creamier consistency. I sometimes have to go to the refried bean area and buy the Goya brand if they dont have regular red beans with the other beans.
I made this for dinner last night and we all loved it. My husband said he would definitely like to have this again and often. I didn’t have a fresh bell pepper so I used a frozen three pepper mix (red, yellow & green). I only had one can of red beans in the pantry so I made “three beans and rice”, using a can each of red, black and pinto beans. I used Tony’s creole seasoning and used half a teaspoon with the rice as it cooked and one teaspoon with the beans and sauce. I also only added two cups of the stock (as another review suggested) but ended up wishing I hadn’t as it definitely wasn’t quite saucy enough. And I thought three cans of beans was plenty. I will be adding this to my regular rotation. I’m going to try adding shrimp along with the andouille sausage next time. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Maybe you can have it “on the daily”.
I’ve made this four times. So hearty, easy and delicious.
Perfect just as it is. Mashed some of the beans as instructed and it thickened up nicely. I used Louisiana Hot Sauce and Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning.
Tasted great. A bit soupy. I would cut the stock amount down to 2 cups. Also, needs another can of red beans, in my opinion.
This is a staple recipe in our household. My husband and children love it, picky eaters and all!
If it’s soupy you should try mashing up the beans. It thickens up nicely and I’ve made this recipe as is each and every time I’ve made it. It’s perfect *chefs kiss*
Loved this recipe! Hubby raved:) we like spicy so added a wee more hot sauce and Cajun. Delicious!
We love the recipe. We often substitute the sausage with shrimp….or reduce the amount of sausage and have it with sausage and shrimp…. mmmmm good!
My husband and I loved ❤️ this recipe! I used Polska Kielbasa, a carton of low sodium chicken broth and 2 cups of dry rice. I let is simmer covered and then mixed in all the rice. It was damn delicious!
I also used 4 cans of beans.
This is fabulous. I made it for the first time, exactly as written. We loved it. Spicy, but no too spicy. It was easy to make and only used a few ingredients.
I can’t get red beans at the store I’m shopping at right now, what bean could I substitute?
Wow, this IS damn delicious. I wish I had doubled the recipe for leftovers today. I used Eden brand small red beans and Aidell’s andouille sausage with fantastic results – High fives from our mardi gras table of 6. (Sarah – I bet it would be yummy with navy beans too).
Pintos are a decent substitute.
Oh my gosh this was sooo good! It’s 10 degrees outside and this meal totally hit the spot. I left out the hot sauce because I want to give some to my mom (and she can’t eat really spicy food) – but it was plenty spicy from the andouille sausage. I will definitely be making this again.
This is was absolutely delicous. We substituted a few items that we had on hand. We used jalapeno jack cheese sausages that are wonderful on their own. I used whole red beans that I had soakerd and cooked two days earlier. I also used brown rice that I also had cooked two days earlier making it a resistant starch. I didn’t have celery or green bell peppers on hand so they were ommitted. Then, to add additional heat and flavor we aded two tablespoons of Trappeys red pepper sauce and about a tablespoon or more of tabasco. My husband and I couldn’t resist going back for seconeds. Thanks for a great recipe!