Gumbo is a hearty, warming stew-and-rice dish that’s synonymous with Louisiana. Seafood, chicken and red meats may feature heavily in many versions, but turning this New Orleans favourite into a vegan dish gives you all of those great flavours, with the added bonus of a shorter cooking time and more vitamins and minerals thanks to all those healthy veggies. This dish is also a very low fat take on gumbo, especially compared to many roux-based versions.

This quick, easy and healthy recipe will make a nice big plateful for two people.

Ingredients

½ an onion

2 sticks of celery

1 bell pepper

1 sweet potato

10 okra

Finger chillies (to taste)

1 clove of garlic

1 can of chopped tomatoes

1 cup of vegetable stock

1 tablespoon of oil

Rice to serve

1. Begin by prepping all of your veggies. Peel and cut the sweet potato into cubes; cut the okra, celery and bell pepper into bite size pieces. Peel and slice the onion and the garlic, and cut and de-seed the chillies.
2. Make one cup of stock and open your tin of tomatoes.
3. Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the celery, onion, chillies, garlic and bell pepper. Fry for five minutes or until softened.
4. Add the vegetable stock, chopped tomatoes and okra. Bring to the boil.
5. Add the sweet potato chunks and leave to simmer on a low heat for twenty minutes, or until the sweet potato is cooked through.
6. While the gumbo is cooking, fill a saucepan with water and boil your rice.
7. Once the rice is cooked, drain it in a sieve. Boil the kettle and pour hot water over the rice, to stop the grains from sticking together.
8. To serve, spoon a generous portion of gumbo onto the rice and you’re ready to go!

The great thing about gumbo is its versatility. When you’re ready for a change, simply throw some new ingredients into the mix: dried tomatoes, courgette, hot sauce, collard greens, and even kidney beans all work well with this recipe.

*Image courtesy Flickr creative commons.