Dinner: Quick Vegan Gumbo
For some reason I like making food related to holidays that I don’t even celebrate. I don’t really do anything in particular for Mardi Gras, but I decided to make some gumbo in honor of it anyway. I used this recipe, more or less verbatim, or as verbatim as I ever use any recipe anyway. A lot of traditional gumbo recipes involve simmering for several hours, but I wanted to eat dinner before 8pm, so I just chopped my veggies quite small and it was ready within an hour or so.
This is in no way a traditional recipe, but it was pretty tasty anyway. At least it started with a roux, as any gumbo should. If you want to make gumbo and your recipe doesn’t include a roux, you need a new recipe!
Here’s my roux- flour and canola oil.
I used some nice canned tomatoes from my parents’ garden, and some organic green bell peppers that I had frozen from our summer CSA. I also used frozen green beans, because the little corner store didn’t have any fresh ones. I’ve always thought it strange that gumbo recipes never seem to include garlic. I was tempted to throw some in, but decided to stick to the recipe. The only thing I didn’t include was okra. I thought I had some in my freezer already so I didn’t buy more. But I found it in a really sad state so I didn’t bother:
I included some pan-fried homemade seitan and also some Mexican Chipotle Field Roast sausages.
Everything simmered together for a while, until the veggies were soft. I served it with cornbread, although it’s apparently also good with rice. It was quite tasty! I visited New Orleans years ago on a family vacation, and I remember eating gumbo in a restaurant and it being similar to this.
