Today I’m sharing a recipe from my good friend Tanorria Askew, of Tanorria’s Table and Master Chef fame. This amazing Red Beans and Rice recipe is straight out of her debut cookbook, Staples +5, and since I made it last week, has already been requested again by my family. It’s really, really good y’all. You see here’s the thing – when it comes to food and cooking, Tanorria just has a natural gift. She knows how to make everything delicious, and has built a successful brand and business around that truth.
Lucky for us, we get to share in her gift and learn from her as we work our way through this brilliant new book of hers. Read on to learn a little more about this fantastic cookbook, or simply jump ahead to the main event. Speaking of gifts, be sure to check out the book over on Amazon and pick up a copy (+5!) to give as as holiday gifts.
The Staples +5 Cookbook
Tanorria’s book was born from her understanding that it is absolutely possible to create great meals – to nourish yourself and the others around your table – with only a simple collection of pantry and fridge staples. The recipes in this book carry you from morning to your end-of-the-day sweet treats, showing you how to make the best of what’s around all along the way.
She provides a solid foundational list of staples in the beginning of the book, and the 100 recipes to follow all demonstrate the myriad ways to wield that list by simply adding a handful of other players to the mix. The red beans and rice recipe I’m sharing today really underscores that notion so well. There may be no scrappier, more resourceful food on the planet than red beans and rice – a true “something from nothing” sort of thing. This is why I selected it as my first recipe to try and share from Tanorria’s book. I’ve always had a special spot in my soul for this sort of food – this sort of smart, efficient cooking.
Plus I love beans and I love sausage, so there’s also that.
Cooking is not only my career, it is also my gift. Transforming the most fundamental ingredients into something beautiful is the gift passed down to me from a lineage of black women. There is a rich history in these recipes. Culture is celebrated in these recipes, and the magic of making something out of nothing is revealed. The use of seasoning and spices, along with the mission of making well-seasoned food, comes from my ancestors, and has become my gift to you. It is sprinkled throughout the entire book. I hope you savor it.
Tanorria Askew
What you’ll need
The ingredient list here is small but mighty, most are things you probably already have on hand. Worcestershire sauce, aromatic veggies, chicken stock, white rice … simple, humble pantry ingredients that play so very nicely together. Tanorria’s book embraces the notion that, if we keep a well-stocked pantry at all times, we can almost always prepare something delicious and nourishing at a moment’s notice.
The staple ingredients used in this recipe are:
- Rice
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Salt
- Chicken Stock
- Garlic – both fresh and granulated
- Kidney Beans
- Onion
- Olive Oil
The 5 extra ingredients called for are (the +5):
- Smoked sausage
- Green bell pepper
- Celery
- Bay leaves
- Thyme
Why do you rinse rice before cooking it?
If it’s just going to be boiling away in water, you might be wondering why we bother to rinse the heck out of rice before cooking it. This is a really great question! Tanorria asks us to rinse our white rice thoroughly before cooking, and this one word really isn’t meant to be ignored. She asks this for a reason.
By rinsing the rice first, we’ll eliminate pesky surface starches that cling to dry, uncooked rice grains. If they stay there, because we skip over the rinsing step, those pesky starches will mess with the final texture of the cooked rice. They’l become gluey and gummy, causing the rice grains to really stock to one other, and diminishing their personal space (your rice grains really do want to maintain some persona space from one another).
Anyway, the end goal is to get rice that is fluffy and just tender. We don’t want slimy, sticky, mushy rice balls. No, at least not here we don’t. So, this is the reason why it’s worth taking a sec to just really rinse that rice.
How to rinse rice
It is really as easy as putting the rice in a fine mesh sieve or spider, and letting cool water run over it for a few minutes. Give it a shake and, if you’re feeling particularly enthusiastic about things, go ahead and rinse it again. Shake and drain the rice and proceed with the recipe as directed. Your final dish will be all the better for it.
How to make Red Beans and Rice
This recipe is classic, straightforward and solid through and through. Tanorria just knows how to maximize the delicious in everything that she makes, and this red beans and rice recipe is no exception. Cooking the rice in stock, instead of water, using multiple dried herbs, several key spices, lots of garlic, and a good amount of Worcestershire sauce are just some of the tricks she wields in this * very, very good * version of a beloved classic dish.
DIRECTIONS
- Rinse the beans and place them in a large bowl. Add cold water to cover by at least 1 inch and soak overnight. The beans will plump up and there will be minimal water left. Drain and set aside.
