Cookbook challenge: Jambalaya and chocolate walnut cookies

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Jambalaya was always one of those things that I’d heard of, but knew nothing about- other than it being the topic and title of an old song I learned in my ukulele class last year. Yet for some reason, Veganomicon’s seitanic red and white bean jambalaya recipe was one of the ones that jumped out at me when I first opened the book. But for fear (and general confusion) of the unknown, I’d never made it.

Until last night.

Seitanic red and white bean jambalaya

I hadn’t really known what to expect when making this. It’s almost like a baked risotto, with a lot of beans. The risotto comparison, though, made me feel like it needed a bit of ‘crunch’, as everything in it was fairly soft. Since I’ve come to the sad conclusion that making my own seitan is not one of my strong points, I used a box of Fry’s chicken-style strips that I’d been saving in the freezer. These tasted great straight out of the pan, but became a little too soft after being baked in the jambalaya. I also had trouble finding celery seed, so I used celery salt where the recipe called for normal salt, and had no problems there.

Despite not being exactly what I’d expected, I enjoyed this. And a good thing to, because it made enough to give us lunches for the week. Chadwiko preferred the earlier bean-related fare this week, but was more than happy to have this for lunch today. I’d make this again,  but would probably try to add the seitan and maybe half of the celery around halfway through the baking time.

I had a bit of time on my hands yesterday, so I also made Veganomicon’s double chocolate walnut cookies.

Double chocolate chip walnut cookies

These cookies contain two of my favourite things- walnuts, and a lot of ground flax seeds. Of course, I didn’t think that these had nearly enough walnuts. Next time I’ll definitely add more, but judging by the rapidly decreasing number of cookies left in the kitchen, I think these have been deemed more than suitable in their current state.

All in all, another successful day of Veganomicon cooking. Now if only I could get that Jambalaya song out of my head.

1 Comment(s)

  1. Hi! I came across this while looking for jambalaya recipes.

    This is one of my favorite recipes from the Veganomicon. I’ve made it a bunch and also changed it a bit to suit my tastes.

    The recipe calls for way too much rice (2 cups), in my opinion. I use 1/2 cup – 3/4 cup brown basmati rice instead. I also omit the seitan as I don’t feel like it really needs it. I double the celery and celery seed, and drop one can of beans.

    If you make this again, I recommend getting some celery seed. Celery seed is very different from celery salt, and it really adds an important flavor to this dish.

    Take care.

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    John | Apr 10, 2011 | Reply

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