[spixiet]

I love red beans and rice...although I can easily leave the rice out of it I made a modified version of a recipe I found online tonight, and I thought it turned out really well, so I thought I'd share~

1 lb dry small red beans (soaked overnight and drained)

1.5 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
(saute veggies in olive oil until softened)

14 oz crushed tomatoes
4 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 cup water
2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried thyme (I used dried thyme leaves, not ground)
1/2 tsp sage
1 tsp cajun seasoning
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
(add liquids, spices, and drained beans, bring to boil, reduce to simmer, simmer ~3 hours)

1 package Hillshire Farms Turkey Polska Kielbasa - I know, it's nothing like Andouille sausage, but I still like it
(chop up Kielbasa, add to beans, cook another 30-45 minutes)

A pretty big bowl, 1/6 of the recipe, comes in at about 325 calories, 11 grams of fat, 37 grams of fiber (I know this seems high, but it's based on the nutritional info on the bag of beans, and there are a lot of beans in a serving), and 31 grams of protein. You could always do smaller portions served with rice....

Also, if you don't want to soak the beans overnight, cover beans with water plus a few inches above, bring to boil, turn off heat, cover, let sit one hour. Drain beans and follow remaining steps)

FYI - I got the nutritional data by plugging all of the listed ingredients (minus spiced) into nutritiondata.com recipe builder...I had to add the information for the dried beans (all of their data was for cooked beans) and the Turkey Kielbasa from the packages...and then telling it to give nutritional info for 1/6 of the recipe -

Nummy

[Nola Celeste]

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! Red beans and rice is a fantastic meal when lightened up a little. (It's fantastic when it's NOT lightened up, too, but you don't get to enjoy as large a serving. )

Next time you make it, you might want to try a trick my husband does with his beans. He browns up the sausage and renders off the fat (we use andouille, so there's definitely some fat to be rendered there!), then adds it back into the pot about forty minutes before the beans are done. He likes to brown the meat first for flavor's sake, I like that it takes away a lot of the fat and calories, so we both win.

Loooooove me some red beans and rice!