Gumbo (notes)

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( Dinner Serves: 12 Prep Time: 480 minutes)

Shopping List

  • Red Beans (7-8 oz)
  • Rice (6 oz)
  • Herbs and Spices (2 oz, see Notes)
  • 1 lb sausage (preferably andouille), sliced or crumbled
  • 10 cups chicken broth
  • About a pound of chicken breast
  • 10 oz spinach, chard, turnip green or escarole
  • 10 oz okra

Staples Used

Recipe

Preparing the Beans

  • Make sure the beans are okay -- remove any that aren't. Rinse the beans.
  • Soak the beans in about 2 quarts water for 4-16 hours. (Or speed things up by boiling for 10 minutes and soaking for 2 hours.)
  • Drain the beans, add another 2ish quarts water, bring to a boil, and simmer covered for 45 minutes.
  • Drain the beans and set aside.

Make the Soup

  • Heat a Tbl oil in the big soup pot over medium heat. Brown the sausage well.
  • Add all of the seasonings, onion, pepper, celery, etc., and stir for a minute.
  • Add the beans and chicken broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 45 minutes.
  • Add the rice and chicken. Simmer covered for another 45 minutes.
  • Add the greens. Simmer covered for another 10 minutes. Uncover, and if desired simmer a bit longer to let it thicken.

Notes

At this point, this is mainly notes from the sadly-discontinued Frontier Soups Red Bean Gumbo that I adored. It needs to be fleshed out and hybridized with other Gumbo recipes.
I suspect that using Red Beans and Rice as part of the basis here would work reasonably well, but note that they are managed separately in the original recipe.
The Ingredients List included:
  • Red Beans
  • Himalayan Red Rice
  • White Rice
  • Bell Pepper
  • Onion
  • Celery
  • Basil
  • Thyme
  • Oregano
  • Gumbo File
  • Cayenne
  • Clove
  • Allspice
Most of that was in the "Herbs and Spices" packet, and was obviously dehydrated. If I am doing this for real, I'd probably want to do the Onion, Pepper, and Celery for real.
Okra is optional in the original recipe, but I strongly prefer it that way.
The original calls for pre-cooked chicken; in practice, I never bother. This is also somewhat more chicken than the original called for.
No, there is no roux in this recipe. I believe that is wrong by traditional standards, but worked fine for us. (Partly because I like the Okra.)
Photos of the original recipe: front and back.
Uses: Stove

Variations