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Vegetarian Gumbo
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- Total Time
- 50 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 1(10- to 16-ounce) bag frozen sliced okra
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 5tablespoons unsalted butter or vegetable oil
- ¼cup all-purpose flour
- 1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1yellow onion, diced
- 2celery ribs, thinly sliced
- ½green bell pepper, diced
- 3garlic cloves, minced
- 1teaspoon Creole seasoning, plus more to taste
- 1teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- 1(14-ounce) can diced tomatoes with their juices
- 3cups vegetable or chicken stock, plus more as needed
- ½cup red lentils
- 1tablespoon hot sauce, plus more to taste
- 2teaspoons liquid smoke (optional)
- Cooked white rice or quinoa, for serving
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 400 degrees. Place the frozen okra in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet, breaking up any large clumps, and sprinkle with ¼ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Roast, until cooked through and just starting to brown, about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Step 2
As okra roasts, prepare the roux: Melt the butter in a cast-iron skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat. (Either vessel will help evenly distribute the heat for a better roux.) If using vegetable oil, simply heat over medium. Using a heatproof rubber spatula or wooden spoon, mix the flour into the fat. Stir continuously, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot so the roux does not burn (a burned roux cannot be saved), until the roux transforms from pale to peanut butter to a rich cinnamon color, about 7 minutes. Remove the roux from the heat and set aside. (Pull the pot from the heat just as the desired color is reached; the retained heat will continue to cook the roux slightly.)
- Step 3
Add the olive oil to a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until softened, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add the celery and bell pepper, and cook until softened, another 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute. Lastly, add the Creole and Old Bay seasonings, and stir so that they coat the vegetables and are lightly toasted, about 1 minute.
- Step 4
Stir in the diced tomatoes, stock and lentils. Bring the ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat to a light simmer. Cover and allow the lentils to cook undisturbed for 15 minutes. (Add more water or stock if needed.)
- Step 5
Add the okra and cook uncovered until softened, another 5 minutes. Stir in the hot sauce, and the liquid smoke, if using. Give the cooled roux a good stir and add it to the pot, making sure to mix it in thoroughly, then simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning by adding salt, pepper, creole seasoning or hot sauce, if desired. Serve warm over white rice or quinoa.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Better than Bullion makes a "No-Chicken" base that tastes like chicken stock but is vegetarian and delish.
Chicken stock in vegetarian gumbo is an interesting option imo
I make a vegan gumbo using Beyond Meat sausages and spicy tofu, and pretty much everything else the same as regular gumbo. Tastes amazing.
As Doug and Kim mentioned, chicken stock isn't vegetarian. With that said ... roasting the okra, and including red lentils, are both great ideas! Fresh okra would be preferable, though. I prefer whole or crushed tomatoes, in glass jars rather than cans. Or, I might use low-sodium tomato juice. And, I would use smoked paprika instead of "liquid smoke". Great. I've become "that" person who wants to change the recipe. :)
This is really tasty, though a little different from chicken or seafood gumbo. I’d suggest cutting down slightly on the hot sauce because it adds a little more vinegar than I’m used to—if you want more spice, compensate with more creole seasoning or some cayenne. I also added a few shakes of MSG, which always helps to make a vegetarian alternative taste a little meatier.
Most vegetarians would know how to make this completely vegetarian. So the quibbling seems unnecessary. This is delicious and easy. No okra to be found, fresh or frozen, so I used fresh zucchini, cut in 1/2” rounds, roasting it on a cooling rack over a baking sheet at 450F for 35 minutes, then added it where okra was added. For creole seasoning try https://www.emerils.com/120057/emerils-essence-creole-seasoning, converting it as tsp rather than TBsp. I used 2 tsp rather than 1 in this recipe.
If you use veg stock and olive oil this recipe is vegan.
A far darker roux - approaching the color of Great Auntie Amélie's mahogany sideboard - would provide more flavor. Other than the Trinity, including chunks of leeks and large cubes of a winter squash - butternut, pumpkin, etc. - would add texture and additional flavor - roasted in the oven to caramelize the sugars and then add them toward the end of cooking into the gumbo pot, along with the okra. With a properly-made roux and slow, long cooking, no lentils are necessary. And rice, please!
