Hello friends! It’s a New Orleans tradition to eat red beans on Mondays. Why Mondays? Back in the day, Monday was usually laundry day. So, the lady of the house could put a pot of beans on the stove in the morning and slow cook them all day as she was busy washing and cleaning. Once the house work was done, dinner was ready! This was my first time cooking red beans from scratch but I decided to cook them on a Sunday. My reason- I have a phobia of leaving food unattended while cooking. I realize that slow cookers are designed to safely slow cook for several hours and many people slow cook meals while they are at work; however, the fear of my condo burning down as a result of unattended beans outweighs any logic.
Anyway, back to the beans! The whole process began Saturday when I soaked one pound of dry red beans in water overnight. The only rule is to make sure all the beans are covered in water.
Sunday morning, I drained and rinsed the beans. Next, I mixed the beans with 4 cups of water, low-fat turkey sausage, and some seasonings into my CrockPot.
Ingredients
-1 pound dry beans (soaked overnight)
-4 cups water
- 7 ounce (1/2 package) low-fat turkey sausage, chopped
-1 tablespoon chopped garlic
-1/2 cup chopped onions
-2 green onions, chopped
-1 teaspoon pepper
-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
-1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
-1 bay leaf
-salt to taste
Serve over rice
I set the CrockPot to cook for 8 hours on low.
After 8 hours, the beans were perfect…
Cory said they were better than “Blue Runner Red Beans” which are the most popular canned beans sold mainly in the South. An advantage to making beans from scratch is that you can control how much salt goes into the beans. Canned goods are notorious for being very high in sodium. Another advantage of beans is that they are inexpensive. It cost me $1.40 for one pound of dry beans and so far Cory and I have eaten from the batch twice and we still have leftovers. I am considering freezing the leftovers because I hear red beans freeze pretty well.
Have you ever cooked beans from scratch? What’s your favorite slow cooker meal?
Kasey
Yummy! They ARE cheap. I sympathize with you on the leftovers situation though. I’m sure one can only eat beans for so many days.
I’ve frozen black bean soup before and that worked well..
I really need a slow cooker! Clearly this is going on our wedding list (and no, we aren’t engaged yet!). I just don’t have room in the kitchen right now and I need to get rid of a few things before I get one.
I have never made beans from scratch, and I typically buy the low sodium beans in the can. However, this looks very easy and I would definitely try this recipe one day!
We cook dry beans alot and we never soak them over night and they are really good.
Yum! I have the same slow cooker =) Currently there is some chicken, jalapeno peppers, red bell pepper and onion cooking in it destined for some enchilladas tonight… I hope it works well! PS beans freeze awesome. I portion them out into single serving zip lock bags and freeze for whenever Todd isn’t home and I need dinner or if I don’t have time to pack a lunch.
learn something new everyday! Thanks for the facts!
i make cook dried black beans every Sunday night. It is a staple for my week. They usually end up sneaking into my salads, stirfry, rice…everything. hehe, those persistant little beans. Kasey I don’t have a crock pot yet! I better get one soon.
Red Beans are my favorite! I usually use Blue Runner, I know that is cheating. I will try this recipe though!