Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice

An easy to medium difficulty slow cooker recipe that is tasty and makes a lot of servings. This is adapted from the Slow Cooker Red Beans and Rice Cooking Light recipe. This recipe is easily in our monthly rotation.

Ingredients: 
3 cups chicken stock or broth
1 cup dried red beans (small red beans available in the latin food section of most supermarkets)
1 cup chopped sweet onion
1 cup chopped green bell pepper
3/4 cup chopped celery
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp ground red pepper - if you prefer less spicy reduce to 1/4 tsp or omit
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 bay leaf
5 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 smoked ham hock/ham shank

1/2 package andouille sausage, sliced (I use andouille chicken sausage from Costco)

cooked long grain rice
1/4 cup chopped green onions

Soak beans overnight. Place first 13 ingredients in an electric slow cooker. Cover with lid, cook on high for 5 hours or low for 8 hours. Add andouille sausage and cook for another 30 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Serve over rice and sprinkle with green onions.

Optional approach: Add andouille sausage at the beginning of the slow cooker session. The sausage flavor will blend with the rest of the sauce and become more flavorless and bland... I prefer adding it in 30 minutes before serving.