Cajun Red Beans and Rice

I actually made this weeks ago and never got around to blogging it.  This is the simplest red beans and rice recipe you will ever come across.  Trust me when I was looking for recipes they all had 18 ingredients and cooked for 4 days and I’m thinking it has to be easier than this.

I give you…. 4 ingredients.
Beans, rice, sausage and seasoning… that’s it.

Of course if you want to jazz it up with onions and peppers and whatever, feel free.  I used the Lousiana Brand cajun seasoning, you can use whatever you like, Zattarans, Tony Chacere’s etc.  Also, if you want a vegetarian version, feel free to leave the sausage out, since the rice and beans already make a complete protein.  I just like it.  The first time I made it, I used kielbasa but this time I broke out the traditional andouille.  It’s spicier and more flavorful.

First I chop up the sausage, and saute it in the pan.  I don’t like dealing with raw onions since I used them so very rarely, so I keep some dehydrated onions for this purpose, sprinkle them in with the sausage and let them saute as well.  If you like fresh, knock yourself out.

Add the beans, along with a healthy dash of cajun season and let cook until the beans soften.  Yup, that’s all there is too it.  Now when I made it this time, I used canned red beans, I’ve since bought some dried red beans but have yet to make anything with them yet.

I cooked the rice in the microwave, and it takes just as long as it does on the stove top pretty much, but I cooked it one serving at a time instead of having a big blob of gummed up leftover rice.  I separated the beans into 4 servings and then each night when I was going to eat it cooked up a cup of rice to go with it.

As you can see I went pretty heavy on the bean to sausage ratio, which you can scale back if you like, but I happened to like it.

COST:
I don’t remember exactly what this cost, but suffice it to say it’s not expensive.  The canned beans are 89 cents a can, the 1 pound bag of rice (that I didn’t even use all of) is maybe 3$, and the sausage, which is the most expensive ingredient, is 4-5$ for 12 oz.  So a grand total of maybe 7$, for 4 meals.  Cheap eats, but good eats.

NUTRITION:
For what is a very filling meal, it’s not too bad nutrition wise.
610 Calories, 113g carbs, 8g fat, 30g protein.  Pretty high carb from both the rice and the beans.  The little bit of fat is from the sausage, so very low fat and virtually fat free if you go all veg.  Great protein from the beans and sausage and a little from the rice.

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