How to Make Vegetarian/ Vegan Jambalaya and Rice
Jambalaya and Rice.
Classic Jambalaya is a spicy dish of meat, vegetables and rice traditionally found in Creole cooking, it is normally served with boiled rice. Jambalaya is thought to be a variant of the Spanish dish Paella and the Creole variety of Jambalaya would appear to be an attempt by the Spanish to make Paella in the new world.
I have adapted this Jambalaya recipe to make it vegetarian and I find it makes a wonderful, hearty supper dish, perfect for eating on cold, dark winter nights. The quantity given here will easily serve four people and unlike the meat-filled variety which can take hours to prepare and cook this recipe is ready to eat in around thirty minutes.
This dish can also be prepared and frozen to eat at a later date, just leave out the rice when you first cook it and as the jambalaya is warming up cook the rice separately and combine with the jambalaya just before you serve it. Don't be tempted to freeze rice and reheat it, this can be very dangerous as cooked rice should never be reheated.
Vegetarian Jambalaya, a Wonderful Spicy Dish.
Cook Time
Ingredients
- 6 vegetarian sausages, sliced
- 6 quorn fillets, cubed
- 2 large red onions, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 2 large green peppers, diced
- 2 sticks celery, sliced
- 2 x 250g tins tomato, chopped
- 250g long grain rice
- 500ml vegetable stock, hot
- 2 tbs dried mixed herbs
- 1 tbs paprika
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Warm some extra virgin olive oil in a deep sided, heavy-based pan with half of the paprika and stir to release the smokey flavour into the oil, Fry the thinly sliced vegetarian sausages and the cubes of Quorn fillets in the oil for around five minutes.
- Add the diced onions and continue frying for a couple of minutes and then add the crushed garlic, sliced celery and sliced peppers. Stir thoroughly.
- Add the remaining paprika, salt and pepper to taste and the long grain rice. Pour in the hot vegetable stock and the tomatoes and give the mixture a good stir.
- Cover with a tightly fitting lid and simmer for around twenty minutes or until the rice is fully cooked through stirring occasionally so that the Jambalaya doesn‘t burn.
- At the last minute stir in the mixed herbs and then serve. You can substitute brown rice for the white but if you do then the whole dish will need to be cooked for a little longer, ten minutes should be okay.
Serve With Warm Crusty Bread
This dish is wonderful on its own but is equally good served with warm crusty bread. In my experience, I’ve found that a good bread to serve with this dish is spicy garlic bread. Simply mix some butter or vegan margarine with two teaspoons of dried herbs, two teaspoons of chilli powder, a little freshly ground black pepper and one clove of crushed garlic.
Take a large French stick and cut slits in it. Spread the butter mixture into the cuts and then wrap the whole lot in baking foil. Cook the bread in a medium oven for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the butter has melted into the bread. Serve hot and use it to soak up all of the Jambalaya. If you don’t want to serve this Jambalaya with bread why not make a batch of vegetarian corn fritters to go with it. I hope you enjoy this dish as much as my family do.
You can make this dish vegan-friendly by using vegan sausages and vegan Quorn pieces both are readily available in supermarkets.I have even made this jambalaya using firm tofu. All the varieties taste really good. Enjoy.
Vegetarian Corn Fritters.
© 2010 Galaxy Harvey
