Slow Cooked Red Beans and Rice with Ham

I absolutely love red beans and rice! I love slow cooked, crock pot beans. My husband makes fun of me because it seems like I am always soaking beans! Here's another post on crock pot beans.

I used 2.5 cups of dried red beans. As a general rule, 1/4 cup is a serving size. But since this is our meal not a side item, and we will both eat it 2-3 times, I rounded up.

I forgot to soak my beans last night. They need to be soaked because the beans will absorb the water and cook faster. Soaking also breaks up the outer layer that causes gas. Some people say that's a myth. I don't know, but I soak them anyway!

Since I forgot to soak them, I parboiled them. Cover them with cold water. Bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Let them sit in the water for 1-4 hours (I did about 1.5 hours). Rinse them and dump that water.

Here are some frozen, roasted hatch chilis. See me roast them here. These are still frozen with the skins on. I just put them in the fridge to thaw. When they thaw, peel the skins and chop them.

Onion, garlic, peppers, and a ham hock. The garlic and peppers are from Cardo's Farm Project.

Chop all the veggies. I used 3 cloves of garlic.

These are radishes and turnips from Cardo's. I used just the greens for the beans. Chop the greens. (Note: I used these because I have them. I wouldn't necessarily go buy them to add to the beans. They are very nutritious, so it's not a bad thing to add! But if you are making a grocery list for this recipe, you can omit this.)

Throw it all in the crock pot.

Do not add salt until after the beans cook. Salt makes the beans tough. Season with pepper, chili powder, and oregano (about 1 tsp each).

1 bay leaf

Add the beans to the pot. Cover with broth. Cover and cook on low for 5-6 hours. Once they are cooked, add salt to taste. 

Now for the okra and toppings. For the okra, I sauteed okra, turnips, radishes, peppers, and onion (all from Cardo's except the onion) in olive oil. Season with 2 tsp essence seasoning. Saute on med-high for about 10 minutes. 

My husband was sioux chef tonight.

For the toppings for the beans and rice, I have ham, sour cream, cilantro, green onions, and roasted hatch chili peppers. I had some roasted hatch chili peppers in the freezer, see me roast them here.

Saute the ham in butter to caramelize it. These are ham steaks from the deli. Just ask for thick ham steaks and they'll cut them for you. I cooked 3 ham steaks. Dice them and saute in about 3 tbsp butter on med-high for about 15 minutes.

Chop the cilantro, green onion, and hatch chilis.

This is regular white rice. Nothing fancy. 2 cups white rice with 4 cups broth. Cover, bring to a boil on med-high, reduce heat to low, cook about 15 minutes. This is the last meal that I use white rice instead of a wild grain rice. But my husband insists beans and rice have to have white rice. So I give him this one!

Fill your bowl with beans and rice, top with cilantro, hatch chilis, ham, green onions, and sour cream. Serve with a side of okra.