Jambalaya

Comforting, warming, satisfying, feel-good - this Jambalaya is everything you need in a bowl of food.

It’s a one-pot mix of rice, shrimp, sausage and chicken cooked in a fragrant sauce of peppers, tomatoes and cajun seasoning. And the best thing? One batch give you six serves which means you can have seconds and thirds or feed yourself for days!

For a vegan option, swap out the sausages for vegan sausages and replace the chicken and shrimp with kidney beans and/or butter beans.

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Ingredients

• 500g boneless, skinless chicken breast, diced

• 250g chorizo or smokey sausage of choice, sliced into rounds

• 250g cooked shrimp/prawns

• 250g white rice - long or short grain

• 1 large white onion, finely chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

• 1 green bell pepper, finely chopped

• 2 stalks celery, finely chopped

• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 1 chicken stock cube

• 1 1/2 cups water

• 30g tomato paste

• 15ml olive oil

• 6 garlic cloves

• 2 bay leaves

• 1 tbsp cajun seasoning

• 2 tsp smokey paprika

• 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)

• 1 tsp dried thyme

• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a large dutch oven, deep skillet or stockpot and sauté the onions until soft.

2. Add in the chicken breast, along with the cajun seasoning, paprika, cayenne pepper, thyme and salt and pepper.

3. Once the chicken has started to brown, add in the sausage and cook for another 5 minutes.

4. Add the peppers, garlic and celery and allow to soften.

5. Once the vegetables are soft, add in the tinned tomatoes, tomato paste/ purée, the bay leaves and the stock dissolved in the water. Stir well.

6. Add the rice, bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer. Cover with a lid and leave to cook for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking.

7. Once the rice has cooked, stir in the shrimp/prawns and serve!

Serves 6.