Okay so it's not strictly vegetarian if you use chicken stock - but still it's practically a "no-meat" recipe. Many of us, myself included, are eating much less meat than in previous years, maybe almost no meat, but we don't call ourselves "vegetarian".
The roux in a gumbo is always equal parts vegetable oil and flour. Cook it over medium heat until it is the color of an old penny.
Not sure if this is why it was specified, but I find that making a dark roux like this is always easier to gauge when is the perfect moment to pull it from the heat in my enameled cast iron dutch oven because the white enamel makes it much easier to see its color.
So... use a Dutch oven to make the roux... and then don't use the oven for anything else? Seems like a waste. Why not just do the simple roux in a small sauce pan?
creole gumbo ~ yes tomatoes. cajun gumbo ~ no tomatoes. needing to get back to the 'nawlins' jazz fest now...
I made a vegan gumbo substituting red beans, black beans and cannellini for the chicken and andouille sausage I usually use. Obviously, you must use vegetable stock. It came out very good, and was a big hit with my vegetarian and vegan friends. We also had the chicken and sausage gumbo and a seafood gumbo for the non-vegetarians. Btw, I much prefer vegetable oil for making the roux.
Recommended: I make a vegan gumbo using Beyond Meat sausages and spicy tofu, and pretty much everything else the same as regular gumbo. Or: I made a vegan gumbo substituting red beans, black beans and cannellini for the chicken and andouille sausage.
Genuinely delicious. I added some Impossible sausage (spicy), skipped the okra roasting stage, and used fresh tomatoes and okra from my garden. The fresh tomatoes made it bright and contrasted beautifully with the richness of the roux. I'll freeze it to enjoy some summertime in the winter.
What is creole seasoning? Why isn't this in a note?
Made this last night and absolutely loved it, with the entire recipe except green pepper (due to a friend's allergy). We moved the roux to another pot and kept going in the dutch oven then added it in later (thought that was weird too)! So delish.
I’ve made this a few times now. It’s excellent! I prefer to use butter rather than oil for the roux. I also use fresh okra, skip the oven step, and throw it in with the lentils. On its own, it can be a bit soft (the lentils break down), so I also add canned red beans and serve with buttered sourdough toast. So good!
Mushroom broth is excellent in this also, and I added diced sautéed pancetta for my carnivore husband.
ok, i get that this is not VEGAN, but this is also not VEGETARIAN. how embarrassing.
Lots of pots and pans for kind of flat gumbo.
I’ve never made the roux separately and not sure how that changed the recipe. I saved a pot and scraped the roux into a bowl to cool. I also don’t know that roasting the okra made a big difference. We liked this but needed to add a lot more hot sauce. It was nice and thick. I used all vegetable stock and served it over rice.
Great recipe base. I doubled the recipe and made a few alterations, but it all came out fantastic: -Did not roast the okra, but added the frozen bag to the gumbo at the last 10 minutes. -Made the roux in a dutch oven and followed Step 3 directly afterwards using the same vessel. -Used a 28oz can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes. -Added a can of red kidney beans. -Added plant-based Chipotle sausage, cut up into coins.
I've made this twice and loved it both times. Will continue to repeat. I've both roasted the okra as directed and I've just put it in the pot while still frozen and I didn't notice a huge difference between the two. But it may be because I'm not personally put off by the sliminess of okra. This time, I doubled the recipe and will be freezing the second batch. Served with rice.
This was delicious! Definitely my go-to gumbo base from now on. Since we aren’t vegetarians, I used chicken stock and threw in some roasted b/s chix thighs. Roasting the okra is a great idea. Added 1 tsp smoked paprika (as someone recommended rather than liquid smoke). The Old Bay was a surprise, but delicious. Will make again.
I made this basically as written, but added some kale at the end to bump up the nutrition. Kale or not, it was absolutely delicious! I can't wait to make this again!
This recipe was very good and surprisingly had the Creole flavor without the need for meat. It is worth a try if you want to try something different.
Here in New Orleans we make “gumbo z’herbe“ or “green gumbo“. Make the roux Cajun style, with oil instead of butter, and you’re there
If you can find Better Than Bouillon No Chicken Base which is vegan it will make a wonderful chicken-flavored stock. We use it all the time. There's a No Beef one also.
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