Introducing Camellia Beans for 2™: The Best in Small Batch Cooking

Camellia Beans for 2 brings authentic Louisiana comfort food to your table with easy and delicious, perfectly-portioned, small-batch cooking. Try New Orleans Style Red Beans With Seasoning for 2 and Cajun Style White Beans With Seasoning for 2, featuring premium Camellia® Brand dried beans, authentic spices, and real vegetables.

Now available at Food Lion, Walmart, Rouses Market, and Independent Grocers throughout Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Beans for 2 will be coming soon to Lowes Foods, Food Town, Arlan’s, Sellers, Piggly Wiggly, and other local grocery stores near you. You can also purchase them online now!

All-Natural. Perfect for 2!

Clean and all-natural, Beans for 2 offers just the right amount of beans and seasoning with authentic flavors, superior taste and quality. Simply use the included dried bean and all-natural seasoning packets to get things rolling on your stovetop or in your pressure cooker. No chopping. No measuring.

Beans for 2 is perfect for small households, empty nesters, college students, or when you simply want convenient and hassle-free meals. Plus, vegans and vegetarians will appreciate their full flavor profile (with no meat added or needed).

Red Beans Done Right!

For generations, New Orleanians have gathered on Mondays to enjoy classic Red Beans and Rice. Our New Orleans Style Red Beans With Seasoning For 2 includes a packet of tried-and-true authentic spices and real vegetables, and a packet of Camellia® Brand Red Kidney Beans. So you can make two perfectly seasoned servings of New Orleans Style Red Beans.

What’s In the Box:

• 1 packet of premium dried Camellia® Brand Red Kidney Beans
• 1 packet of authentic seasonings & spices

White Beans for 2: Just Add Water!

White Beans and Rice is a beloved, traditional South Louisiana meal. Our Cajun Style White Beans With Seasoning For 2 includes a packet of tried-and-true authentic spices and real vegetables, and a packet of Camellia® Brand Great Northern Beans.  Just add water, simmer, and serve!

What’s In the Box:

• 1 packet of premium dried Camellia® Brand Great Northern Beans
• 1 packet of authentic seasonings & spices

 

Why You’ll Love Beans For 2

Since 1923, our family-owned company has been delivering the best beans around, so you can create the dishes you love, for the people you care about most. We’re meticulous in everything we do – including sourcing our beans from the best U.S. farmers and cleaning them six times before packaging. In fact, our beans are non-GMO certified, rank above USDA grade in quality, and are always fresh from the same year’s crop. With that same level of dedication, we created Camellia’s Beans for 2!

• All Natural
• No MSG
• Non-GMO
• No Artificial Flavors
• Soy-Free
• Gluten-Free
• Vegetarian & Vegan Friendly
• Made in the USA

Beans for 2 is available at Food Lion, Walmart, Rouses Market, and Independent Grocers throughout Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and it’s soon to Lowes Foods, Food Town, Arlan’s, Sellers, Piggly Wiggly, and other local grocery stores near you. You can purchase it online right now through our website.

When it comes to cooking homemade red beans a little more quickly and with less hands-on time involved, buying pre-chopped trinity is one way to go. But, if you’re looking to save time shopping and chopping, or maybe you don’t have the produce on hand that you need at the moment – a dehydrated seasoning base like Zydeco Chop Chop can replace the trinity. That’s why it’s great to have in your back pocket and as a staple in your spice cabinet.

Zydeco Chop Chop and other similar seasoning blends are made up of a combination of dehydrated vegetables including onion, red and green bell pepper, celery, green onion and parsley flakes. So in essence, you’re getting the trinity in dehydrated form, already blended and ready to help you cook up a pot of red beans that’s full of flavor. Zydeco Chop Chop is gluten-free with no salt added, easy to store, and stays fresh for up to 3 years.

