Healthy Jambalaya Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is jambalaya healthy? ›

It's packed with protein in the shrimp, chicken and sausage. Brown rice is your healthy source for carbohydrates. Obviously this is a meal for later on in your bariatric surgery recovery when you are comfortable eating different things all in the same meal.

It easily lends itself to a healthy meal that is still low calorie. Luckily, the traditional ingredients used in jambalaya are pretty easy to accommodate in a healthy diet.

Jambalaya With Meat And Rice, Chicken And Sausage Jambalaya (1 cup) contains 22.7g total carbs, 21.4g net carbs, 21.2g fat, 26.1g protein, and 393 calories.

Use the Right Ingredients: Authentic jambalaya typically includes ingredients like andouille sausage, chicken, shrimp, bell peppers, onions, celery, and tomatoes. Use these traditional ingredients for the best flavor. Season Liberally: Cajun and Creole seasoning blends are essential for flavoring jambalaya.

The "holy trinity" in Cajun cuisine and Louisiana Creole cuisine is the base for several dishes in the regional cuisines of Louisiana and consists of onions, bell peppers and celery. The preparation of Cajun/Creole dishes such as crawfish étouffée, gumbo, and jambalaya all start from this base.

A hearty blend of rice, meats, vegetables, and lots of seasoning, jambalaya is a cold-weather comfort food that is sure to please everyone. There are two types of jambalaya: Cajun and Creole.

Which is best — Creole or Cajun — will forever be debated, but Mark's Creole version with sausage, chicken and shrimp is an aromatic one-dish-meal sensation that has been perfected over many years. Overflowing with flavor and color, it is a veritable delight to the senses — all five of them!

Jambalaya (/ˌdʒæmbəˈlaɪə/ JAM-bə-LY-ə, /ˌdʒʌm-/ JUM-) is a savory rice dish of mixed origins that developed in the U.S. state of Louisiana apparently with African, Spanish, and French influences, consisting mainly of meat or seafood (or both), and vegetables mixed with rice and spices.

What Are the Differences Between Gumbo and Jambalaya? The main difference between these two dishes is their use of rice. Gumbo is really a soup or stew that's often served over a little rice, while jambalaya is made with the rice cooked into the dish, making the grain an integral part of it.

Pick your protein: Chicken, shrimp and Andouille sausage are all traditional options for jambalaya. But feel free to choose just one, two or use all three, depending on what proteins you like. Other options could include other kinds of seafood (i.e. cod, mussels, clams, crawfish, etc.), pork or firm tofu.

What is the main component of jambalaya? ›

jambalaya, a savory dish, popularly associated with the U.S. state of Louisiana, consisting of meat (pork, chicken, or even rabbit), seafood (shrimp, crab, crawfish), or both (often including andouille either way) and cooked with vegetables, stock, rice, and various seasonings.

Classic jambalaya is cooked in a big pot, with plenty of chicken, andouille sausage, and shrimp or crawfish. Some veggies and a few cups of rice make it the ultimate one pot meal. But all that rice makes authentic jambalaya a carb heavy meal and that's simply no longer an option for many of us.

One of the biggest complaints when making jambalaya is that the rice ends up mushy. And there's two main culprits of this – choosing the wrong type of rice and over-stirring. For this recipe, you want long-grain white rice, like basmati or jasmine. Don't use short-grain rice.

Cajun vs.

Creole jambalaya, also known as red jambalaya, contains tomatoes. Cajun or brown jambalaya does not.

One of the primary differences in Cajun jambalaya as opposed to the Creole variant is the absence of tomatoes. Instead, it relies on a dark roux (which is a cooked mixture of flour and fat) to achieve a deep, smoky flavor. Country meats like andouille sausage, tasso ham, or game meats take center stage.

Jambalaya is both a culinary staple and a storied dish in New Orleans. The dish has been a part of New Orleans cuisine since Colonial Spanish settlers tried reconstructing their native paella from locally-sourced ingredients. Today, the dish is comprised of a mix of chicken, seafood, sausage–or all three!

The favorite choice for the term "Jambalaya" is 1 cup of Jambalaya with Meat and Rice which has about 26 grams of protein.

It is thought that jambalaya is descended from the Spanish dish paella, which was brought by Spanish immigrants to New Orleans. Jambalaya features ingredients that are readily available in Louisiana and pull from the state's cultural influences — namely African, French and Caribbean.