Jambalaya
an easy to make vegan version of this classic Creole "comfort food" dish
Equipment
- `1 large shallow pan Le Creuset sauteuse is ideal
- 1 Actifry is useful but not essential
Ingredients
- 9 single Linda McCartney vegan sausages or similar. or use plant pioneer chikkin pieces
- 450 g red onions approx. 2 medium when chopped
- 200 g celery 3 sticks approx.
- 6 to 8 cloves garlic
- 1 whole large bell peppers or 2 small - 350g approx. when chopped
- 250 g speciality mushrooms or chestnut mushrooms 1 standard sized pack
- 250 g okra 1 small pack approx or frozen ready cut can add more if you like okra....
- 500 g juicy vine tomatoes
- 250 g long-grain brown basmati rice
- 3 whole low salt stock cubes or 2 veg stock & one umami
- 4 to 5 tbsps Cajun spices Harvest is good for this
- 250 g black beans Optional ingredient 1 can of
- 45 g Cold pressed rapeseed oil – or possibly coconut oil. use what's needed for your pans
- 30 g parsley or corriander 1 small pack
Instructions
- Chop the onions into reasonably small pieces and add some oil to a large pan suitable for sautéing – I’ve just bought a Le Creuset sauteuse which is perfect. Start sauteeing on a medium heat – while you chop the celery into approx 1cm lengths and add along with the garlic sliced reasonably finely. Cook for around 5 minutes.
- Chop the peppers, okra, and mushrooms and add to the pan – add a little more oil if necessary. Keep suateeing
- Meanwhile, rinse the brown rice and add to a pan with 0.8 litres of boiling water. Add the stock cubes too. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes or so.
- Then cook your veggie sausages – I find the best ones to be Linda McCartney "original" ones or the Richmond ones – but there are loads to choose from. Cook the sausages whole first off (easiest way is in an Actifry from frozen) in a frying pan. Then cut each one into roughly 5 or 6 rounds and then sauté on the exposed ends to finish them off.
- Chop the tomatoes into segments and sauté in a separate pan for a few minutes.
- When the main pan ingredients have had a further 10 minutes cooking (after you added the peppers & okra) add the cajun spices and stir in.
- Shortly after add the tomatoes & sauteed sausages and stir gently to avoid breaking up the sausages.
- Then add the partly cooked brown rice including the water.
- Give the whole thing a good stir – check there’s enough water – so that most of the veg are in liquid – but not swimming in it - the 0.8 litre that came in with the rice should be enough, but you may need to add a small additional quantity.
- Bring the whole pan to a simmer, and put in the oven on 150°C
- Cook for around 20 to 30 minutes – check the progress of the rice & water content – the water should be almost completely absorbed – with just a little liquid left – so still nice and juicy, but not swimming in liquid. This is a question of judgement because there are so many factors.
- Serve with smashed potatoes, chips and or sweetcorn or garlic bread.
Notes
This is so wholesome - but you must use long-grain brown rice - the short grain won't give the same result, and brown rice is essential to make it nutritious and healthy. White rice should be banned in my opinion!
Extra okra is good, and you could add halved baby plum tomatoes to the mix if you wished.
I've increased the pre-cooking time to 15 minutes (which is an essential step) for the rice. This is so that you don't end up overcooking the veggies which still need a bit of texture to them. If you were to not cook the rice, the veggies would be a mush by the time the rice was cooked.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!