barb's red beans & rice

Traditional red beans & rice was an easy meal to cook on the stove on wash day. Nowadays most recipes include lots of fancy ingredients and is a big production. Well, here's a recipe that's back to basics and nutritarian all the way--so completely different from the standard recipe (no smoke flavor or ham hocks or spices needed).

Ingredients:

1 cup red beans

1 cup pinto beans (more tender than red beans but you can use all red beans if you'd like---or any other kind--I just happened to have 1 cup left of each!)

1.5 cups of brown and/or wild rice (or 1 cup or 2---I just happened to have 1.5 cup!)

1 large leek or onion

2 cups carrot juice

1-2 cups whatever else you want to juice up--I did beets and celery

1 tsp thyme (optional)

1 tsp oregano (optional)

chipotle powder to taste (small amount as it's hot)--this adds a little smoky flavor

1/4 tsp ground cloves--this also is remniscent of smoky flavor (think ham with cloves...)

Throw it all in the pot with a few more cups water, bring to a boil, turn down the heat to a simmer, and go do your chores or play. Check it every once in a while to make sure you have enough water. You can turn it off in 2-4 hours. But if you turn it off in 2 hours, you probably want to let it sit for another hour or two to continue softening the red beans while it cools. Today I turned on the stove at about 7:30 am, the stove was turned off at 10 am when housemate left the house, and when I returned at noon, it was still warm and nicely cooked.

You can add seasoning to taste in your bowl: cinnamon is good, believe it or not. Also gumbo file is good (ground sassafras leaves), and any no salt seasoning. If SAD (Standard American Diet) guests want to add salt, you can offer them salt or soy sauce or cajun seasoning or red pepper sauce, which all have salt in them--that's why people like them.

Makes 6 large bowls. Nutritional info per bowl: Calories 254, protein 13 g (20%), carbs 49 g (77%), fat > 1 g (3%).