Dark red kidneys are larger and have a tougher texture, and they can be used if that’s all you can find, but use the ones marked Light Red or just Red Beans if you can find them. Both the store-brand (Kroger) and the national brand (Bush’s Best) contained sugar and dextrose.įinally I found two cans in Kroger that were sugar free, their Simple Truth Organic Dark Red Kidney Beans and a can marked simply “Red Beans.” Of the two, the Red Beans are the most like the Camilla brand red beans that are used to make Louisiana red beans and rice, and they’re what I used in this recipe. So I went in search of unsweetened red beans and had a harder time finding them than you would think. The first time I made this, I used the light red kidney beans I had in my pantry, and I couldn’t stand the sweet taste they lent to the dish. The Fresh Market and Kroger have these sugar-free options.īefore you do this at home, there is something very important (and kind of scary) that you need to know about canned red beans: Many–or even most–brands add sugar to their kidney beans, making them unfit for this recipe. It’s essential to use canned beans that don’t contain sugar. So in the absence of Blue Runners, I started thinking about making my own fast-food red beans using regular canned beans, and after a couple of attempts, I think I’ve finally gotten it right. When I went home for visits, I would often bring cases of them back to Jackson with me, but my supply always seemed to run out too quickly. I used to be able to buy them here in Jackson, and then suddenly I couldn’t. For years when I needed a quick dose of Louisiana cooking, I’d open a couple of cans of Blue Runner beans, sometimes adding extra “trinity” (onions, bell pepper, celery) or tomatoes, sometimes just heating and eating them on a pile of fresh-cooked rice.įor something out of a can, Blue Runner beans are pretty damned good. Truth be told, there’s a guilty secret that many Louisiana home cooks share, and its name is Blue Runner Cream Style Red Beans. You have to plan for red beans, putting them on to soak the night before and then cooking them the next day for no real set amount of time, just as long as it takes until they start to break down into a creamy goodness.

But red beans is not a spur-of-the-moment, impulse kind of dish. I start remembering the spicy, creamy red beans of my childhood and I want some–right now. Except, well, maybe I am about to do just that. I know from experience that it takes all day to make good red beans, and I would never try to convince you otherwise. Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe Share on FacebookĪs a Louisiana girl, I consider slow-cooked red beans and rice part of my cultural heritage, as much a part of my childhood as climbing too high in the live oak trees and eating watermelon at the picnic table in the back yard.

Vegan red beans and rice