Jambalaya - Vegan Style

"Sign that the restaurant you're in serves really spicy food.  They have two seating sections: 'Foolhardy' and 'Flat Out Crazy'." Grinning Planet

Here's a recipe that has as little or as much heat as you choose.  You control the amount of spices.  So that's one thing in life you can control.  I got this recipe from a restaurant and changed a few things to make it vegan.

This is also a Cajun recipe, which means it has a trio of vegetable ingredients - onion, celery, and green pepper - as well as a trio of pepper - black, red, and white pepper.  Before you begin this recipe it would be a good idea to chop and measure everything and put the ingredients into containers that you can simply dump into the mixture at the proper time.  That's actually a good idea for any recipe that has a list of things that need chopping.

Ingredients:
  In a small bowl combine -
   2 bay leaves
   1 t salt
   1 t white pepper
   1/4 t cayenne pepper
   1/4 t black pepper
   1 t thyme
   1/2 t sage


Ingredients Continued:
  2 T oil
  8 oz pkg chorizo flavored seitan
  1 cup chopped onions, divided
  1 cup chopped green pepper, divided
  1 cup chopped celery, divided
  4 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
  1 cup chopped tomatoes, canned will work
  1 cup tomato sauce
  3 cups vegetable stock
  1 1/2 cups rice

Right off you'll notice that there's a strange ingredient in the second list, namely, seitan.  It's so strange that even my spell check doesn't recognize it.  It's a product made from wheat gluten and whole wheat flour.  It's a good source of protein, low in carbs and fat, and makes a good meat substitute.

You'll also notice that the three vegetables are listed as divided.  That means you want two bowls for the veggies, and each bowl should contain a half-cup of each.  Hang in there, it gets easier.

Distructions:
 In a heavy bottomed kettle saute' the seitan in the heated oil for about a minute.  Add the dish of seasonings along with half the veggies.  That's a half cup of the onion, green pepper and celery.  Saute' for about five minutes.  Stir in the garlic for the last 30 seconds.

Add the tomato sauce and cook for one minute.  Stir in the rest of the veggies along with the tomatoes.  Remove the kettle from the heat and stir in the broth and rice.

Now place this mixture into a rectangular baking pan and pop it into a 400 degree oven for about an hour.  Bake this uncovered.  Remove from the oven when the rice is done, stir, and remove the bay leaves.

Serve this with a veggie on the side, some cornbread, and a CD of Zydeco music.  Ponder the question, if you're old enough to remember the song, what is file' gumbo?

Loveya
The Mom