I’m still thinking about carving our pumpkin and making something with it, at least pumpkin seeds – but it has not moved up high enough on the priority list yet. Since we weren’t home for Halloween and haven’t had a trick-or-treater in years, it didn’t seem important.
For Tony’s night in the kitchen he went back to his old favorite, the free Good and Cheap PDF (pg. 97), for this modified recipe. This is a vegetarian version of jambalaya, but if you stir in cleaned shrimp or cooked sausage toward the last five minutes of cooking, you can make it more traditional.
Vegetable Jambalaya
2 T avocado oil
1 chopped sweet onion
1 chopped green pepper
3 chopped celery stalks
3 crushed cloves garlic
1/2 small green chili, seeded and chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 t paprika
1 t garlic powder
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
1 t Worcestershire sauce
1 C rice
3 C vegetable broth
Heat oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion, pepper, and celery then cook 5 minutes until translucent but not brown. Add everything else except the rice and broth. Stir and cook another minute. Add the rice and broth, reduce heat to medium, and cook another 20-30 minutes until the rice absorbs all the liquid.
Remove the bay leaves and serve.