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until it is brown on both sides, rendering as much fat as possible. Remove the sausage from the pot and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
- Add the onions, bell pepper, celery, and minced garlic to the pot. Saute for 5 to 7 minutes, or until caramelized and tender. Add the granulated garlic, paprika, bay leaves, thyme, and salt. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add the Worcestershire sauce, and cook for one minute more.
- Add the beans and 6 cups of chicken stock (the liquid should come just to the top of the beans). Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, and cover. Simmer, covered, for 1.5 hours. Remove the lid from the pot and stir. Simmer, uncovered now, for 1 hour more. Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. Using the back of a wooden spoon, mash about one-fourth of the beans against the side of the pot, and continue stirring. Add the cooked sausage and continue to cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Prepare the rice during the last 30 minutes of the cook time for the beans. To a medium pot, add the rice and the remaining 4 cups of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this time.
- Remove the lid from the rice and fluff it with a fork to prevent it from clumping. Serve the beans over the steamed rice.
Just a couple of quick notes:
Note 1: To store, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Note 2: Cooled beans can be transferred to a gallon-sized freezer bag and frozen for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Heat in a pot over medium heat with 1 cup chicken stock.
If you like the looks of this recipe, you might also want to try:
Yogurt-Whipped Polenta with Beans, Shrimp and Crispy Kale
Not So Sloppy Joe Bowls with Cheesy Croutons
Red Beans and Rice (from Staples +5 Cookbook!)
An authentic and deeply delicious Red Beans and Rice from Tanorria Askew’s debut cookbook, Staples +5. This recipe calls for dried beans that are soaked overnight, which is ideal, but if you don’t have the time or simply forget to plan ahead, you can use canned – just read the notes at the bottom of the recipe for the easy swap.
- Yield: 12 cups 1x
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry kidney beans
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 pound smoked sausage, sliced
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 green bell pepper, chopped
- 3 stalks celery, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon granulated garlic
- 1/2 tablespoon paprika
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 sprigs fresh thyme
- 3 teaspoons salt
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 10 cups chicken stock, divided
- 2 cups long grain white rice, thoroughly rinsed
Instructions
- Rinse the beans and place them in a large bowl. Add cold water to cover by at least 1 inch and soak overnight. The beans will plump up and there will be minimal water left. Drain and set aside.Â
- In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the sausage, and cook for 5 to 7 minutes until it is brown on both sides, rendering as much fat as possible. Remove the sausage from the pot and transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain.
- Add the onions, bell pepper, celery, and minced garlic to the pot. Saute for 5 to 7 minutes, or until caramelized and tender. Add the granulated garlic, paprika, bay leaves, thyme, and salt. Cook for 2 minutes more, stirring frequently. Add the Worcestershire sauce, and cook for one minute more.Â
- Add the beans and 6 cups of chicken stock (the liquid should come just to the top of the beans). Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium low, and cover. Simmer, covered, for 1.5 hours. Remove the lid from the pot and stir. Simmer, uncovered now, for 1 hour more. Remove the bay leaves and thyme stems. Using the back of a wooden spoon, mash about one-fourth of the beans against the side of the pot, and continue stirring. Add the cooked sausage and continue to cook for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.Â
- Prepare the rice during the last 30 minutes of the cook time for the beans. To a medium pot, add the rice and the remaining 4 cups of chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low, and cover. Simmer for 25 minutes. Do not remove the lid during this time.Â
- Remove the lid from the rice and fluff it with a fork to prevent it from clumping. Serve the beans over the steamed rice.
Notes
Note 1: To store, refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Note 2: Cooled beans can be transferred to a gallon-sized freezer bag and frozen for up to 3 months. To reheat, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Heat in a pot over medium heat with 1 cup chicken stock.Â
To make with canned beans:
- You’ll still use all of the same ingredients, but will sub 2 (15-ounce) cans of drained kidney beans for the dried (no need to rinse), and you’ll only need 6 cups of chicken stock.Â
- Skip step 1 and begin with step 2. Proceed through the recipe, and when it’s time to add the beans, do so and then only add 2 cups of stock. Simmer, uncovered, for 15 to 20 minutes, just to reduce a bit and to allow the flavors to marry and deepen. Remove the herbs, smash the beans as directed, add the sausage back in, and prepare the rice as directed.Â
Keywords: Red Beans and Rice
