Best Louisiana Red Beans and Rice Wine Pairings | Vi - wine and food pairings to try. (2024)

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Best Louisiana Red Beans and Rice Wine Pairings | Vi - wine and food pairings to try.? ›

Red Beans & Rice

Red beans and rice is an earthy, meaty dish and pairs nicely with a medium bodied Pinot Noir.

Red beans and rice is a versatile recipe that can act as a main or side dish. The big, hearty flavors pair well with foods like cornbread, collard greens, barbecued meats, and fried chicken.

Beans have a meatiness in their texture that's great with red vino. Flavoursome, fruity reds like Zinfandel are a good match for a dish with lots of beans such as a veggie chili con carne. It's a fruity yet high acidity wine, and it's good to have an acidic wine to cut through the starchy texture of the beans.

Baked Beans on Toast

Look for fruit-driven reds from warm climates such as a Chilean Merlot or Aussie Shiraz. Intense, fresh, and fruity aromas of blackberries and plum combine with soft, toasty notes and sweet vanilla in this Merlot.

Shrimp Creole or Cajun Catfish

When it comes to broiled or smothered seafood entrees, your best bet is going to be a white wine. An aromatic, slightly sweet white wine like Riesling or Gewürztraminer will pair nicely, or you could go with a dry light-bodied wine like Sauvignon Blanc.

Red beans and rice is also a dietary staple in Central America, where it is known as arroz con habichuelas. The dish is popular in Cuban, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Haitian and Jamaican cuisine as well.

Both are easy to grow, plentiful, and filling. The combination of beans and rice creates a complete protein. Beans alone and rice alone both lack certain essential amino acids. If eaten together, however, each contributes what the other is missing to form a complete protein.

Rice and Beans Are Protein-Packed Foods

They provide you with healthy plant-based protein, coming in at around 12 grams of protein per cup. These winning sides contain amino acids that blend together to make complete proteins. Most people do not get enough complete protein in their diets.

Some insist on squares of homemade cornbread with their red beans and rice, while others prefer a light, airy, and crusty French bread made by local New Orleans' purveyors such as Leidenheimer's or Reising's.

What not to mix with wine? ›

Pair with: A dry, sparkling red or rosé that has plenty of body and richness with the added benefit of bubbles to cleanse your palate in between bites of these hearty beans. Layla Schlack is the editorial director of Whetstone and a writer for (and a former editor of) Wine Enthusiast.

The wine should have the same flavor intensity as the food. Red wines pair best with bold flavored meats (e.g. red meat). White wines pair best with light-intensity meats (e.g. fish or chicken). Bitter wines (e.g. red wines) are best balanced with fat.

The dish's rich, smoky, and spicy profile requires a wine that can stand up to its bold flavors, yet not overpower the subtleties of the dish. An Argentinian Malbec, known for its dark fruit flavors and smoky finish, would be a delightful pairing with Louisiana Red Beans and Rice.

Cabernet sauvignon has a much earthier taste with strong vegetal, spice and tart fruit notes. Both wines have lower sugar content, making them drier, but merlot has lower tannins and a more potent fruit aroma, making it seem sweeter and giving it a silkier mouthfeel.

If a recipe calls for “dry red wine,” use a dry red. Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Merlot are good choices that are easy to find. Use Marsala, Madeira, and other fortified wines as instructed in recipes. These wines have distinct flavors and should not be substituted.

Sauvignon blanc is a popular choice to accompany rice, as is chardonnay. Both of these wines are good choices for cooking since they are on the drier side. Keep in mind that chardonnay is more stone fruit-forward than sauvignon blanc, which has citrus and herbal notes.

Rice is a good dish to pair. Depending on the ingredients that accompany, you can choose any kind of wine. We could even go further and say that, according to the wine you want to drink, you can choose the best rice for it, whether the wine you select is white, red, rosé or sparkling.

Matching Legumes with Wine

The basically sweet taste of legumes - because of the high quantity of carbohydrates - requires crisp or effervescent wines, therefore white, rose, sparkling or slightly sparkling wines, generally make a good choice.

Creamy white bean soup pairs well with a dry Riesling or lightly oaked Chardonnay. If you prefer a slightly spicier version like this one made with Italian sausage, go with a light-bodied red wine like Beaujolais or Dolcetto – a low-ABV Italian red.