Slow Cooker Chartres Cajun White Bean and Sausage Soup

Slow Cooker White Bean Chicken Chili

Slow Cooker Red Beans & Rice

Instant Pot New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice

Slow Cooker Royal Street Red Beans

Instant Pot Pinto Beans & Ham Hocks

Treat yourself like Mardi Gras royalty, and indulge in the most delicious dishes of the season. We believe in celebrating carnival by cooking up a storm, taste-testing as many different king cakes as you can, and decorating your house in purple, green, and gold! To get in the spirit, check out some of our favorite recipes.

Jay Ducote’s Red Beans & Rice Balls

Jay Ducote’s Red Beans & Rice Balls offer up a fresh, new twist on red beans & rice. In this recipe, Jay’s inventive take on the classic (made with our signature Red Kidney Beans) is served with BBQ Aioli and Pickled Red Onions. These beauties will disappear as fast as you can make them. A food blogger, radio host, chef, and culinary personality, Jay knows his Louisiana cooking, and this amazing recipe doesn’t disappoint.

Smoky Bloody Mary

A good Bloody Mary with all the fixins’ is a must for any self-respecting Mardi Gras reveler, and this recipe gets it right. Featuring building blocks like vodka, tomato juice, celery salt, Worcestershire, and horseradish — plus savory, smoky accents provided by a few dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce and a rim of smoked paprika and kosher salt — this Smoky Bloody Mary will get the party started. Garnished with celery, bacon, pickled okra, cornichons and olives, it’s like a meal in a cup!

Cajun Caviar

This Cajun Caviar from Louisiana Cookin’ is a healthy, lightened dip that combines cooked Green Baby Lima Beans, Crowder Peas and Lady Cream Peas — along with tomatoes, peppers, red onion, corn and cilantro — in a white wine vinegar and lime juice dressing. Great when served with tortilla or corn chips, it’s a versatile recipe that’s easy to change based on your tastes. You can use different beans and peas, add avocado, or spice it up with hot sauce. Any which way you tweak it, it’s sure to get gobbled up.

Curt Guillory’s Cajun Hummus

Curt Guillory’s Cajun Hummus uses our Red Kidney Beans in place of the traditional Garbanzo Beans — but that’s not what makes this hummus Cajun. True Louisiana flavors are what do the trick. Instead of traditional tahini paste, the recipe uses pecan butter, the red beans are cooked with onions and garlic, and cubed tasso gets stirred in to the final dip along with sliced green onions. Serve with fried pork rinds for even more Cajun flavor! Give it a try, and you won’t be sorry.

Skinny Red Bean Dip

Skinny Red Bean Dip is a quick and easy appetizer that also uses our Red Kidney Beans in an unexpected way. Cooked, tender red beans are processed till smooth along with salsa, light cream cheese, and reduced fat cheddar cheese. Serve it up with crackers or chips, and make everyone happy.

Slow Cooker Cajun White Bean and Sausage Soup

Nothing lets you get on with the business of having a good time like a hearty, flavorful one-pot wonder – full of creamy Camellia beans. So easy and delicious, this Cajun White Bean and Sausage Soup checks all the boxes. Follow it up with a big slice of king cake, and you’ll be in Mardi Gras heaven.

New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice

The quintessential dish for celebrating Mardi Gras is our classic New Orleans-Style Red Beans & Rice, of course. It just doesn’t get any better than this! Let its slow-simmering goodness usher in the spirit of carnival you’re craving.

Still hungry? Get more Mardi Gras food, fun and festivities.

How to Make Red Beans & Rice to Feed 50

Serving up red beans and rice is a beloved Monday tradition, but it’s also a great way to feed a crowd at an outdoor Mardi Gras party. Whether you live on or near a parade route — or just love to celebrate Carnival wherever you are — big pot cooking in your backyard is the best way to whip up a large batch of red beans & rice that’ll feed a ton of hungry people.

Believe it or not, you use the same ingredients you regularly use, just in larger quantities and in a bigger cooking vessel. You’ll need a 50-qt. (or larger) seafood boil pot, a burner, propane and a wooden paddle. Plus a few hours to add the ingredients, bring it all to a boil, and simmer till tender. With a keg nearby and the sound of marching bands in the distance, it’s a great way to spend an afternoon during Mardi Gras season.

