Instant Pot New Orleans Style Red Beans & Rice

While living in Baton Rouge, LA, we sampled all of the Creole fare we could – gumbo, jambalaya, po’boys, etc. Embarrassingly, while living there we never learned to cook any of these ubiquitous meals except for one ill-advised attempt to shortcut a jambalaya (lesson learned: don’t take shortcuts with jambalaya). While traditional preparations are not vegan, we’ve since found (with lots of help from pro’s like chef Bryant Terry) that Creole dishes can be fairly easily modified to be entirely plant-based.

Red beans and rice is the simplest of these vegan takes on Creole cooking, and the payoff is a rich, comforting bowl of beans that nearly melt in your mouth. We’ve slightly modified Joe Yonan’s simple stovetop recipe from Cool Beans to be weeknight friendly in the Instant Pot – of the 60 minutes of cooking, only about 10 are active. We serve the resulting bowl of beans and rice alongside a salad or other side veg.

Ingredients

For the beans

• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 stalk celery, diced
• 1 tsp. Creole seasoning
• 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
• 1 1/2 cups dried small red beans, soaked for at least 8 hours, drained and rinsed
• 4 cups vegetable broth and/or water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. soy sauce (or tamari for gluten-free)
• 1 tsp. hot sauce
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• Avocado oil

For the rice

• 2 cups rice of choice (recipe is written for brown rice)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp. salt
• 2 cups water and/or vegetable broth
• Avocado oil

Directions

1. Set the Instant Pot (IP) to Saute mode and add a tbsp. of avocado oil once hot. Add the onion, bell pepper, and celery and cook for 4-5 minutes until the onion starts to brown. Stir in the Creole seasoning and paprika and cook for another minute.
2. Add the beans, broth or water, and bay leaf. The liquid should cover the beans by an inch or two.
3. Put the lid on the IP and set it to to Pressure Cook mode for 18 minutes. Once the time is up, let slow release for about 10 minutes before fully releasing and removing the lid.
4. Stir the soy sauce, hot sauce, and salt into the beans and adjust the flavors as desired. Transfer the beans to a large pot and then rinse out the IP before making the rice. [Alternatively, you could make the rice on the stovetop while the beans are cooking.]
5. To make the rice in the IP, again set it to Saute mode and add a tbsp. of avocado oil. Add the onion, bay leaf, and salt and stir, cooking for 4-5 minutes until the onion begins to brown. Add the rice and stir to coat, then add the broth or water.
6. Put the lid on the IP and set it to to Pressure Cook mode for 25 minutes (if using brown rice. Adjust as needed for other types). Once the time is up, let slow release for about 10 minutes before fully releasing, removing the lid, and fluffing the rice.
7. Serve the beans and rice in bowls and garnish with chives and more hot sauce.

Nutrition Facts