Red Beans and Rice w/ Sausage

One of K's favorite side dishes is Popeye's Red Beans and Rice. I have been experimenting with a recipe trying to somewhat mimic it. This is what I have so far!

Red Beans and Rice w/ Sausage

Soak & cook about 2 cups of red beans, drain off most of the extra water

(Keep THIS in mind when you soak and cook red beans...........!)

In your crockpot - put in the beans (you want around 3-4 cups of cooked beans).

If you would rather use canned, use 2 cans.

Put in 1-1 1 /2 cups of dry, uncooked rice

(you could probably soak this first, but I didn't this time)

Add 4 cups of liquid - I used a combination of water and beef broth

Add 1 onion, chopped fine

Add 4-6 cloves garlic, minced

Add spices:

2 TB chili powder

1 heaping TB cumin (adjust this down for a little more mild spicy!)

1 tsp salt

1/2- 1 tsp black pepper

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (can leave out, especially if you are serving little ones!)

2 TB dried parsley

If you like, add sausage. I used the large links, a mild Italian sausage. It would also be yummy if you cut these links into "rounds". I let the rice and beans start cooking for about 2 hours before I added the sausage, frozen.

(Because I knew we were going to be gone for the rest of the day and I didn't want it to over cook and my crockpot doesn't have a warm feature! )

This would also be a good vegetarian dish, just leave the sausage out!

Mix well and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. If you can check halfway thru you may need to add a little more water or broth as the rice cooks and absorbs most of the liquids. And really all you need to do is cook the rice and sausage, so once they are cooked you can serve anytime or turn to low and wait till dinner time!

Serve with fresh, homemade sourdough bread!

I let mine cook for a good 8 hours - we ended up coming home later then I had planned, so it was for sure done when we got back! Besides wishing I had had a way to add a little water a few hours earlier, it was still really good. The beans and rice were pretty mushy, but very flavorful and had a good spicy kick. If you don't care for too spicy, tone down the measurements above till you find a good flavor for you!

This post is part of Pennywise Platter over at Nourishing Gourmet!