The key to successful outdoor cooking is all in the preparation. Soaking 8 pounds of red beans is no small thing, so find the biggest food-safe containers you have, or invest in a large plastic bucket (easily found at restaurant supply or home improvement stores) that the entire batch can fit in.

The night before, in addition to soaking the red beans, dice the vegetables, mince the garlic and slice the Andouille sausage. To make the cooking process easier, store everything in containers so they’re ready to go.

You’ll also want to render the bacon fat the night before, by cooking a 1/2 pound of bacon in a skillet. (Cooking bacon slowly over low heat will provide you with a higher yield of bacon fat.) Remove bacon from skillet, carefully pour the bacon grease into a non-plastic jar, and store in the fridge. It will solidify overnight, making it easy to scoop out the next day and add to the pot.

First, the sausage is browned in bacon fat, and then the vegetables get added.

Freshly minced garlic. Mmmm.

Two gallons of water and soaked red beans are added to the pot, along with seasonings.

Raising the heat to medium-high allows the pot to come to a boil. (This could take 30 minutes or so, depending on the heat conductivity of your pot.)

Once the beans come to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer on low for 2 hours or until the red beans are tender, stirring occasionally. Smash some against the side of the pot for added creaminess.

Hanging out with friends and family on a parade-filled afternoon is a quintessential New Orleans experience. And by adding a big pot of creamy red beans and hot cooked rice to the celebration, you’ll keep ’em coming back for more.

It’s exactly the kind of popular, hearty dish that keeps a Mardi Gras party going, providing sustenance for a hard day’s work of catching beads and drinking beer.

Be sure to round out your party spread with bowls of chips, a couple of boxes of your favorite store-bought fried chicken, and a big, ooey gooey king cake. Now, that’s a Mardi Gras party!

RED BEANS AND RICE FOR 50

• 8 lbs. Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans
• 1/4 cup bacon fat
• 5 lbs. Andouille sausage, sliced into 1-inch discs
• 6 yellow onions, diced
• 4 green bell peppers, diced
• 6 stalks of celery, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 5 bay leaves
• 1 (1-ounce) container white pepper
• 1 (.7-ounce) container dried thyme
• 2 bunches green onions, chopped
• 1 cup fresh parsley
• 2 gallons of water
• hot sauce, salt and pepper and hot cooked white rice (see rice recipe below)

Soak the red beans overnight. The next day, drain and rinse the beans thoroughly.

Put a 50-qt. seafood boil pot (without the steamer basket) on the burner, and use propane to bring it to medium heat. Add the bacon fat. Once the bacon fat is melted, add the 5 pounds of sausage to the pot and brown.

Once the sausage has started to brown, add the onions, green bell peppers, celery and garlic, and keep stirring with the wooden paddle until the onions are tender and translucent. Carefully add the 2 gallons of water to the pot along with the red beans, bay leaves, white pepper and dried thyme. Raise the heat to medium-high, allowing the pot to come to a boil. (This could take 30 minutes or so, depending on the heat conductivity of your pot.)

Once the red beans are at a boil, reduce heat and cover; simmer on low for 2 hours or until the red beans are tender, stirring occasionally. Once the beans are tender, smash some against the side of the pot for added creaminess. Remove bay leaves.

Before serving, stir in the chopped green onions and fresh parsley.

PRO TIP: When cooking in a big pot over a centered, narrow heating element, you need a utensil with a flat head (like a wooden paddle) that lets you scrape the bottom of the pot as you cook, so that it doesn’t burn. If the sausage and vegetables start to stick while cooking, add more bacon fat or a few glugs of olive oil.

PRO TIP:  If there’s too much liquid in the pot, raise the heat back up to a rolling boil to burn off some of the liquid. After letting the pot boil for 10-15 minutes, reduce heat, and let simmer for 20 minutes.

PRO TIP: To make it a memorable Mardi Gras experience, add a bottle of beer to the pot when you add the red beans.  The yeast in the beer will help thicken the pot and give the beans a unique flavor.

