Wednesday, January 23 Cajun Red Beans and Rice (Color Me Vegan) and Broccoli Rating: 4

Sometimes, you just want beans and rice. OK, and a little bit of vegan sausage too. I needed to use up some Tofurky sausage I had in the fridge from when I made paella a couple of weeks ago. I don’t like to use processed foods all that often, and one of these days I’m going to make my own sausage, dammit. But, until that happy day arrives, processed sausage it is. When it comes to these, we prefer the Field Roast brand over the Tofurky, but the latter was about $4 cheaper so I bought that instead. Anyway, as much as I like the Color Me Vegan recipe (I have about 80 red beans & rice recipes), I do make a few tweaks: I use about half the amount of sausage called for (I think 4 is way too many), I double the Cajun seasoning, add some extra salt and I can never get the water right. Normally, I end up with too much water at the end and have to cook it for an extra 20 minutes or so. This time, I cut back the water a little and the rice didn’t cook all the way, so I had to add more and… cook it for another 20 minutes or so. Sigh. Brown rice and I don’t always get along all that well. I also swapped out red pepper for green since I had one on hand and I also tried a different beans & rice recipe a while back hat did that and I really liked it. This is really tasty with a bit of hot sauce, so make sure you have some on the table. For the broccoli, I didn’t do anything all that special – just steam it in a non-stick pan until it’s tender, than add some sliced red onion, minced garlic and splash it with some lemon juice near the end. Oh, and salt & pepper, too.