This recipe is from Good and Cheap.
Good and Cheap is a gorgeous cookbook for people with limited income, particularly on a $4/day food stamps budget. The PDF is free (ahora en Español!) and has been downloaded more than 15,000,000 times. I have more cookbooks, too!
Jambalaya is a reader favorite, and it’s easy to understand why! This dish takes boring rice and leftover vegetables and makes it into an exciting, spicy, satisfying meal to feed a crowd! It’s a perfect way to enliven any leftovers from a large Easter dinner and make them into something new and mouthwatering. Just go easy on the cayenne and jalapeño if you are not totally wild about spicy food.
Vegetable Jambalaya
A vegetable heavy version of the traditional cajun rice dish.
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 green bell pepper chopped
- 3 celery stalks chopped
- 3 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1/2 small green chili finely chopped
- 2 large tomatoes chopped
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
- 3/4 cup long grain rice
- 3 cups vegetable broth or chicken stock
Additions
- sausage sliced and fried
- shrimp cooked
- leftover meat, tofu or beans
Instructions
- Start with the oil in a large high-sided saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper, and celery, then cook for about 5 minutes, until they become translucent but not brown.
- Add the rest of the ingredients except for the rice and broth. Let everything cook for about 1 minute to let some of the tomato juice release.
- Add the rice and slowly pour in the broth. Reduce the heat to medium and let the dish cook until the rice absorbs all the liquid. It should take about 20 to 25 minutes.
- If you're using any of the additions, throw them in at about the 15-minute mark to let them warm up.