Day 32 - Vegan Jambalaya

My friend Vicki is having a bunch of people over for Super Bowl Sunday. Her husband wants to serve Jambalaya, which sounds quite yummy, but which is also loaded with meat. :)

I decided to experiment last night with a vegan version after my trip to Whole Foods. Which worked out perfectly, because my boys came home from a very cold snow campout. What better to warm them up then the spicy goodness of Jambalaya?

I started with Paula Deen's recipe, making a few adjustments to account for what I had on hand and, of course, veggie substitutes.

Whitney's Version of Paula's Jambalaya

• 2 cups long grain rice
• 6 tbsp dried onions
• 2 tbsp dried parsley
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp ground red pepper
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 bay leaves
• 5 cups vegetable broth
• 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 (14 oz) Field's Apple Sage Sausage, sliced into 1/2-inch thick rounds
• 1 (10.5 oz) box vegan shrimp

1. In a large pot, combine rice, onion, parsley, thyme, garlic powder, black pepper, red pepper, salt, bay leaf, veggie broth, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
2. In a medium saucepan, brown sausage. Add to rice mixture in pot.
3. When rice mixture is boiling, cover. Reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until rice is cooked through.
4. Add shrimp and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
5. Enjoy!

This was really good. No one was able to tell that the sausage and shrimp weren't "real", and it was very nicely spicy. In fact a little too spicy for Steven, who added a dollop of sour cream* to cut the heat. I would say that it was a successful experiment!

*Steven's sour cream was not vegan, so if you want to keep it vegan and still cut the heat, either cut down the amount of red pepper, or use a vegan sour cream. :)

Sorry, no pictures...the camera was still packed from the campout...