Do you love gumbo, but don’t love the seafood? This easy vegetable gumbo is just for you. It’s only 2 SmartPoints per serving on Weight Watchers (7 SmartPoints if you add rice), so it’s healthy and easy to make.
Does your body ever talk to you and tell you what foods it wants? This happens to me when I am craving veggies. And it usually happens when I haven’t been doing a good job of eating vegetables.
The cravings become intense when my body needs something. Do you experience that? It’s similar (almost) to pregnancy cravings. I think it’s the bodies way of saying “Hello lady….I’m needing some vegetables please”.
When I get this way, I have to do what my body is asking for, you know? This recipe is really a great one to get those vegetables into your diet.
My husband calls this “Veggie Mumbo Jumbo Gumbo”. Â I’m trying to add veggies in almost everything that I have been eating – including turkey burgers (post coming soon). Â
To make this easy vegetable gumbo recipe:
In a large pot, heat the olive oil and then add the onion, peppers, carrots and garlic. Cook until the veggies are tender and cooked. This can take between 8-10 minutes depending on how tender you like your vegetables.
Add the soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Add the beans and kale. Bring the heat down to a simmer, and cover for about 30 minutes, or until the beans are cooked.
Vegetable Gumbo
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon olive oil
- 1 medium onion chopped
- 1 medium red pepper chopped
- 1 medium green pepper chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- salt and pepper
- 2 T soy sauce
- 2 medium carrots chopped
- 1 bunch kale coarsely chopped
- 1/2 cup black eyed peas I used dried ones
- 1/2 cup navy beans I used dried ones
- 4 cups vegetable broth
Instructions
- In a large pot, heat the olive oil and then add the onion, peppers, carrots and garlic. Cook until the veggies are tender and cooked.
- Add the soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Â Add the vegetable broth and bring to a boil. Â Add the beans and kale.
- Bring the heat down to a simmer, and cover for about 30 minutes, or until the beans are cooked and tender.
Yes, you definitely can. Just make sure to drain and rinse them.
Could you use canned beans in this?
Hi Whitney, I did not soak the beans. This was mainly because I didn’t have time to do it before I made the dish, but the beans were a little crunchy. If you have the time, I would soak the beans, but I did them dry. You could also just cook them longer in the pot before serving to make them not taste crunchy.
Hi Kristyn! We are making this dish for dinner tonight and I was wondering if you soak your beans first or just add them in dry?
Thank you Whitney! It is so delicious and tastes fantastic. Please let me know when you try it…I’d love to hear your opinion about it. And yes, I believe they are hiring – I feel like we are always hiring. You can email me at hello@dashofherbs.com and we can chat about it.
This looks so delicious! I can’t wait to try it. And more importantly, is your company hiring? 😉
Oh that is true, but if you were trying to work from home and take care of your baby, baby would win. I think it would be so hard to get focused when you are getting up so much. There’s not much time for “me time” with a kiddo. It can be done, but I work from home without a kid and struggle sometimes with distractions.
I feel like some days it can be hard to stay focused in any surrounding. If I was getting paid on maternity leave to work remotely I would make sure I stay focused haha.
I hope it becomes more widespread that fathers get 6 weeks of paid paternity leave. I think it’s so important to have the option for that…I know new momma’s need the help. Working remotely is great, but it’s hard to stay focused.
Chuck’s company does the same thing for father’s…it’s amazing. One thing that isn’t a perk of working at a small company is things like different policies. I hope that when we try and plan, I have the ability to work a good amount remotely!
I am so proud of my company for extending leave to all new family members. It’s such a relief to know that I won’t have to take vacation time whenever that happens. I would probably agree with you about breastfeeding. I’m sure stress didn’t help you at all with your milk supply.
Thank you Anne – I’m trying to make delicious, yet easy and simple dishes for you guys. I’m always open to suggestions of what you guys might want to see on the blog. I have more veggie dishes coming – so don’t worry! More is coming. And yes – we have always gotten maternity leave, but only 6-8 weeks. Now we get 12-14 weeks, which is awesome. I think it’s great for paternity leave…that’s so awesome.
Thanks Missy! I’m glad we were thinking similar food thoughts – and I hope you try this because it’s perfect for a weeknight dinner. You could also chop all your veggies on the weekend to make it an even faster meal.
I love that companies are starting to do this! It was so hard to leave my baby after six weeks, even though he was with family and I knew he was being really well cared for. Let’s be honest though, it’s hard to leave my Bensen even now and he’s year old. I’m really convinced though, that if I hadn’t had to add the stress of work back to my life so soon, I may have had a more successful time with my breastfeeding experience. 😛
This looks so good. God I say that about EVERY recipe you post though. As you know I need/love/want vegetarian options and this suits the bill. Thanks so much! As for your company with paid maternity leave? That is so amazing and I hope other companies follow suit.
Holy cow it is like you read my mind, I was planning on making something just like this next week! We just started getting 8 weeks for maternity and 2 weeks paternity here about a year ago. I am also in the south, but I work for the local government. It is insane that it took us this long to get it!