Serves up to 50 people.

PARTY RICE

• 15 cups of white rice, divided
• 30 cups of hot water, divided
• 8 tsp salt, divided
• 1/4 cup butter, divided
• 2 (9×13) aluminum pans
• aluminum foil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour half of the hot water into each of the two 9×13 aluminum pans along with half of the rice, salt and butter. Tightly wrap each aluminum pan with the aluminum foil.

Place both pans in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove and let rice sit for at least 10 minutes, untouched before checking. Fluff rice with a fork. Reseal with aluminum foil and bring outside to serve with cooked red beans.

PRO TIP: Give yourself about an hour to prepare and cook the rice. Bring outside to serve with the red beans.

Recipes by Eric Olsson

Festive Mardi Gras Party Foods: Red Beans, Jambalaya, Fried Chicken, Po-Boys and King Cake

Mardi Gras parties in and around New Orleans range from the truly basic (i.e., a box of fried chicken and a six-pack) to the very elaborate (catered affairs with hot cocktail buffets, open bars, and customized go-cups), with no one way to do it up right. But those who live on or near a parade route — as well as those who love to celebrate Carnival wherever they are — tend to have their preferred party hosting plan down to a science, since they usually make an annual event out of it.

Whether you’re in New Orleans or just wish you were, throwing a Mardi Gras party is all about fun food that’s simple to make and easy to serve. It takes a little planning, but the key is to create a help-yourself spread that doesn’t require much fuss and lets guests come and go, grazing as they like and coming back for seconds and thirds. With the menu below, you’ve got all your bases covered. In fact, the only things you have to cook are the red beans and the jambalaya – and even those pretty much cook themselves in the slow cooker.

Red Beans and Rice Is Nice – Especially When Made in Your Slow Cooker

A staple of any Mardi Gras menu is Red Beans and Rice. Whether you prefer to use our signature Camellia Red Kidney Beans, or our foolproof, flavorful Creole Red Bean Seasoning and its accompanying Slow Cooker Creole Red Beans recipe – the key is to keep things effortless. And since you don’t have to watch the stove, you can enjoy the festivities just like your guests. After your red beans have cooked, simply turn the slow cooker setting down to warm, and the beans can stay right where they are for another couple of hours – getting thicker and creamier all the while. You can also cook your rice ahead of time and place it in a large serving bowl. Guests can add a little rice to a bowl, ladle the warm red beans on top, and enjoy.

Fried Chicken Is a Perfect Choice

An essential for any Mardi Gras party spread is fried chicken. Because it can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature, it’s a great dish for a casual party buffet – and it’s finger food at its finest. Simply pick up a box or two of your favorite fried chicken, serve on a platter, and make sure there are plenty of napkins at the ready.

Petite Po-boys Round Out the Buffet

Mini po-boys made with tender roast beef, turkey, and ham, dressed with mayo, lettuce, and cheese on French bread are another must-have for your party spread. A Mardi Gras favorite, they’re easy to order and to pick up from any New Orleans grocery store, and they’re just the kind of thing that appeals to kids and adults alike. Can’t find ‘em where you are? As long as you can get your hands on some good French bread, they’re easy to make yourself. Just as popular and sure to get eaten quickly are an assortment of finger sandwiches or mini muffalettas made with olive salad, mozzarella, ham, and provolone.

Crown Your Party Table With a King Cake

Add to your table a large and generously sliced king cake, and you’ve got all the party foods covered. (Good thing you can order king cakes online, if you’re not in NOLA.) Be sure to add finger foods along with your favorite chips and salsas, and stock a self-serve bar with soft drinks, Bloody Marys, plenty of cold beer, go-cups, and napkins. And with that, the party can get started.

Mardi Gras Party Checklist

• Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

• Slow Cooker Jambalaya

• Fried Chicken
• Mini Po-boy Sandwiches
• King Cake
• Chips, Salsas and Finger Foods
• Soft Drinks
• Beer and Bloody Marys
• Go-Cups
• Napkins

Football-watching is the perfect excuse to get together with family and friends and dig into delicious eats that make spectating more fun. From popular preseason openers like Loaded Nachos, Cajun Caviar, and Slow Cooker Cheesy Refried Bean Dip, to main event dishes like Cajun Jambalaya and Slow Cooker Red Beans & Rice, these easy-to-make and easy-to-serve favorites will have fans cheering for more!

