Carolina Red Rice
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This Carolina Red Rice recipe is a savory one-pot meal complete with rice, smoked sausage, garlic, onion, bell pepper, and cayenne will become a family favorite! Easy to make and ready in 30 minutes, this red rice recipe is soul food at its best!
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Carolina Red Rice
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions and to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required as well as understand the steps and timings involved.
Also known as Charleston red rice and Savannah red rice, is a rice dish commonly found along the Southeastern coastal regions of Georgia and South Carolina, known simply as red rice by natives of the region.
This traditional meal was brought over to the U.S. by enslaved Africans originating from the West Coast of Africa. This cultural foodway is almost always synonymous with the Gullah or Geechee people and heritage that are still prevalent throughout the coastal regions of South Carolina and Georgia.
Wikipedia
The main component of the dish consists of the cooking of white rice with crushed tomatoes instead of water and small bits of bacon or smoked pork sausage. Celery, bell peppers, and onions are the traditional vegetables used for seasoning.
The dish bears resemblance to African dishes, particularly the Senegambian dish thieboudienne, suggesting a creolization of the dish from West Africa to the New World. It also bears a resemblance to jollof rice.
Meals cooked in one pot are awesome – who has time during a busy week for complicated recipes that use lots of different pans? Not me that’s for sure!
That’s why one pot recipes like this Carolina Red Rice are one of my favorite types of meals to make. Full of great flavor, with minimal clearing up at the end!
I am not a fan of celery so it’s not gone into this recipe, even though I know it’s the holy trinity of seasonings in Creole and Cajun cooking, and would traditionally also go into a red rice dish… if you want to use celery, chop up a couple of stalks and cook them off with the onions and green bell pepper.
Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe
To make this recipe you will need fresh ingredients including onions, green bell pepper, garlic, and smoked sausage.
Andouille sausage is suggested in the recipe, but use whatever kind of smoked sausage is available to you. You could also use bacon or pork belly instead, or even shrimp.
For your convenience, any specialized ingredients & equipment needed for this recipe have been linked below to Amazon, Amazon Fresh, or other online stores. The full list with measurements is found in the recipe card.
- White Long Grain Rice
- Tomato Paste (tomato purée in the UK)
- Brown Sugar
- Cayenne Pepper
This recipe uses American cups. They’re a handy piece of kitchen equipment to have along with a kitchen food scale. Having both in your kitchen means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog as I use both cups and weighted measures.
More Recipes Using Rice
One of the hero ingredients in this recipe is rice, so here are some more recipes using the same:
- Slow Cooker Wild Rice & Mushroom Soup Recipe
- Jewelled Persian Rice with Pomegranates, Walnuts & Parsley
- Spiced Rice with Peas & Pumpkin Seeds
How Do I Make Carolina Red Rice?
Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, instructions, and demonstration photos. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).
Carolina Red Rice
Ingredients
- 1 lb / 500g smoked sausage cut into thin slices*
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 1 medium onion medium dice
- 1 bell pepper medium dice
- 1 Tbsp butter
- 2 cups white rice
- 3 cups water plus additional if needed
- 4 oz can tomato paste
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- Dash of Cayenne pepper to taste
- Salt & ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Cook sausage until browned in a large pot over medium-high heat
- Add garlic, onion, and bell pepper, and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add butter and rice, and cook until rice is slightly browned, about 3 minutes.
- Add the water, tomato paste, and brown sugar. Stir well to combine.
- Add Cayenne pepper, salt, and black pepper. Stir well to combine.
- Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Let cook for 15 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes.
- If you need more water add small amounts as needed. Cook until rice is tender.
Notes
- Use a smoked sausage such as andouille.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
Make It A Meal!
You’ve made the main dish, but what about the rest of the courses?
Here are additional recipes to make a full meal!
- Appetizer: Feta Cucumber Cups Appetizer for Summer Parties
- Beverage: Frozen Blueberry Margaritas – A Refreshing Adult Slush Drink!
- Dessert: Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes with Strawberries & Cream Filling!
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!