Jambalaya
Makes 6 Servings
After working on the Mardi Gras chapter in Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations I completely fell in love with the flavors of New Orleans. As an omni I never really like seafood so my first couple of trips to New Orleans as a child were filled with fast food not fine creole cuisine and by the time I returned as an adult I was a vegetarian and later a vegan. Now that my love of classic New Orleans food has been cemented I jump at the chance to try any new recipe I come across and veganize any omni version I see. Paula’s version of Jambalaya is a vast departure from the elements of traditional Louisiana style cooking. Bell peppers, onions and celery are the holy trinity of dishes like gumbo, etoufee’s and jambalaya so I was surprised to see them missing in the original recipe. My goal on this blog is to stay as true to the original recipe as possible while veganizing it and slimming it down whenever I can so as much as I wanted to use the bell pepper and celery looking at me lovingly from the vegetable bin of my fridge I resisted. I couldn’t, however, bare to use the dehydrated onions called for in the original recipe and had to make the switch over to fresh onions. Overall this dish turned out much better than I expected without it’s traditional base ingredients, it has a very tomatoey base but the spice from the andouille sausage helps even out the flavor. Still, there is something missing there without the bell pepper and celery. I like to use homemade products whenever I can so I opted to use the Andouille Sausage recipe from Quick and Easy Vegan Celebrations as the sausage for this recipe and decided to make the vegan shrimp optional since it can be quite expensive and not readily available most places. So without further ado I present to you, the slimmed down, veganized version of Paula Deen’s Jambalaya!
1 cup uncooked brown rice
¼ cup diced onion
1 tablespoon dried parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 bay leaf
2 ½ cup vegetable broth (I use Swanson’s)
1 (14-ounce) can petite low sodium diced tomatoes, drained
1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
2 links vegan andouille sausage
1 package vegan shrimp, thawed (optional)
Directions
Combine all ingredients except vegan shrimp in a medium saucepan or dutch oven. Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add vegan shrimp and cook for an additional 5 to 7 minutes, or until the majority of liquid is absorbed.
Serve immediately.
The original recipe can be found on PaulaDeen.com http://www.pauladeen.com/index.php/recipes/view2/jambalaya2/
