Vegan (or not) Gumbo

So delicious. I’ve never made gumbo before and it takes some effort but you’ll have leftovers for days and it’s deeelicious. I was making it for my friend who’s vegan and with a lack of protein I felt like it could have used some more veggies. I’m not vegan so I added in some veggie sausage to mine and would have probably added shrimp if I had time. With the cajun seasoning, you can either make your own or buy it premade. There’s a lot of peanut oil in the first recipe (1 cup) and I’m curious if you cut that in half how it’d be. Seemed like a lot. And no 1/4 cup garlic is not too much - that’s probably what makes it so good. Original recipe is from Mississippi Vegan which can be found here. Mine was different in that I used zucchini instead of okra and doubled the chopped tomatoes and used red wine vinegar instead of ume plum vinegar.

Gumbo

• 2 cups chopped onion (1 medium)

• 2 cups chopped celery (about 4 large stalks)

• 1 ½ cups chopped green bell pepper (about 1 large)

• ½ cups diced red bell pepper (about 1 small)

• ½ cups minced garlic

• 8 cups vegetable broth

• one 14.5 ounce can fire-roasted diced tomatoes

• ½ cups red wine

• 1 tablespoon tamari

• 1 tablespoon tomato paste

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• 1 tablespoon vegan Worcestershire sauce

• 2 tablespoons plus ½ cup chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish

• 2 tablespoons fresh oregano

• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

• 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno pepper (optional)

• 1 tablespoon stone-ground mustard or Creole mustard

• 1 teaspoon liquid smoke

• 1 cup peanut oil

• 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

• 1 recipe Creole Spice Blend (recipe below)

• 6 to 8 bay leaves, depending on size and desired amount

• ½ cups chopped green onions, plus more for garnish

• 2 cups to 3 cups chopped zucchini (or okra)

• 1 pinch sea salt, more to taste

• 1 pinch cracked black pepper, more to taste

• 3 cups to 4 cups cooked rice, for serving
  

  Creole Spice Blend

• ½ cups nutritional yeast

• 1 tablespoon onion powder

• 1 tablespoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon dried oregano

• 1 teaspoon dried parsley

• 1 teaspoon dried thyme

• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

• 1 teaspoon smoked or plain sea salt

• ½ teaspoons cayenne pepper

• ½ teaspoons dried ground sage

• ½ teaspoons ground white pepper

• ½ teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper

What To Do

1. In a bowl, combine the onion, celery, bell peppers, and garlic. Remove 1 ½ cups of this mixture and transfer to a separate bowl (you’ll add this to the gumbo toward the end). Set both bowls aside.

2. In a large bowl, mix together the vegetable broth, canned tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, wine, tamari, tomato paste, vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, 2 tablespoons of the parsley, the oregano, thyme, jalapeno, if using, mustard, and liquid smoke. Set aside.

3. Now you are ready to make the roux! In a large clean, well-greased cast-iron skillet (be sure to wipe out any residue), heat the peanut oil over medium-high heat. Once it’s hot, add the flour and stir constantly with a large wooden spatula, until it is well combined. Reduce the heat to medium and continue stirring until the roux is dark brown, 15 to 20 minutes. The goal here is to toast the flour and oil while preventing the mixture from burning. You do this by moving the flour and oil mixture constantly. If you stop for only a moment, the roux will burn and you will have to start over.

4. Reduce the heat to medium-low and add the larger amount of the onion mixture (not the reserved 1 ½ cups). Continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the vegetables are soft, 5 to 7 minutes.

5. Make the Creole spice blend. Mix all of the ingredients together in a small bowl until well combined. Add the spice blend to the vegetables and mix well. Cook for another 5 minutes, stirring frequently, toasting all of the spices. Now you have the base of your gumbo!

6. Transfer the base to a large stockpot. Add the broth mixture and bay leaves. Mix well and bring to a boil, stirring often to prevent the bottom from burning. Once at a boil, reduce the heat to low and simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally, to reduce and thicken the gumbo.

7. Add the green onions, okra, the remaining ½ cup parsley, and the reserved 1 ½ cups onion mixture. If desired, add 1 to 2 cups water to loosen the gumbo. Simmer for another 20 minutes Give the gumbo a taste and season with salt and pepper as needed. Feel free to add more cayenne pepper at this point to make it spicy as well.

8. To serve, ladle the gumbo into serving bowls, removing any bay leaves. Add a small scoop of cooked rice on top and garnish with the chopped parsley and green onions.