Growing up jambalaya was always one of my favorite dishes. Now that I don’t eat meat, I had to find an appropriate substitute that was just as delicious and that’s exactly what this is.

I know to some that the idea of having jambalaya without meat seems strange, but I promise that you won’t miss it once you taste this. In lieu of meat, this dish has 3 different types of beans. Feel free to play around with which types of beans you mix in!

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 bell pepper
• 14oz crushed tomatoes
• 4 c vegetable stock
• Seasonings: oregano, basil, thyme, paprika, cayenne, salt, pepper
• 2 c uncooked rice
• 3 cans bean (garbanzo, kidney, cannellini)

I’m infamous for not precisely measuring out seasonings. I typically season my food based on my preference. For example, in this dish, I used equal amounts of oregano and basil, barely any thyme and a lot of paprika and cayenne. I didn’t measure it in teaspoons or tablespoons though, I just do the same number of “shakes” of each. If you need exact quantities, then do equal amounts (1 tsp) of each, besides salt and pepper which should always be done to taste.

Directions

1. Prepare vegetables: dice onion and pepper, mince garlic.
2. In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat and then add onion, cooking until translucent, about 3 minutes.
3. Add in garlic and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
4. Add in bell pepper and cook until soft.
5. Add in crushed tomatoes, vegetable stock, seasonings and rice. Bring to a boil and then lower heat and allow to simmer for 30 minutes, until the rice is cooked and the liquid has evaporated.
   • Towards the end, the rice might begin to stick to the bottom of the pan so make sure you’re checking and stirring frequently.
6. Drain and rinse the beans. Mix them into the cooked rice and leave on heat for a few minutes until everything is the same temperature.

Test Kitchen: Opinion and Changes

I originally found this recipe on Cilantro and Citronella. The recipe was vegan so my version could easily be made vegan by not using oil. In addition to this, I removed some of the vegetables from the dish that I did not think would go well such as celery. Feel free to add in additional vegetables though if you’d like! This dish was also supposed to have a sauce mixture of soy sauce and hot sauce and I decided to not use that because all the people I was cooking this for do not like spicy food. If you want to add a kick to your dish, add in some hot sauce during step 5!

Happy Cooking!