Sausage and Cajun Rice

My hubby walked in from his gym workout today to the smell of Cajun Sausage and Rice. He said it smelled amazing and he couldn’t wait to try it. I used to make a box dinner like this when we were first married. It had kielbasa with who knows what ingredients in it plus a boxed rice with similar seasonings but tons of preservatives and other junk.

Well, I recently bought some quality kielbasa from Pederson Farms with no sugar added. So, I thought I would recreate one of his favorite meals.

This is a super simple one pot meal if you start it in a big pot instead of using a pan to sautee everything.

Here is how you make it….

Ingredients:

*One package of quality no nitrate no sugar added kielbasa (We used Pederson Farms)

*1.5 cups organic rice uncooked (you can add more rice but will need more seasoning then)

*1/2 organic red bell pepper

*1 organic tomato

*1/2 onion chopped into small pieces or 1 tsp dried onion

*1 clove of organic garlic minced

*1 cup of beef bone broth (can replace with water but broth adds flavor and nutrition)

*2 cups of filtered water

*1 TBS plus 2 tsp smoked paprika (you can use regular but I LOVE the smoked stuff from Trader Joes)

*1 tsp garlic powder

*1 tsp oregano

*1.5 tsp sea salt We buy our Redmonds Real Sea Salt at Thrive Market.

*1 tsp onion powder

*1 tsp cayenne pepper

*1 tsp organic pepper

*Optional: You could also add a can of drained organic black beans. This would be yummy but my hubby eats black bean soup every day for lunch and I don’t want to overdo the blackbeans for him. 😉

Directions:

1. Mince a clove of garlic and set aside for later.
2. Cut up your kielbasa and place in a pot. Or, if you don’t mind making more dirty dishes, use a pan to sautee everything.
3. Cut up your bell pepper, onion, and tomato and set aside for later.
4. Cook your sausage in a pan or pot at medium high heat until nicely browned.
5. Turn the heat down to medium and add your minced garlic, onion, bell pepper, and tomato. Sautee for about 5 minutes or until cooked to your liking.
6. If you started with a pan transfer everything to the pot. If you started with a pot just keep on cooking…
7. Add 1 cup of broth, 1 cup of water, 1 cup of uncooked rice, and seasoning.
8. Stir everything together and bring to a boil.
9. Turn down your rice to a simmer.
10. Cook until rice has absorbed all the broth and water. Stir frequently so that the rice doesn’t burn at the bottom of your pot or pan.
11. When rice has absorbed all the water, fluff it all up with a spoon and put a cover over the pot and let sit for 5 minutes with the heat off.
12. Enjoy!

We ate ours with a side of roasted broccoli. Yum!

This meal was a hit. It brought back memories for my hubby of a dish he used to love. My son raved about how it was his favorite meal and he gave it a 10! The girl said we should make it often. Everyone had seconds. Good stuff!

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