This recipe truly is one of those elusive one pot wonders. It seems like so often a recipe looks like it will only need one pan and it turns out to need so many more. Or you think you won’t have that many dishes because you’re only making a few things and when you’re done cooking it looks like you’ve used every dish in the kitchen.

This really does only require one pot. This is possible because ingredients get added at different stages based on how long they need to be cooked. The sausage, onions and garlic get added first. Then in go the peppers, beans and celery. Lastly the rice and seasonings are added.

This is based on my father-in-law’s recipe. I veered off from his recipe only with the seasonings. I wanted to focus more on the sweet and savory Cajun flavors  and cut down on the heat level because I have a low level of heat tolerance. So I added a little spice but a lot of sweet and flavorful herbs and spices. This gives the dish a wonderful flavor that’s not overpowering with spice. Plus, if somebody wants some extra heat they can add hot sauce or extra cayenne pepper.

Ingredients

• 1 pound sausage, remove casings if present
• 2 large yellow onions, diced (about 3-4 cups)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 green peppers, diced
• 2- 15 ounce cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 2 ⅓ cups water, divided
• 4 stalks celery, diced (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup uncooked rice
• 1 tablespoon ground paprika
• 1 tablespoon dried basil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¾ teaspoon dried thyme
• ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne

Instructions

Saute the sausage, onions and garlic in a Dutch oven until the sausage is cooked. Add the peppers, beans, celery and ⅓ cup water and simmer covered for 15 minutes. Add the remaining 2 cups water, rice and seasonings and simmer covered for 20-30 minutes or until the rice is cooked and everything is soft. Salt to taste. Makes about 10 cups.