Pastured Sausage and Shrimp Rice

I’ve only had jambalaya a couple times in my life and I’m certain I’ve never had what could be considered the real thing. So I have no idea why I was craving it earlier this week. There was just something about shrimp, sausage and rice with a slight tomato-y flavor that sounded really good. Not to mention our temps dropped back to mild winter status so some warm comfort food was necessary.

Since my version follows no authentic recipe, I decided it really should be called by the official name. We’ll just say it is similar to some of the versions I’ve had before. Regardless of its authenticity, it did fulfill the comfort food craving.

I used local, pastured Italian sausage so that added a lot of the flavor to the dish. Except for the onion and garlic, all my veggies were thawed from frozen. I had a variety of frozen peppers from last summer so I used sweet banana and one red jalapeno for a kick. My tomatoes were Romas from last year’s garden as well. You can use raw or cooked shrimp. If you use cooked, just throw it in at the end and heat it through.

Pastured Sausage and Shrimp Rice

¾ lb pastured Italian sausage
20 – 25 shrimp, peeled and deveined, chopped into pieces
5-6 small peppers (any variety), sliced
½ large onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
6 small tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
1 ½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp garlic powder
1 ½ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
4 cups cooked long grain rice

In a large, deep skillet brown the sausage over medium-high heat until fully cooked. If using raw shrimp, add and cook until just barely cooked through. Drain, rinse if needed, and remove from the skillet to set aside leaving a small amount of fat in the skillet for the veggies.

Add the onion, garlic and peppers. Cook over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook 5 to 7 minutes or until all vegetables are slightly browned and tender and the tomatoes begin to soften and break up.

Add the paprika, garlic powder, chili powder, pepper and salt. Stir to coat all of the vegetables. Add the rice, stirring to incorporate it and cook 2 to 3 minutes or until heated through. Stir in the sausage and shrimp and cook for another minute. Serves 6.

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I know I’m a bit behind schedule and I apologize for the delay, but I finally selected the winners of my new book – The Everything Guide to Food Remedies. I stole a fun idea from Deb at Kahakai Kitchen and copied everyone’s name taken from the comments. I put them all in my cute cupcake bowl, shook it, closed my eyes and drew.

So here you go.

The three people who will receive a copy of my book are Joanne at Eats Well with Others, Aoife of The Daily Spud and Pearl! Please email me your address at lori (at) fakefoodfree (dot) com and I will send you a copy.

I will email you if you provided me an address and will give everyone one a week to respond, so by next Wednesday. After that I will select another winner.

Thank you for all the congrats and the thoughtful comments! I really enjoyed reading your philosophies on health and food.