Vegan Gumbo Recipe With Okra And Lentils | Gluten-Free - Elavegan (2024)

FAQs

What does okra add to gumbo? ›

Okra provides color, texture, flavor, and thickening for the stew. The differences between creole and cajun cooking are very small, but generally revolve around the use of tomatoes. Creole gumbo usually has canned, chopped tomatoes in it.

Use dried epazote to replace the fresh variety if it's available; otherwise try cilantro, papalo, summer savory, or fennel.

Once the roux is a deep golden color, add diced veggies and sausage to the mix. Then, incorporate beef bouillon, hot sauce, tomatoes, and seasonings to intensify the flavor. Let the gumbo simmer for 45 minutes before adding file powder, okra, and seafood.

Gumbo consists primarily of a strongly flavored stock, meat or shellfish (or sometimes both), a thickener, and the Creole "holy trinity" – celery, bell peppers, and onions. Gumbo is often categorized by the type of thickener used, whether okra or filé powder (dried and ground sassafras leaves).

"You should add your okra towards the end of cooking, allowing it to steep and the okra slime to develop in the finished product," says Dickensauge. Mix in your okra about 30 minutes before the gumbo is finished.

Some people prefer to add no uncooked okra to the pot due to it's slimy texture. As Loren mentions if adding okra to gumbo you rid the okra of it's slime by simply frying it plain (no breading) prior to adding it to the gumbo allowing it to dry first on a paper towel.

Gumbo is much denser than a simple soup; the broth has a thick, almost viscous consistency. And that characteristic is most commonly created by making a roux, cooking flour and oil together until they thicken and darken. Otherwise, gumbo can be thickened with file, which is just powdered dried sassafras leaves.

I usually make gumbos without okra or file powder, not because I dislike them, I just enjoy a Cajun style gumbo. While not a hard and fast rule, tomatoes, file powder and okra appear more often in Creole gumbos (a city-style gumbo) than in Cajun gumbos.

Although the taste and texture of okra is unique, some folks think its mild flavor resembles that of green beans or eggplant. Those two vegetables may be substituted for okra in many soups and stews.

Thou Shalt Always Use a Bowl. If you use a plate, it is not gumbo it is rice and gravy! Thou Shalt Only Use a Wooden Spoon. There is only one kind of spoon that can enter a gumbo pot and that is a wooden one.

Does gumbo taste better the longer you cook it? ›

I like to add the “trinity” (onion, celery, bell pepper) to the roux before it gets to the desired color, because that'll help slow the cooking process. Once you have the roux the rest is simple. The longer you let the gumbo simmer the better it will be.

For purposes of this discussion, we will limit our focus to plain old polished white rice. Even then, it comes in different sizes — short, long and medium grain. I prefer medium grain rice in a gumbo, because the grains puff up, the perfect medium for a gumbo. The thick gumbo juice sticks to the grains just right.

Turns out, your preference for tomatoes in gumbo comes down to whether you learned your skills from a Cajun cook or a Creole cook. (Learn about the difference here.) Cajun gumbo does not include tomatoes in the base, but Creole gumbo (typically shellfish or seafood gumbo) does call for tomatoes.

Cajuns have a play on mirepoix they call the trinity. It's onions, bell pepper, and celery. You need this and enough to give it flavor. You can also add in parsley, green onions, and garlic… and you should.

In my opinion, gumbos fall into three categories, Seafood Gumbo, Gumbo Z'herbs and Meat Gumbos. Gumbo Z'herbs is a gumbo that is mostly made of green leafy vegetables.

You can leave it out if you don't like okra. However, it not only helps thicken the gumbo, but it's also a healthy veggie. If you want to replace it as a vegetable, green beans, zucchini, or nopales will make a delicious gumbo.

The slippery liquid that okra pods contain is called mucilage, and the gel-like liquid has thickening properties that are coveted for making stews like gumbo. How much the mucilage is accentuated will depend on the cooking method used to prepare the okra.

Wet okra: Cutting and cooking okra in moisture releases a slimy juice that increases the thickness of soups and stews. Dried okra: Dried okra can also thicken a sauce. Some people use it as an egg white substitute.