Sometimes dinner starts with a recipe .Sometimes it starts with two small peppers from the garden. Last night, I had a couple of sweet peppers that needed to be used, so I decided to make red beans and rice.
I started with a pound of dried red beans and cooked them until they were soft. While the beans were cooking, I sautéed the peppers, a small onion, and some garlic from the garden.
Once the vegetables were tender, I added them to the cooked beans and seasoned everything with salt and thyme. Then I let the beans and vegetables simmer together for about an hour.
While the beans were simmering, I had plenty of time to get the rest of dinner ready.
I cooked some rice and a few hot dogs, then sliced up some of the cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden.
And that was dinner.
Beans and rice, hot dogs, and fresh garden vegetables.
Nothing fancy. Nothing complicated. Just a filling dinner made mostly from things I already had on hand.
Ingredients
- 1 pound dried red beans
- 2 small garden peppers, chopped
- 1 small onion, chopped
- A couple of cloves of fresh garlic, minced
- Cooking fat or oil of your choice. I used bacon grease because of the depth of flavor it brings to the dish.
- Salt, to taste
- Dried thyme, to taste
- Rice, for serving
- Hot dogs or sausage, if desired
- Fresh vegetables for serving, if desired. I used cucumbers and tomatoes from the garden.
Instructions
- Cook the dried beans until tender. Drain if needed, reserving a couple of cups of the cooking water.
- While the beans are cooking, heat your cooking fat or oil in a skillet and sauté the peppers, onion, and garlic until softened.
- Add the sautéed vegetables to the cooked beans.
- Season with salt and thyme. I didn’t measure either one—I just seasoned to taste.
- Let the beans and vegetables simmer together for about an hour, adding some of the reserved cooking water if needed.
- While the beans are simmering, cook the rice.
- Serve the beans over rice with hot dogs or sausage and fresh vegetables, if desired.