Vegan Comfort Food: Jambalaya

I came across the basis of this recipe in the current issue of Taste of Home, on page 82. It brought out snark in me because here was an “accidentally vegan” dish, where the woman who had submitted it, was apologetic in a way for it being meat free o_O

I quote “This jambalaya is ideal for vegetarians or for days when you crave some New Orléans flavor but don’t have chicken or sausage on hand.” Yes, you must have a reason on why you didn’t use meat 😉 Haha! Ah well, I understand though, the magazine is pretty much meat-centric and middle America style eating. I took her recipe then went online and searched through a number of other recipes and came up with this version. Is it authentic? No, of course not. But then, I can’t say I miss the real meat usually used.

Before making this dish I had not heard of ‘butter beans’. I was pretty much stumped. But then, I am a PNW native. So I asked my Southern born husband and he was “Blah blah”. He grew up on them. And suddenly I knew what they were. It took a bit to find a can of them, oddly enough it was our local Fred Meyer store that had them, they are owned by Kroger. Tucked waaaaaayyyy low in the bean section was Kroger branded cans of them. And for someone who hated despised lima beans growing up, these were actually quite good. They were. well, buttery soft in texture. I will use these again.

Vegan Jambalaya

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp neutral vegetable oil
• 1 green bell pepper, cored, seeded and chopped
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 cup celery, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 vegan chipolte sausages, roughly chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 14½ ounce can diced tomatoes
• 8 ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• ½ tsp dried oregano
• ½ tsp paprika
• ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 15 ounce can red kidney beans
• 15 ounce can butter beans

Directions:

Heat a large, deep skillet over medium-high. Add in oil, green pepper, onion and celery, sauté until tender. Add garlic, sausage and spices, sauté for a couple of minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes and tomato sauce, bring to boil. Add rice, stir, cover tightly and cook over medium-low for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.

Rinse and drain both cans of beans, add to rice stirring in. Cover and let sit for 5 minutes.

Serves 6 ample portions. Great reheated the next day as burrito filling!

~Sarah