When I think of red beans and rice, I think of it as something from New Orleans. It’s a Monday tradition. A family meal. A community thing. But this meal started well beyond New Orleans. It traveled. It adapted. It survived. This dish didn’t start in just one place. And it brought people with it.
Before the first pot of red beans was stirred in New Orleans, the ingredients and ideas for this favorite were already in motion.
As we know, beans and rice are a traditional food pairing that has come from a variety of cultures and has been recognized for its nutritional value for centuries.
They are a comfort food in Brazil, a staple in Jamaica, a lunch plate in Mexico, and in hundreds of other places. Some call the combo the “Poor Man’s Meal” because it is affordable, filling, and adaptable. The specific beans might change – red beans, kidney beans, black beans, pinto, black-eyed peas – but the spirit behind the dish is the same: stretch what you’ve got, make it taste good, and feed everyone.
That’s why I never understood why the beans are not more popular in the Midwest. Why are there really no bean traditions? New Orleans has red beans and rice, New England has baked beans, and the South loves its black-eyed peas. But the top 5 producing states are North Dakota, Michigan, Nebraska, Minnesota, and Idaho. North Dakota leads the nation with 32% of bean production, followed by Michigan at 17%.
The Midwest’s leading position in bean production is from its favorable climate, fertile soils, and agricultural infrastructure, which are all ideal for bean cultivation. But why are there no bean traditions? The Midwest is more potatoes than legumes. The famous coney dog chili sauce in Detroit doesn’t even have beans in it, and Detroit is about 2 hours south of Huron County, which is in the “thumb” region of Michigan, and produces the most beans in the state.
In New Orleans, the red bean itself came over through trade and colonization, most likely from the Caribbean countries like Haiti or Central America.
In the book New Orleans Cuisine: Fourteen Signature Dishes and Their Histories (University Press of Mississippi, 2009), edited by Susan Tucker, Karen Trachan Leathem and Sharon Stallworth Nossiter, the authors of the chapter on Red Beans and Rice, write that though a pot of red beans is influenced by several ethnic and racial groups, the inspiration more than likely comes from New Orleans’ French culinary heritage.
When the Picayune’s Creole Cookbook was first published in 1900, it included the first known recipe for red beans and rice. It was also called Haricots Rouge au Riz and looks pretty close to what a red beans and rice recipe looks like today, minus the inclusion of carrots. The French recipe Glandoulat originates from an area of France where a number of French immigrants came from before landing in New Orleans.
French bean dishes are served on their own with rice. The rice came to the Americas with the enslaved Africans, who not only brought the grain with them, but they also knew how to grow it, manage it, and cook with it. Rice was a staple in West Africa and an integral part of their cuisine. Portions of Africa were known as the Rice Coast to many of the early European explorers. Because of this, slave traders looked for, or requested, slaves who knew how to grow and manage rice. Many of the ships that entered the Americas were filled with those who were enslaved, along with large shipments of rice for seeding.
One of the first steps in making a pot of red beans is to start the recipe with the Holy Trinity. The Holy Trinity in New Orleans is onions, bell peppers, and celery. That combination is influenced by the French and Spanish influences on the dish.
Generally, a ham bone was used and which came from the scraps of the previous day’s meal. Usually, a ham was served for the Sunday supper, and the bone was saved to flavor the pot.
Before food fusion was a thing with a name, it was already happening in southern Louisiana. With a pot of red beans and rice, you have a mix of African, Caribbean, French, Spanish, and Indigenous in every bite.
And it didn’t come together easily. It came together through hardships like colonization, slavery, and migration. It came together from people doing their best that they could with what little they had.
By the end of the 1800s, red beans and rice on a Monday in New Orleans was already a full-blown tradition.
Monday was wash day. The houses were busy. Laundry took time. Because of all of this, you needed to have a meal that didn’t need to be babysat. Beans were the perfect choice. While the clothes were being scrubbed, the beans slowly simmered. By dinnertime, the house and chores might still be in chaos, but the pot of red beans was ready – just add the rice.
Over time, Monday Red Beans and Rice became an identity of New Orleans. It became the routine, the tradition, a sense of comfort. Families expected it, restaurants adapted it, and this simple food became something more.
In The 100 Greatest New Orleans Creole Recipes by Roy F. Guste, Jr. (2008, Pelican Publishing Company), Guste mentioned that when he was leaving school for home, there was always an apprehension about having to begin his homework when he arrived. “Every Monday afternoon as I entered, I would suddenly know that it was Red Beans and Rice day! The kitchen was filled with the comforting smell of something sure and regular, something on which you could depend, even in those grammar school years of fast growing and constant change.”
Red Beans and Rice became a way to know where you were and a thing for comfort. It’s still that way. It doesn’t matter if you’re using a slow cooker, pressure cooker, or the stove top. Even if you’re across the country, this dish still carries with it a story.
And like a pot of red beans, the best stories are meant to be shared.
I always like to reflect on the first bite of red beans and rice and think of all of those who struggled in the first years of New Orleans – those who brought these ingredients together through their hardships and created a tradition that has lasted, even beyond the boundaries of New Orleans itself. There are strands of this tradition that reach the bowls of many people outside of southern Louisiana, like myself. Perhaps you are comforted by the first scent of a pot of red beans simmering, and it takes you back, it comforts your soul.
What’s your favorite red beans and rice story? Share it in the comments below and use the Contact Eric link. I just might feature it in an article.
For Further Reading:
- Monday Red Beans and Rice Recipe
- What is the Holy Trinity of Creole and Cajun Cooking?
- What are the Health Benefits of Red Beans?
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Eric Olsson is the food blogger of RedBeansAndEric.com. He publishes new recipes and interviews weekly. He has developed recipes and written articles for the famous Camellia brand in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has been mentioned in Louisiana Cookin‘ magazine and has had recipes featured in Taste of Home magazine – with his Creole Turkey recipe being runner up in their annual Thanksgiving recipe contest. He lives outside of Detroit, Michigan, with his wife and four children.
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