Loaded Beef & Bean Chili Nachos

Cajun Caviar

Slow Cooker Cheesy Refried Bean Dip

Mosquito Supper Club Shrimp Jambalaya

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

Slow Cooker Charro Beans

‘Tis the season to celebrate with intention — and hosting a festive dinner party or Reveillon feast for friends, neighbors and family is a great way to pull out all the stops. Invite those whose company you enjoy the most, and plan a menu that includes one or two truly special dishes like the ones featured here — recipes that require a little extra time and effort but are worth all the love you put into them. Set a colorful, glittery table, let the wine and champagne flow freely, and treat yourself and your lucky guests to the kind of delicious mains that are worthy of becoming an annual tradition.

Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans

Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans is one of those incredibly flavorful entreés that makes a gorgeous presentation and a beautiful meal. A savory recipe from Chef Jennifer Hill Booker’s latest cookbook Dinner Déja Vu, it features slow cooked Camellia Brand Large Lima Beans (also known as butter beans) and fork-tender lamb shanks in a rich, creamy sauce. Made with garlic, shallots, brandy, ripe tomatoes, and copious amounts of white wine, it’s actually an easy-to-follow recipe, and any home cook can tackle it with a little time and patience. You’ll need a large dutch oven (at least an 8-qt.) with a tight-fitting lid because it simmers first on the stovetop, and then gets baked in the oven, and you should plan for about 4 hours of cook time. (Keep in mind that while a dutch oven is doing the work, that’s hands-off cook time that allows you to prep other parts of your menu.) The wonderful smells wafting from your kitchen will be so tempting, everyone will have trouble waiting to sit down at the table before digging in.

And since Lamb Shanks with Garlic & Butter Beans is both a main and side dish all in one pot, you can simply add a green salad, some crusty bread or soft dinner rolls and a few bottles of your favorite red wine. Your guests will be talking about how delicious it was long after the last plate is cleared.

Cassoulet

Another dinner party-worthy recipe for a rich, slow cooked bean casserole is Chef Jennifer Hill Booker’s fabulous Cassoulet, also from her Dinner Déja Vu cookbook. Featuring four different kinds of pork — smoked ham hocks, boneless pork shoulder, salt pork and Andouille sausage — as well as two pounds of Camellia Brand Pinto Beans and fresh herbs and vegetables, this heartiest of dishes will feed a large crowd of party guests.

You’ll need to start prepping the day before you plan to serve it, but the extra time and care involved is worth every bite. Like the Lamb Shanks & Butter Beans recipe, you’ll need a large dutch oven (at least a 6-qt.) with a tight-fitting lid, as well as about 6 hours to cook (plus more for prep time). After simmering the Cassoulet on the stove and then baking it in the oven, a rich brown crust of bread crumbs adds the finishing touch. With unbelievable flavor and the creamiest pintos ever, this dish is a total show-stopper.

Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas

Our Garlicky Shrimp & Blackeye Peas dish is also perfect for seasonal celebrations and get-togethers — especially New Year’s. Throughout the South, blackeye peas are popular New Year’s fare for the promise of luck and money (and because they taste so good).

In this recipe, we flavored Camellia Brand Blackeye Peas with bacon and Andouille sausage, lots of garlic and chicken stock, and made them extra special by topping with seasoned, sautéed shrimp cooked in butter, more garlic, lemon juice and white wine. Putting these two Southern favorites together in one dish — blackeye peas and Gulf shrimp — makes for a wonderful combination that everyone will love.

Pan-Seared Snapper with Red Bean Sauce

Another elegant choice is Pan-Seared Snapper with Red Bean Sauce. For the sauce, perfectly cooked Creole Red Beans are added to tomatoes, shallots and chicken stock, puréed in a blender, and then simmered on the stove with whipping cream. Seared snapper fillets are drizzled with the sauce and sprinkled with cubed, browned tasso. Talk about decadent! It’s a fabulous new way to enjoy your favorite red beans.

