Coconut Red Beans & Rice

Rice is very underrated in western cuisine, which is a shame. It is far more versatile than pasta, and can be used as the foundation of incredibly great yet simple dishes, such as Red Beans and Rice. If you travel to the American South, you’ll find some very sophisticated interpretations of Red Beans and Rice that have sausage or kielbasa slices in them, but that is completely unnecessary. You can literally just cook some rice and dump some canned red beans in it and call it Red Beans and Rice. Wrap it in a tortilla and you have a vegetarian burrito.

If you do want to spice it up a little bit though, try the recipe below. It just adds some diced onion with some flavor. Particularly, the rice cooks in a 50% water, 50% coconut milk mixture. I tend to use this as a side dish for Jamaican Jerk Chicken but that is totally unnecessary because, as with all of my side dishes, this one is good enough to stand entirely on its own.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfFG9RWtkBY

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Coconut Red Beans & Rice

Author: Todd Martin

Ingredients

• White Rice | 4 cups, dry
• Red Kidney Beans | 4 cups, canned
• Coconut Milk | 4 cups
• Butter | 4 Tbsp.
• Onion | 1, large
• Garlic | 4 cloves
• Bay Leaves | 2
• Habanero | 1
• Allspice
• Thyme

Instructions

1. Over medium-high heat, melt butter in large pot.
2. Sauté butter for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add habanero, bay leaves, thyme, and allspice. Stir together and continue to sauté for a few more minutes and enjoy the amazing fragrance.
3. Add coconut milk with an additional 4 cups of water, and mix together. Add the kidney beans and dry rice. Cover pot until boiling.
4. Remove pot from heat and bake entire pot at 350° for 40 minutes.

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