Kidney beans and rice is one of my most memorable

dishes.

Thinking back on the things my grandmother use to say to me, it brings back memories of warmness, Joy, and sometimes sadness. Simply, because of the reasons, she said certain things to my siblings and me.

Like “You will understand when you have children” or “Be grateful for what you got on your

plate” she said this whenever we complained about eating the same thing more than once, during the week.

One of those dishes was kidney beans and rice!

These delicious little pellets of energizing protein, packs a lot of flavor and goodness rolled into them. They are perfectly fine when eaten all alone, but extra scrumptious when served over white or brown rice! Yum!

I can’t believe that now as an adult I love to cook them, eat them, and serve them to my kids. I love to reminisce about those good days when I was a young girl,  racing my brother home, to get to the dinner table first.

Kidney Beans

Now when shopping, don’t get these kidney beans mixed up with red beans. I say this because my husband brought back the wrong beans one time. Just because they looked similar, but they are different.

Kidney beans are bigger than red beans and are not as strong tasting. Kidney beans do not take as long as red beans to cook. But if your local grocer does not have them, you can substitute this recipe with red beans.

This recipe kindles memories like the one I talked about up top, because, it was one of those dinners that I remember the most as a young child.

Particularly, because my grandmother seemed to always have this dish ready when my brother and I  got home from school.

We would race back home to eat, after a long day at school. The long public bus ride to and from school was extra tasking on our starving bodies.

It was as if we were starving when we stepped foot off that bus. Even though we had eaten lunch at school, it seems that we were always hungry when we got home.

My grandmother never failed use, she knew that we would be hungry, so she had our beans ready. As a mom, I now know that it took her a long time to prepare this dish.

 

Her Creole heritage definitely influenced her cooking and made it so delicious, and she cooked for us with a healthy dose of love in each meal.

Back then I thought that we were unfortunate and poor because we had to eat beans, which seemed like every day. Now I know it was really one of the best and one of the healthiest meals we could have eaten.

What to cook with kidney beans

This delicious dish pairs well with many things and, I eat them any time of the day. Get you some smoked turkey or smoked ham or even smoked sausage is good. The tender ham flavored meat makes it even more mouth-watering. Drizzle the thickened savory sauce over fluffy white rice, spiced with some screaming Texas Pete hot sauce, oh baby you’re talking good!

Although it seemed as if my grandmother prepared this dish for us every day, at the time, I now understand that she had actually cooked the pot of kidney beans & rice on that Monday.

It seems as if it was a kind of unspoken tradition to put a big pot of beans on the stove that would simmer all day long. Just like the tradition of frying fish on Fridays was a family ritual with my kinfolks.

My family was not catholic, but they did come from Louisiana and many of these traditions were lived out in their homes, even after migrating to San Francisco.

Sometimes we got to eat these beans with some good fried chicken, pickled peppers and freshly diced tomatoes. Which are all duplicated at my table today, when I cook  red beans & rice for my family

So, this is a meal that I have placed in front of my family quite often. Today, as a mother, that has the choice to prepare any dish for my family that I want, I often prepare red beans & rice. Yes, I could skip beans, a little more often then I choose too.  But, the fact is, my family, enjoy eating this dish, especially with a nice thick piece of cornbread, chicken or with a nice crisp green tossed salad!  Plus it is so healthy and nutritious! Yum, delicious!