Dutch Oven Red Beans and Rice

September and the shift is unmistakable. The first cool nights, the mornings requiring a jacket, the light coming in at its September angle that is different from August's. I love this month, the best-kept secret of Vermont autumn. The foliage hasn't started yet — it's still thinking — but something has changed in the quality of the air and the way the farm feels. More internal. More deliberate.

Harvested the winter squash and brought it into the barn cellar on wooden pallets. Six butternut, three delicata, one enormous Hubbard that I've been monitoring with the attention it deserves all summer — a good twenty pounds, easily, deep green and dense. The squash goes into the cellar in September and comes out through February. Having it there, in quantity, lined up and labeled, is one of the reliable satisfactions of the farm year.

Made my first butternut squash soup of the season. This is ceremony as much as dinner — the marking of the turn. Roasted the squash first, which deepens everything, then blended with stock and a touch of maple and nutmeg. Simple. Warm. Exactly right for the first cool September evening with the woodstove getting its first seasonal use.

Teddy started eighth grade this week. He texted a photo of himself on the first day — just the back of his head walking into the school, taken by Sarah. He's been in school in some form all of last year but this is the first full fall in person since seventh grade. He said: it feels normal. That word has weight it didn't have two years ago. Normal. Good.

The butternut soup was ceremony—the right dish for that first cool evening, the woodstove ticking to life beside it. But once a Dutch oven is seasoned and the kitchen smells like something taking its time, it’s hard not to keep going. Red beans and rice became the second ritual of that week: a pot that could simmer while I finished the last of the squash sorting, something Teddy’s “normal” could come home to. Warm, unhurried, exactly the kind of cooking that belongs to this turn in the season.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 2 hrs 30 min | Total Time: 2 hrs 45 min | Servings: 8

Ingredients

1 pound dried red kidney beans, soaked overnight and drained
1 pound andouille sausage, sliced into 1/2-inch rounds
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and black pepper to taste
4 cups cooked long-grain white rice, for serving
3 green onions, thinly sliced, for garnish

Instructions

Brown the sausage. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the sausage slices and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned on both sides, about 5 minutes. Transfer sausage to a plate, leaving the drippings in the pot.
Saute the vegetables. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery to the Dutch oven. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 6–8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant.
Build the pot. Return the browned sausage to the pot. Add the drained beans, chicken broth, bay leaves, thyme, smoked paprika, and cayenne. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.
Slow simmer. Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes, until the beans are completely tender and the liquid has thickened.
Finish and season. Using the back of a wooden spoon, mash roughly 1/4 of the beans against the side of the pot to create a creamy, thick sauce. Remove and discard the bay leaves. Season generously with salt and black pepper.
Serve. Spoon over cooked white rice in wide bowls. Garnish with sliced green onions.

Nutrition (per serving)

Dutch Oven Red Beans and Rice — The First Slow Cook of the Season