Some home cooks like to rehydrate the dehydrated seasoning blend quickly before adding it to the pot by mixing it with water or oil, and using it to replace fresh vegetables. Others like to generously sprinkle it right from the container into the pot, throughout the cooking process. And then there are fans who like to use both fresh vegetables and Zydeco Chop Chop together, to give their red beans a little somethin’ extra. There’s just no wrong way to use it.

Try these red beans & rice recipes featuring Zydeco Chop Chop:

Zydeco Chop Chop Red Beans & Rice

This stovetop recipe uses Zydeco Chop Chop to replace the trinity.

Pantry Red Beans & Rice

This faster Instant Pot recipe relies solely on pantry staples you already have on hand.

Vinegar Makes Red Beans Taste Great!

Vinegar is an acidic liquid produced through fermentation and used in cooking as a flavoring agent and preservative. Its acid content and tangy flavor make it a standard in marinades. Historically, red kidney beans, planted by Spanish settlers, have grown abundantly in the rich Southern soil. The cheap, flavorful beans lent themselves to a variety of hearty preparations and flavor profiles that would have been familiar to the many ethnic groups mingling in the region. Vinegar, often steeped with small peppers, quickly became a favored flavoring agent for red beans, with its unique ability to cut through the unctuous texture of bean dishes. To this day bottles of vinegar and peppers are traditionally found on dining tables, often steeping there for years, refortified with fresh vinegar from time to time.

Season at the Table

The “glues” that hold plant cells together are called hemicelluloses. Acids such as vinegar make hemicelluloses more stable and less soluble, which might slow down the softening of beans. So to make sure your red beans are at their creamiest, add the vinegar later in the cooking process, or just use it to season them at the table. On a low salt diet? Vinegar also brightens the flavor of your beans without the need for excess salt.

Umami — also known as savory taste — is one of the five basic tastes, together with sweet, sour, bitter and salty, and is often described as brothy or meaty. Traditional seasoning meats such as salt pork, bacon, and ham are what provide that savory, meaty flavor in a pot of simmering beans. But the truth is, you can get creamy beans with deep, savory umami flavor in a meatless way — by using vegetarian ingredients, and spices or seasonings that provide that savory flavor. We’ll explore a few here; see which ones work for you and your taste buds.

Dried Mushrooms & Mushroom Broth

One of the best ways to get that deep, rich flavor is by using dried porcini mushrooms. They offer up a great umami kick, meaty richness and an earthy note. The trick to wonderfully flavored vegetarian beans is this: steep the dried mushrooms in boiling water to make a broth, and then simmer beans in the mushroom broth (as all or part of the recipe’s cooking liquid). After soaking them, chop the mushrooms and add to the beans, as well. The savory flavor seeps into the beans, and the chopped mushrooms add great texture. While it can be difficult to find dried mushrooms at the grocery store, they’re usually found alongside other specialty spices and seasonings. And if you can’t find porcinis, a mix of different kinds of dried mushrooms will do the job (look for cremini, shiitake or oyster). Want the flavor, but don’t like the texture? Simply ground dried mushrooms into a powder and dissolve the powder into your pot of beans. Try this delicious Vegetarian Lima Beans dish that uses dried mushrooms and mushroom broth for amazing flavor.

Shallots

Shallots are another must for cooking flavorful vegetarian beans. Known and enjoyed for their mild flavor, shallots are often thought of as a perfect union of onion and garlic. Although they have many similarities to onion and garlic, their flavor is sweeter and more delicate, with less bite. Typically round or teardrop-shaped, they come in shades of pink and purple and when chopped and cooked, offer a deep flavor that adds complexity to just about any dish, especially a pot of vegetarian beans. Use them in place of or in addition to onions in your favorite bean dish. You’ll love the end result.

Soy Sauce

Soy sauce, a brewed liquid made from soybeans, wheat, water and salt, is one of those interesting condiments that can be used for more than you might think. Soy sauce actually accentuates the umami flavor of mushrooms, which is why if you’re going the route of using dried mushrooms in your vegetarian beans, you can punch up the flavor even more with a hint of soy sauce. Just be sure to add it to your simmering beans before you add salt  — that way you won’t end up with beans that are too salty. You’ll find soy sauce as a secret ingredient in these Vegetarian Lima Beans.

