Easy Red Beans and Rice

I didn't grow up eating a lot of red beans and rice, but the other day I could not stop thinking about the dish. This is in no way an authentic Cajun recipe - you'll need to go elsewhere for that. It is though, a quick and delicious recipe that is super easy to make.

Red Beans and Rice

Serves 2

1/2 C rice

1 C chicken broth

1 15 oz can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 link sausage*, cut into small pieces

1/2 T butter*

1 shallot, diced*

2 cloves garlic, minced

1. Stir rice and chicken broth together in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.

2. Cover rice and simmer for 20 minutes. Do not stir.

3. While rice is cooking, heat butter in a pan over medium high heat.

4. Place sausage in pan and brown for 2-3 minutes.

5. Add shallots and garlic to pan with sausage and cook 5 or so minutes until the shallots are translucent.

6. Reduce heat to medium low and add kidney beans to the pan with the sausage. Stir together.

7. When the rice is finished, fluff with a fork.

8. Put rice in bowl or on a plate. Top with bean and sausage mix. Serve immediately and enjoy!

*Tips and Tricks:

• I used jalapeño chicken sausage this time around because I had a coupon for it. Use whatever type of sausage is your favorite. Also, when I make this again I'll be adding another sausage link. One would be enough for most people, but both Lars and I wanted a bit more meat in the dish.
• Feel free to substitute olive oil for butter. I usually use olive oil, but I like the crispy outside the butter gives the sausage in this recipe.
• If you don't regularly stock shallots in your home use 1/2 of an onion.
• We had enough left over for Lars to take a good sized portion for lunch the next day. If you want to get dinner for two and lunch for two out of it, increase the rice to 3/4 cup, the chicken broth to 1.5 cups, and throw in an additional sausage link.