Red Beans and Rice / Tuscan White Bean Soup
Hi there! I made a couple of different Warmers this week! One is a regular rotation standby, the other is a new recipe.
I probably make Red Beans and Rice every other week when the weather is cold. It’s SO good! At one point I think I had a Pinterest recipe I was working off of, but I have changed it up enough at this point to call it my own. It’s a little healthier by using turkey sausage instead of regular, but you can swap out for any sausage you like. You can also use brown rice if you’re trying to be good, but I usually go with good ol’ white Minute Rice because this one is almost always a quickie week night meal. You can also throw it in the crock pot if you want, but I use the Instant Pot most of the time, so we’re one pan and done. Lastly, my favorite part: LEFTOVERS! I always get a couple of lunches out of what’s left, I just put the leftover rice in containers and dump the rest of the pot over the tops. YUM. This one is worth it!
Red Beans and Rice: 2 cans light red kidney beans (do not drain), one onion chopped, one green pepper chopped, 1 package (2 sausages) Eckrich Smoked Turkey Sausage, sliced into 1/8 inch rounds, 1 cup beef broth, Cajun seasoning. Put your Instant Pot on sauté, brown the sausage a little bit to give it some color. Add in the onion and pepper, and let them start to soften. Then add the beans, broth, and Cajun seasoning. I don’t measure the seasoning, it’s to taste, but I usually use about a tablespoon. Pressure cook for 4 minutes, then quick release. Serve over cooked rice. If you use the slow cooker, I cook on low for about 6-8 hours, and brown the sausage in a skillet first. I use the microwave directions on my rice. If you really feel like cooking rice the hard way, you do you!
Tuscan White Bean Soup
This is Ina’s recipe, but I have to confess, I changed it up a little bit. I sort of forgot about the leeks and didn’t have any, and I was also out of celery. If you ask me, nobody is ever going to miss celery (yuck). I also used dried rosemary vs. fresh. So instead of using the leeks, when I took the soup off the heat for the last 15 minutes, I added in about 2 cups of chopped kale. I know there’s a lot of kale haters out there, but if you chop it up fairly small, it just takes on the flavor of your soup, it doesn’t get mushy, and it’s packed with vitamins. The soup was also not quite as creamy as I wanted, so I did add about 1/4 cup of heavy cream. I used canned beans, and she does give the alternate recipe for that instead of using dry beans. We ate it along with some crusty baguette to dip, delish! (And yes, leftovers for lunch this week!) This one is a keeper for sure!
Stay warm! ~ Jen