I learned how to make this dish from my husband’s grandma. She did in fact prepare food for Cajun festivities. Her stock pots were 40-gallon trash cans. People would wait in line for this genuine Cajun delicacy. This dish multiplies nicely and serves eight people. Over cooked white rice, serve gumbo.
| Prep Time: | 45 mins |
| Cook Time: | 2 hrs 15 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 1 pound smoked sausage links, cut into 1/4-inch slices
- ¼ pound bacon, chopped
- 2 cups chopped okra
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes with green chile peppers
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups chopped onion
- ½ cup chopped green onions
- ⅔ cup finely chopped green bell pepper
- ⅔ cup finely chopped celery
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 2 cups water
- salt to taste
- ground black pepper to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 6 cups water
- 2 pounds uncooked medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
Instructions
- Brown the sausage in a skillet over medium heat, discard the fat in the skillet, and drain the sausage slices on paper towels to absorb any excess grease. Set the sausage aside. Cook and stir the chopped bacon in the skillet until crisp, 6 to 8 minutes, remove the bacon, and set aside. Stir the okra into the hot bacon drippings, and cook and stir until the okra is tender, about 5 minutes. Drain the okra in a colander, and discard bacon drippings.
- Place the okra and diced tomatoes in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer the okra mixture for about 10 minutes.
- In a large soup pot, melt the butter over medium heat, and cook and stir the onion, green onions, green pepper, celery, parsley, and garlic until the onion begins to turn brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the vegetables but leave the butter in the pot. Stir in the flour, reduce heat to low, and cook the roux, stirring constantly, until it turns the color of milk chocolate, 30 to 45 minutes. Do not let the roux burn.
- When the roux reaches its correct color, whisk in 2 cups of water. Raise the heat to medium; stir in salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, and bay leaves, bring the mixture to a boil, and stir in the sausage, bacon, okra-tomato mixture, and 6 more cups of water. Reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer the gumbo, stirring occasionally, until the soup has thickened and the flavors are blended, about 45 minutes. Stir in the shrimp, and simmer until they turn pink and opaque, 6 to 8 more minutes. Discard bay leaves and adjust the seasonings, if desired, before serving.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 344 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 13 g |
| Cholesterol | 165 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 24 g |
| Saturated Fat | 10 g |
| Sodium | 922 mg |
| Sugars | 3 g |
| Fat | 22 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Delicious as is.
Loved it. Even better when we swapped out water for shrimp broth!
I am in the process of making this recipe and I can’t wait to taste it; however, I’m wondering when/if I add the sauteed and removed vegetables back into the soup/gumbo? I’ve read over the recipe many times but maybe I’m just missing it. i plan to add it back into the soup after the roux is made; however, I don’t see where it says to do that. Thank you!
I’m no gumbo expert but this tastes like what I had in New Orleans, which was a lot different than any gumbo I’ve ever had living in California. I followed the recipe pretty faithfully except I added a tablespoon of better than bullion chicken flavor and about a teaspoon of old bay seasoning, and rather than cooking the green onions I put a big handful on top to serve. It was amazing! A bit of work but well worth it. This will be my gumbo recipe from now on.
I made it, but used regular canned diced tomatoes instead and added Louisiana Hot Sauce (apprx 1t.) to taste. My hubby loved it; I had to assure him that I had the recipe “saved”. LOL
The pot of gumbo is still cooking and looks delicious. But I think Step 4 left out adding the vegetables that were sauteed in the butter. I did it anyway and hope to sample it in about 35 minutes.
I made this in the crockpot which was a mistake. I added everything in but the shrimp. Veggies turned to mush. Sausage & bacon lost its flavor. Added the shrimp for the last hr. All around flavor was good but would change a lot if I were to do this in the crockpot again.
time consuming, but very, very good. perfect to make on a lazy fall day.
This truly is the best gumbo I have ever had! Loved the “dirty rue” my husband said. Will be making this again and again.
Delicious!! I added some lump crab and used a roux starter but goodness gracious this is better than restaurants that serve it in KY/OH!
This was probably the best gumbo I’ve ever had. I surprised my husband with it for his birthday, and while it was a little more work than other gumbos we’ve made, it was well worth the effort.
I have made this several times, but I never get it to be the milk chocolate color. I guess I get too warm standing over the stove to keep stirring the roux. But,anyhow I always think it comes out delicious!
This was fantastic! The whole family loved it. It was just a little tedious to prepare, but totally worth it.
I made this. Didn’t make any changes other than 1/4 teaspoon red-chili vs 1 teaspoon. (sorry, I’m a weakling when it comes to HOT). I also used someone elses idea here by taking the shrimp shells and simmering them in chicken broth, garlic, bay leaves (2), salt/pepper. Filtered off the fluids and used that in place of water. WOW, WOW, WOW. This was absolutely awesome! Everyone loved it! Oh and one more thing. That roux – IS A MUST. I stirred mine for 45 minutes – seriously. It wasn’t until about 30-35 minutes before I could actually see it changing color. But I knew that the darker color gives it that true nutty taste. Once I added the fluids, the importance of the roux was obvious. Wow. Just wow.
Very good Creole gumbo. Cajun gumbo is made with a roux, no okra or tomatoes. Excellent New Orleans style gumbo. Thanks for the recipe. Four stars because misnomer in type of gumbo.
OK this is the first time that I ever made this recipe. I was extremely worried about it being too spicy for the people in Oregon folks not Louisiana… So I used Johnsonville andouille… Because I knew it would not be too hot and then I did not add the cayenne pepper. I did not add the can of peppers… But I did use poblano peppers which provided some heat and allowed the holy Trinity to take affect. I added the Cayenne After everything had cooked and melted together to bring up to the heat that I felt my group could handle. I read so many recipes of people trying to make the recipe un-hot that I felt this was the safest way to progress. It was a hit and everybody was happy and every bit of it went !! This was an awesome awesome recipe and I have become a fan of the browned butter and flour as a base and other dishes yummy! I am sure that people from the south are going to skewer me for this recipe modification or two… But it’s no good if they don’t eat it… No matter how good it is
Turned out great! I didnt have okra and I used chicken and beef broth instead of water.
Made this Gumbo today for lunch to feed 6 family members. Everyone including myself through this was very good. I will make this Gumbo again. I did change the water to chicken broth.
I added chicken to mine. I always put my onion mixture back in… flavor was really good. Great recipe didnt have to alter ike most gumbo recipes.
I didn’t have any bacon so I used butter. I also substituted Creole seasoning instead of all the individual seasonings. I added cubed chicken breast also.
I doubled the recipe and forgot to buy the green onions, so I subbed in more white onions. I omitted the cayenne since some in my house don’t appreciate the heat. I added 4tsp of salt and 2 tsp of black pepper. That seemed pretty good, with the knowledge people could always add more spices. It really turned out well. Here’s where I ran into difficulty, after the veggies were sauteed in the butter they didn’t want to separate from it. I had to place them into a strainer and catch the butter run off into a different bowl. As it happens, there was not enough re-claimed butter for the roux to work, and so I had to add another 1/2 cup in order to get it going properly. This was a time consuming dish but I had alot of fun making it. Next time I will tweak some things and if I manage to improve the flavors I will post an update.