This creole vegan jambalaya recipe is full of flavor that packs a punch! Pair it with Exhorder’s Mourn The Southern Skies for a travel inspired Dinner & A Vinyl experience!
When I initially started The Versatile Virgo back in December 2019, I had intended for it to be an alternative lifestyle blog that primarily focused on food. But when I finally started writing posts a few months later, I shifted gears when my love of heavy music couldn’t be tamed. Despite still wanting to share my recipes, I was afraid it just wouldn’t make sense to others like it did in my head.
However, a few months ago I revisited the idea of pairing music and food together after some encouragement from a friend. Simultaneously, my husband was talking about his desire to visit new places when it hit me. Before he was born, my husband’s father lived in New Orleans and he’s been yearning to visit the city for himself. We may not have been able to travel due to Covid, but I was determined to create our own destination style date night fueled by good food and heavy music.
Creole Vegan Jambalaya Recipe Basics
When I think of New Orleans style cuisine, the first dish that comes to my mind is jambalaya. Traditionally, jambalaya is a one pot dish that includes chicken, pork, sausage, or seafood. We try to eat plant based as often as we can though, so this creole vegan jambalaya recipe includes chickpeas and mushrooms for a meaty texture instead.
Besides using a variety of different meats, jambalaya can be made in either a creole style or cajun style. Both versions include the holy trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery. The creole version that inspired this recipe, however, is the tomato based version. It’s the ultimate comfort food and when the aroma fills your kitchen, don’t be surprised when you naturally start salivating.
Why Pair This Vegan Jambalaya with Exhorder’s Mourn The Southern Skies?
For starters, Exhorder is a criminally underrated metal band from New Orleans, Louisiana. They are credited with pioneering the groove-oriented thrash style of metal, which also happens to be my favorite subgenre. Despite their contribution to music, you may be more familiar with bands like White Zombie, Lamb of God, and Pantera that later on made this style of metal more well known. That’s a big reason why I’m so excited to share this with you today, because everybody needs some Exhorder in their life.
Because this band gets so often overlooked, I knew it’d be one that I’d have the pleasure introducing to my husband. And with him being such a big fan of bands like Exodus and Testament, I knew this would be a hit on our music/travel inspired date night.
About Mourn The Southern Skies by Exhorder
Mourn The Southern Skies is an electrifying, adrenaline filled ride through the southern metal music landscape. I can’t think of many albums that successfully pull off slow and fast elements together in one single song. But Exhorder does this throughout, combining vocals that embody the idea of a slow, southern crawl and instrumentals that are as speedy as they are groovy. Great examples of this are “Hallowed Sound”, “Rumination”, and “All She Wrote”. There’s also plenty of moments that are an aggressive, pulse pounding thrill ride like in “Beware of the Wolf.”
Intense, aggressive, and exploding with power, Mourn The Southern Skies is an album that will make you want to listen to it over and over again. The final song though, which also happens to be the title track, is like the cherry on top. It instantly became one of my favorite songs from the very first listen because it really showcases the band’s extreme musical talents. Essentially, the title track takes all of the elements you heard prior and puts it into one powerhouse mega track. And because there’s so much depth to this song, it’s one that you don’t necessarily have to be a heavy music fan to enjoy. It’s just that good.
How To Make This Creole Vegan Jambalaya Recipe
The beautiful thing about jambalaya is it’s a one pot meal, which means limited clean up and more time relaxing to the sweet sounds of Exhorder. I recommend mixing all of the seasonings in a bowl first and chopping your veggies ahead of time since things will come together pretty quickly. The same goes for draining and rinsing your chickpeas. After rinsing, I prefer to leave them in a colander to allow any excess water to drip off while everything else cooks.
Creole Vegan Jambalaya Recipe
Serves 4
Ingredients:
Creole Seasoning:
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 3/4 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp dried basil
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 7-8 twists freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 tsp white pepper
Everything Else:
- 1- 15.5 oz. can of chickpeas, drained & rinsed
- 1- 8 oz. pack of fresh mushrooms, sliced (or use the pre-sliced mushrooms)
- 3 tbsps of olive oil, divided
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 celery stalk, diced small
- 1- 14.5 oz. can diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup green bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup brown rice
- 1/2 cup diced onion
- 2 tsps of hot sauce
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- green onion* (optional: for garnish)
Directions
- Mix all seasoning ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.
- In a dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and sprinkle with half of the seasoning (about 1 tablespoon). Cook the mushrooms, stirring frequently (about 3-4 minutes), remove from the dutch oven, and set aside.
- Heat 1 more tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat and add the onion, garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Cook stirring frequently until the veggies have softened (about 3-4 minutes).
- Add the rice, diced tomatoes, remaining seasoning, hot sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.
- Add the veggie broth and bring to a boil. Then, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer with the lid on for 25 minutes or until the rice is tender and the liquid is fully absorbed.
- Add the mushrooms and chickpeas and stir to combine. Sprinkle with additional salt to taste.
- Garnish with green onion if desired. (optional*)
LOOKING FOR MORE RECIPES?
Check out what I’ve been serving up lately here.
