This is a take on gumbo, a popular dish in Louisiana. Gumbo is history in a stew. It is influenced by West-African cuisines, Native American foodways, and European culture and is today considered to be part of Cajun cuisine. This dish will make your kitchen smell delightfully of home-cooked food as it simmer. Serve with white rice, brown rice or quinoa+rice pilaf. 

Ingredients


Oil - 1 ½ Tablespoon avocado, sesame, canola oil, peanut, or light olive oil Flour - 2 Tablespoons Sausage* - 4 oz (2 links) andouille sausage, chopped Onion - 1 each Pepper - 1 each, green bell pepper (or red/yellow/orange), diced Celery - 3 stalks, chopped Mushrooms - 1 cup, chopped Garlic - 4 cloves, minced Vegetable** - 3 cups green vegetable, chopped Beans - 1 (16-oz) can kidney beans, low sodium Stock - 3 cups vegetable or chicken stock Hot_sauce - 2 teaspoon Worcestershire_sauce - 1 ½ Tablespoon Bayleaf - 1 whole Paprika - 2 Tablespoon ground Garlic - 2 Tablespoon powder Cumin - ¼ teaspoon ground Herbs - 2 teaspoon dry basil thyme, parsley, oregano Chili_powder - ½ teaspoon Cayenne_pepper - ¼ teaspoon ground Pepper - 1 teaspoon ground black pepper Salt - 2 teaspoons (to taste)

Instructions

Step 1
Make roux: Combine vegetable oil and all-purpose flour in a small pan. Cook over a medium high heat, stirring constantly with a rubber spatula. Cook until dark brown. Transfer from the pan to a heat-safe bowl and let cool while preparing other ingredients
Step 2
Chop all vegetables and set aside.
Step 3
In a large pot heated over medium high heat, cook sausage until browned. Remove the sausage from the pan with a slotted spoon and reserve.
Step 4
With the drippings from the sausage still in the pot, add the chopped onions, green bell pepper, and celery. Cook for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are soft and onions are translucent.
Step 5
Add the mushrooms and garlic. Cook until the mushrooms have released their liquids, about 5 minutes.
Step 6
Add the stock, worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce. Bring to a boil.
Step 7
Once boiling, add in the previously made roux in small amounts, stirring constantly.
Step 8
Add all of the dry seasonings, and lower the heat to low.
Step 9
Simmer the gumbo for 45 minutes. The longer it cooks, the better it will taste. If you cook it for longer than an hour, cover the pot to prevent too much liquid loss.
Step 10
(Alternately, all ingredients other than the roux can be added to a crock pot at the same time and cooked on the low setting for 6-8 hours and the high setting for 4-6 hours. Add the roux at the end to thicken the gumbo and add flavor.)

Notes

*Any spicy sausage will work for this recipe. Try chorizo, spicy italian sausage, or kielbasa. 

**The best vegetables for this recipe are okra, zucchini, and green beans. Okra is the traditional choice and tends to work best!

 

Nutrition Information