02.20.18

Ducky’s Vegan Cajun Red Beans and Rice Recipe

Posted in Recipes at 9:39 pm by ducky

I had a Significant Other many years ago who was from Louisiana, and taught me to love Red Beans and Rice.  Later, I became a vegetarian.  That was mostly okay, but I missed Red Beans and Rice.  I eventually got tired and worked out a vegetarian version and was really happy with how it turned out.  Here’s my recipe:

Soak 1 lb dried red beans overnight.

After they are well and truly soaked, drain off the water and put them in a slow cooker  Cover them with water or broth. (I really like Better Than Bullion goo; I use about 2 big teaspoons for one batch of this recipe.)

Chop two sausages of Tofurky Andouille sausage (comes in 4-packs) into thin disks and brown lightly.

Then saute with the sausage:

  • 4 diced celery stalks
  • 1 diced onion
  • 1/2 to 1 green pepper
  • 6 cloves garlic

After you’ve sauteed all the stuff, add it to the slow cooker.

Also toss into the slow cooker:

  • 1t salt
  • 2t white pepper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 waaay heaping teaspoon of smoked paprika
  • 3/4 t of cayenne pepper
  • about 2cm of jalapeno
  • 20 turns of a black pepper mill (I think this works out to about 2t)

Everybody’s slow cooker is going to be different, but I think mine takes about six hours on high.   It’s done when the beans are mushy.  For authenticity, at some point when the beans start to get mushy, smash 1/4 of them against the side of the slow cooker.  This makes the stew thicker and mixes more of the bean flavour into the liquid.

Serve over rice.

Notes:

“Red beans” are a specific type of beans. Beans which happen to be red, like kidney beans, are not the same. If you can’t find dried red beans, you can probably find canned red beans, but they are more expensive. (You don’t have to soak them overnight, however.)  Edit 2021-08-18: Ignore what I said.  Kidney beans work just fine.

The Tofurkey Andouille sausage is really important for getting the taste right.  Other kinds of vegetarian sausage won’t give the right taste.  Tofurkey Andouille sausage is slightly hard to find, but our Whole Foods carries it.

The beans freeze well, but the rice does not.

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