The New Orleans specialty known as "red beans and rice" is often accompanied by a side of smoked sausage or a fried pork chop.

Genetic analyses of the common bean Phaseolus shows that it originated in Mesoamerica, and subsequently spread southward, along with maize and squash, traditional companion crops.

However, it has recently been discovered that the indigenous peoples of the Amazon had already cultivated a distant relative of Asian rice of the same genus Oryza some 4,000 years ago,[2] and were growing it alongside maize and squash, traditional companion crops of beans, which were also by that time present in South America.

Some recent scholarship suggests that enslaved Africans may also have played an active role in the establishment of rice in the New World.

[5] In some Latin American states and countries, beans and rice are commonly eaten as everyday lunch, along with a different variety of meats and vegetables.