Red Beans with Goat Sausage

By Anne Blanchet

This traditional Cajun favorite is easily scaled up to accommodate a large crowd; it can be doubled, tripled, or quadrupled with little difficulty, as long as you have a big enough pot.
Ingredients:
1 lb dried red kidney or pinto beans
1 lb smoked goat sausage, cut into bite-sized pieces
½ bell pepper, red, green, or a combination, seeded and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 bay leaf
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
½ - 1 tablespoon olive oil

Cooking Tools:
1 saucepan
1 skillet
Knife and cutting board
Garlic press (optional)


Soak Beans overnight in enough water to cover all beans. Alternately, bring beans and water to a boil in saucepan, turn off, then let sit for one hour. Whichever method you use, drain water.

Coat bottom of skillet with olive oil. Sauté bell pepper, onion, and garlic until softened (onions should be a transparent yellow). Add to saucepan with beans, 8 cups water (an inch or so above the beans), bay leaf, sausage and salt and pepper to taste. Cook until beans are tender, about 1+ hours, skimming the foam and fat off for the first 15 minutes.

Opt: Garnish with chopped parsley. Add Worcestershire Sauce and/or Tabasco at the table. Serve over rice.