People who live in and around New Orleans have some serious culinary traditions. From gumbo to mirlitons to when you can and cannot eat oysters, I have learned so much about food by living here.

One tradition that I will take with me always is having red beans and rice on Mondays. I’ve heard that this dish became the norm for Mondays due to a woman’s schedule for the household. Monday was for laundry, which meant not much time for heavy duty cooking. Beans and rice were easy to put over the fire and watch as the ladies were getting the clothes and linens clean. (I’m not even going to get into the gender role problems, because this was when men refused to realize that women were awesome.)

I love the way that most people make red beans and rice around here, with ham rendered down for the base and the sausage served on the side, but I’ve got family members who aren’t all in to that. So, I experimented.

I came up with my own way of cooking red beans and rice that are vegetarian (important for one of my children) and low sodium (important for my husband, well, for all of us). You can get that recipe from The Wild Rose Press along with plenty of others. Click on the image, and you’ll get right to where you can download it. Happy Eating!