I’ve just discovered that Creole jambalaya contains tomatoes, unlike Cajun jambalaya, which does not. So my version is Creole jambalaya!
This casserole is traditionally made with assorted bits of dead animals; my vegan version, which does not harm your karma, uses faux meat (or seitan, tofu or tempeh) of your choosing. Tonight I used homemade sundried-tomato sausage and store-bought veggie prawns.
This dish is a bit involved to make, but it tastes sooo good. Mr Thrifty would climb over a barbed-wire fence to get to this jambalaya (or so he claims). The rice is baked in the oven in the spicy seasoned broth until it is plump, tender and infused with flavour. I usually serve this with a salad.
| British | American | |||
| 2 tablespoons | olive oil | 2 tablespoons | ||
| 80g | finely chopped onion | 2/3 cup | ||
| 80g | finely chopped celery | 2/3 cup | ||
| 80g | finely chopped red pepper | 2/3 cup | ||
| 1 tablespoon | minced garlic | 1 tablespoon | ||
| 190g | uncooked basmati rice | 1 cup | ||
| 1 teaspoon | salt | 1 teaspoon | ||
| 1 teaspoon | smoked sweet paprika | 1 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | dried thyme | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | dried oregano | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | dried basil | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/2 teaspoon | freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon | ||
| 1/4 teaspoon | cayenne pepper | 1/4 teaspoon | ||
| 1/8 teaspoon | dried sage | 1/8 teaspoon | ||
| 2 | bay leaves | 2 | ||
| 525ml | vegetable stock | 17 ounces | ||
| 125ml | passata (tomato sauce) | 1/2 cup | ||
| 100g | chopped fresh tomatoes | 3-1/2 ounces | ||
| 350g | assorted faux meat (or tofu, tempeh, seitan, etc) | 12 ounces |
1. In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil over low heat. Saute onion three minutes, until softened. Add celery and red pepper and continue to saute for 10 minutes, until vegetables are tender.
2. Add garlic and continue to saute for two minutes.
3. Add uncooked rice and saute until translucent, another couple of minutes.
4. Now add salt, paprika, cayenne, thyme, oregano, basil, pepper, sage and bay leaves to the skillet and mix well. Turn off heat and transfer to a large casserole dish (one that has a lid).
5. Preheat oven to 180C (350F).
6. Put vegetable stock and passata (tomato sauce) in a small pot and bring to a gentle simmer.
7. Clean skillet and add remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Saute faux meat until heated through and beginning to brown.
8. Add hot stock mixture, fresh tomatoes and faux meat to casserole dish and give it a stir.
9. Bake in preheated oven for one hour, until rice has absorbed liquid and is tender. If it starts to dry out before rice is tender, add small amounts of boiling water as necessary.
Makes 4 servings.
I cannot keep coming here and wanting to try everything…please could I just move right in? It’s so much easier that way!
Wow you sure are cooking up some right treats Felicity! Do we have the recipe for sun dried Tomato Sausages?
c’mon over, denny!
Jeni — I will post the recipe for those sausages 🙂
Wow this looks incredible!
This looks really yummy. I love jambalaya too. I tried some meatless sausages the other night, but these sound better. I never heard of the veggie prawns, I will have to find them.
Hi Dia,
I’ve tried a couple types of veggie prawns, my favourite ones are made by Mong Lee Shang, and I buy them from Wai Yee Hong.
ding dong!
ding dong!
ding dong!
*loud stomach grumblings
I learn so many new things on your blog. It seems strange that jambalaya (I’m no expert) wouldn’t have tomatoes.
it looks really really good.
Mmmmmm…. both this recipe and the sausage recipe look delicious. Alan loves it when I make seitan, which I try to do every week or so. In the past week I’ve been busy, and he actually asked me for the recipe so he could do it himself. Now THAT’S motivation! I will show him this recipe and he might want to try it!