This holiday season, let one or more of these delicious dishes grace your dinner table, and make your festive dinner party a truly memorable occasion. Looking for great appetizers to serve before the special meal? These will create a colorful spread.

Whether you’re all about hosting football parties in front of your big screen TV or doing it up right at tailgate get-togethers, you’ll love these delicious gameday winners with a Creole twist. Whatever the rivalries may be among your family and friends, it’s time to get serious about enjoying cocktails and decadent dishes that are deserving of this long anticipated season.

Check out these creative, indulgent recipes that incorporate classic Louisiana and southern flavors in new and totally unexpected ways. Like adding Andouille sausage and Creole seasoning to a hot bean dip, topping not-your-average nachos with gooey pimento cheese sauce and spiced blackeye peas, and adding ground pork and smoked sausage to red beans & rice and frying into bite-sized balls. Because there’s nothing better than giving your favorite football foods a new lease on life and a deep southern accent. Get ready to dig in.

Smoky Bloody Mary

A Smoky Bloody Mary with all the fixins’ is a must when you’re getting ready for a 12 noon game. Featuring standard building blocks like vodka, tomato juice, celery salt, Worcestershire, and horseradish — this recipe adds savory, smoky accents provided by a few dashes of Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce and a rim of smoked paprika and kosher salt. Garnished with celery, bacon, pickled okra, cornichons and olives, it’s southern brunch in a cup.

Slow Cooker 7-Layer Creole Bean Dip

This spicy slow cooker bean dip comes from Louisiana girl at heart, Creole Contessa, and puts a new Louisiana twist on an old school favorite. First off, Creole seasoning, black pepper and garlic powder give the base layer of refried beans (made from cooked Camellia Brand Pinto Beans) a real kick that gets things going. Layers of sharp cheddar, pickled jalapenos, and Monterrey jack cheese take it up a notch. And then, Creole flavor goes over the top with layers of cooked spicy Andouille sausage and crispy bacon. Lastly, a generous helping of Mexican cheese blend melts over everything. But why stop there? This Slow Cooker 7-Layer Creole Bean Dip begs to be topped with chopped green onions, sour cream, and avocado. Oh, my. Add bowls of tortilla chips, and watch it get devoured.

Blackeye Pea Pimento Cheese Nachos

This dish is what happens when Tex-Mex and Southern flavors collide. Layers of tortilla chips are topped with a hearty, spicy mixture of browned ground turkey, Creole seasoning, spices, and cooked Camellia Brand Blackeye Peas. Then all that deliciousness is drenched in a creamy, homemade Pimento Cheese sauce with flavor for days — and studded with fresh jalapenos, grape tomatoes, and green onions. Run, don’t walk to these nachos.

Red Bean & Rice Sliders

Everyone knows that one-handed foods are a must at football parties, so that the other hand is free to hold a beer or cocktail. Which is why we love these Red Bean & Rice Sliders — an inventive New Orleans take on the mini burger. They’re lovingly made by combining cooked trinity vegetables, cooked white or brown rice, cooked Camellia Brand Red Kidney Beans, whole wheat bread crumbs, and seasonings in a food processor. Then they’re formed into itty bitty patties and browned in a hot skillet. Served dressed on brioche rolls, these cuties make for a little bit of Creole heaven in an all-new, one-handed form.

Red Beans and Rice Boudin Balls

Red Beans and Rice Boudin Balls combine the best of all worlds — delicious ingredients, a snackable size, and oh yes, crispy fried goodness. An incredibly tasty combo of cooked red beans and rice, smoked sausage, ground pork, and seasonings are formed into balls, rolled in corn flour and egg wash, and fried till golden. What more could you possibly want, other than a creamy sauce to dip them in? Yep, we got that, too.

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice is the ultimate dish to round out your party spread. Full of smoked sausage and big flavor — it’s perfect for letting guests serve themselves. And the best part? You can leave the slow cooker on the “warm” setting all afternoon or evening, so it’s ready to go at any crucial gameday moment. You’ll fill lots of bellies with this dish, and keep ’em coming back for more.

So get on it, and put these recipes on your gameday to-do list — because a great party menu is the best offense.