Smoked Paprika

Smoked paprika is the Spanish version of sweet paprika, and it’s made from pimiento peppers that are dried, smoked over an oak fire, and then ground into a fine powder. It features a deep red color and a smoky aroma. In fact, that’s the reason most people use it — for its deep, smoky quality. Even a small amount can add great smoky flavor to any dish, and it’s a good option for those who want that in their vegetarian beans. You’ll find smoked paprika in these delicious vegetarian bean dishes: Slow Cooker Lentil & Black Bean Taco Soup, New Orleans-Style Vegan Red Beans & Rice, Slow Cooker 3-Bean Vegetarian Chili, Spicy Sweet Potato Hummus and Black Bean Hummus.

Worcestershire Sauce

Worcestershire Sauce is a fermented liquid condiment that’s complex and unique in its umami flavor and aroma. Traditional versions do contain anchovies (which is a fish), as well as tamarind, molasses, onions, vinegar, cloves and sugar, and are often used in meat marinades and bloody marys. So while a traditional Worcestershire sauce is neither vegetarian nor vegan, it does offer great umami flavor and some saltiness to otherwise meatless dishes. The good news is that there are some good vegan options out there — such as 365 Organic and Annie’s. And you’ll find that just about any kind of Worcestershire sauce brings out the best in our Black Bean Burgers.

Experimenting with spices and seasonings like these can lead the way to your next pot of amazingly flavorful vegetarian beans.

It’s a simple truism in cooking that chicken stock makes everything taste better, and that includes your red beans and rice.

Why settle for using just water in your beans when this stock can add hints of chicken along with the delicious essences of an array of aromatic vegetables, herbs, and spices?

The Secret to the Stock: Bones

In chicken stock, it’s the bird’s bones that infuse the water with that extra-special flavor and mouthfeel, thanks to the gelatin that’s released during the simmering process. (Chicken stock is different from chicken broth in that the latter uses more meat than bones.)

Use as much chicken stock as you want in your beans. Even just a little should improve the overall taste of the final product. Or you can go all out and use stock entirely in the place of water.

Another great option: Use chicken stock, not water, as the liquid base for your rice.

And if it’s a truism that chicken stock makes everything better, then, naturally, homemade chicken stock trumps chicken stock out of a can or carton, or in a bouillon cube or powdered form.

Making Your Own Stock Is Simple

Whenever you have a whole chicken as a main meal, get into the habit of throwing the carcass — bones, skin, leftover meat, and all — into a stock pot or Dutch oven, then bring it to a boil along with some aromatic vegetables (such as onion, celery, carrots, garlic, leeks); herbs and spices (such as parsley, bay leaf, thyme, cloves, pepper, or anything that would go in a classic bouquet garni); along with, of course, water or even wine. The options are endless, and cookbooks are full of stock recipes. However, you probably don’t want to add salt to your stock-in-process because your chicken carcass, presumably, already contains sodium.

Let the stock simmer for several hours and then strain it, removing the fat and other particles along with the carcass. Store the broth in containers in your refrigerator or freezer to be used when needed. Obviously, freezing stock will make it last longer.

Stocks Come in Every Flavor

Stocks also can be made in similar fashion out of leftover seafood, fish, beef, veal, duck, game, or other meats for use in gumbos and other dishes. And if you’re a vegetarian, just leave out the meat and sauté your aromatic vegetables before starting the stock-making process.

If you don’t have the time or the inclination to make your own stock, try the premade products. Using a commercial version is better than using no stock at all. And in recent years, high-quality organic versions have become available, some marketed by celebrity chefs.

Red beans and rice already is the quintessential meal of south Louisiana. Adding chicken stock will add even more flavor dimensions that can only improve your final dish.