Monday means Red Beans and Rice for dinner

One of my absolute favourite go-to recipes for a quick, delicious and cheap meal is the classic New Orleans dish, Red Beans and Rice.

Hearty, robust, nutrient dense - great in large batches or small.  Great as leftovers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_beans_and_rice

Flex your creativity and throw in what you like, but the must-haves are:

1.  Peppers (green is traditional) Onions, Celery.  Carmelize them in some oil to develop their flavour.

2.  Thyme, Garlic, Cayenne and "cajun spice" - blends are everywhere and I never run out.  Sprinkle in to taste.

3.  Red Beans - canned are convenient, slow cooked are dirty cheap.

I don't have a conflict about not including andouille or pork in mine any more.  Plenty of great vegetarian sausages out there (fennel seeds will give it a sausag-y flavour) make this a non-issue.

4.  Final veg trick is to add a few dashes of liquid smoke to the batch.  That smoky goodness subs out for the other food that usually adds smoke and fat to the dish.

Top with some chopped green onions, chopped celery leaves, a glob of earth balance and plenty of hot sauce and DIVE IN.

Traditional on Mondays, this might just eliminate years and years worth of asking "what's for dinner?" at the beginning of the week.