"Healthier" Red Beans and Rice

This is a friends recipe and like many good cajun recipes, the measurements are a dash of this and a sprinkle of that. It is hard to go wrong with this recipe but you may have to spice it more or less to your liking.

Ingredients:
2 lbs. Dried Red Beans (Camilla brand if available)
2-8oz packages Hickory Smoked Turkey Tasso (cut into bite size pieces)
16 oz container Guidry's Pre-Cut Creole Seasonings (celery, green pepper, onion,etc)
Tony Chachere's Creole Seasoning
Poultry Seasoning
White Pepper
Crystal Hot Sauce
Tony Chachere's Instant Roux Mix
Vegetable Oil
Long Grain White Rice

Directions:
Soak beans overnight, drain then rinse. Place soaked beans in large dutch oven and add fresh water to 1 1/2 inches above the beans. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, heat vegetable oil in skillet and saute cut up vegetable mix and turkey tasso. Sprinkle turkey with poultry seasoning while cooking. Once vegetable mix is cooked down, add to dutch oven (meat will continue to cook in dutch oven). Stir all ingredients together. Add Tony's creole seasoning (1 Tbsp), white pepper (about 1-2 tsp) and crystal hot sauce (1/2 tsp). Mix. Sprinkle on top approximately 2-3 Tbsp Instant Roux. Mix. Cook beans on a slow boil for 5-6 hours. The more stirring you do throughout the cooking process, the thicker the beans will get. Halfway though cooking, sprinkle another 2-3 Tbsp Instant Roux and mix. Add additional seasoning to taste. Prepare white rice as directed on package. Serve over rice. This recipe tastes even better on the second day!

* To reconstitute beans quicker, put beans into a large pot and cover with water 1 inch above beans. Bring to a hard boil with the lid off for 5 minutes. Turn off heat and let beans sit in water for 1 hour. Drain and rinse beans and begin recipe as directed above.