The Weeknight Kitchen · Monday Beans · Serves 6

Red Beans
& Rice

Name: Red Beans & Rice
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: Cajun
Ingredients: 454 g dried red beans; 1 smoked ham hock; 340 g andouille; 280 g yellow onion; 150 g green bell pepper; 100 g celery; 20 g garlic; 2 bay leaves; 1 tsp dried thyme; 1 tsp smoked paprika; ½ tsp cayenne; 1 tsp black pepper; 1900 ml water; 6 g Diamond Crystal kosher salt; 30 ml red wine vinegar; 370 g long-grain white rice; 40 g scallions; Hot sauce at the table

The New Orleans Monday pot — dried red beans simmered soft with a smoked ham hock and the trinity, mashed against the side of the pot until creamy, and finished with vinegar. Instant Pot or stovetop, and a canned-bean version that lands in half an hour.

~2½ hr stovetop Instant Pot / stovetop method Mostly unattended hands-off

Spoon cost

Time ●●●●○ Some Doing

Instant PotGluten-Free

Fewer ingredients, shortcut steps — the same dish, less to track.

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

The creaminess comes from the beans, not from cream. Once they're fully soft, mash a ladleful against the side of the pot and stir hard — the broken starch is what turns the liquid into gravy. Two other things decide whether the pot is any good: no salt goes in until the end, because a cured hock's saltiness is unpredictable and can't be walked back, and the vinegar off the heat is not optional — without it the pot tastes flat and muddy, with it it tastes finished.

Before you start

Get these into the state the recipe asks for first — the steps that use them won't wait.

Soak the beans the night before if you're cooking them on the stovetop. The Instant Pot doesn't need it — dry beans go straight in.

Method

Cook's notes

Old beans never soften. If they're still chalky after three hours, they were stale on the shelf when you bought them — no amount of further cooking rescues it. Buy from somewhere with turnover and this problem disappears.

Salt at the end, always. Cured hocks vary enormously; some will season the whole pot on their own. Taste first, then salt.

Splitting a big hock. A two-pound hock is one bone-in piece and you can't halve it at home. Simmer the whole thing in enough water to cover it well, with a couple of bay leaves, until the meat gives — then you have smoky stock and pulled meat to divide between two pots. It freezes well.

It thickens as it sits, and it's better the next day once the starch has settled. Loosen leftovers with a splash of water when you reheat.

Canned beans with a long-simmered hock. If you want the hock's depth but the beans are already in the cupboard, run the stovetop method with about two-thirds of the water and no beans in the pot — hock, trinity, and seasoning only — for the full simmer. Pull and strip the hock, then add the drained and rinsed beans and give them twenty to thirty minutes, long enough to take on the smoke without collapsing. Taste before you reduce: with no thirsty beans in the pot the salt concentrates faster. You will also need to mash more than usual for the same gravy, since canned beans bring none of their own starch.

Freezes beautifully without the rice — cool it, bag it flat, and it keeps for months.

More from the same pot: smoky Cajun Shrimp & Sausage Rice, or the earthier Smoky Black Beans if you have another hock.

Easier, if you like

Skip the browning and put everything in at once. You lose some depth and save ten minutes; the pot is still good.
Frozen diced onion and pepper go straight in from the bag — this is a long simmer, so nothing is lost.

How to make it vegan or gluten-free

Gluten-free: naturally gluten-free — just check the andouille, since some brands use wheat as a binder.

Vegan: drop the hock and the andouille, start with oil instead of rendered fat, and build the smoke back with extra smoked paprika, a chipotle in adobo, and a splash of soy sauce or tamari at the end. Smoked salt in place of the kosher salt gets you the rest of the way.