Vegan Red Beans and Rice Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do vegans make beans taste better? ›

Dried Mushrooms & Mushroom Broth

The trick to wonderfully flavored vegetarian beans is this: steep the dried mushrooms in boiling water to make a broth, and then simmer beans in the mushroom broth (as all or part of the recipe's cooking liquid). After soaking them, chop the mushrooms and add to the beans, as well.

Mix the cornstarch and cold water together in a bowl then pour it into the red bean mixture and stir well. You will start to see the texture become thicker and creamier. Once done, remove the bay leaves and serve over rice.

Some recipes suggest that you can cook the beans straight from dried without an overnight soak. You can, but it extends the actual cooking time by several hours, and I found that the results were not quite as creamy or evenly cooked. For the best results, soak the dried beans overnight in salted water.

Some meat-free seasonings that work well with white beans include garlic, onion, bay leaves, thyme, rosemary, smoked paprika, cumin, and vegetable bouillon.

Don't forget spices and herbs

I like smoked paprika to add a bit of the campfire flavor, since I keep my beans vegetarian most of the time. I also like adding a little bit of red chile flake or a whole dried chile, sometimes some cumin, and maybe a little bit of Mexican oregano.

Vinegar Makes Red Beans Taste Great!

Vinegar is an acidic liquid produced through fermentation and used in cooking as a flavoring agent and preservative. Its acid content and tangy flavor make it a standard in marinades.

After boiling the beans for one hour, the beans should be tender but the pot as a whole will still look pretty watery. To thicken the pot, begin smashing the red beans against the side of the pot with your spoon. Smash the red beans and let it continue to simmer without a lid for an extra 30 minutes.

Soaking overnight and then discarding the soaking water leaches out sugars in beans that are responsible for gas production. But if you don't have time for a traditional overnight soak, a quick soak is just as beneficial. Rinse the beans and then place them in a pot with three cups of water for each cup of dried beans.

"If you rinse your beans thoroughly, you will have a consistently flavored product, but if you do not rinse them, different amounts of salt will remain in the dish each time you cook it, and it will be hard to cook consistently," he says.

Sprinkle in some baking soda

As it turns out, baking soda significantly decreases the levels of raffinose, the gas-causing sugar present in beans. When should you add baking soda to beans? It works best with just a pinch (about 1/16 of a teaspoon) sprinkled into dried beans while they soak in water before cooking.

What meat is good with red beans and rice? ›

Dried beans cooked with sea salt and water are delicious, but adding an onion, garlic, or other aromatics to the pot will make them even more flavorful!

Beans are a superior choice to ground beef when it comes to fiber and saturated fat. Beans have almost half the calories, roughly 20 fewer grams of fat, and 6 grams more fiber than the same serving of ground beef.

Always Add Aromatics to the Pot

It may sound too basic to be true, but aside from salt, there is no more drastic way to improve the flavor of your dried beans than to cook them with flavor-enhancing vegetables and fragrant, woodsy herbs. There's very little to the method itself, which I use no matter the bean recipe.

Those aromatics in the pot will revolutionize the beans' final flavor. The aromatics I tend to use are onions, carrots, garlic, and celery, and then heartier, woodsy herbs, like rosemary, sage, and thyme, which marry beautifully with the earthy-sweet flavor of beans.

On a vegan diet, you can eat foods made from plants, including: Fruits and vegetables. Legumes such as peas, beans, and lentils. Nuts and seeds.

You can add them to soups, salads, and main dishes, or you can eat them on their own as a side dish. Beans are an important part of a vegan diet because they provide a good source of protein.