My husband’s family is from New Orleans so they get all the credit for introducing me to the unique and flavorful cuisine of The Big Easy. From jambalaya to crawfish etouffee to seafood gumbo…many new dishes have been added to my list of “favorites” since my first visit to New Orleans almost 15 years ago. And even though beignets are basically deep-fried white flour treats, they certainly make my list of favorites as well. :)
Today I want to share a family recipe that came from my husband’s Aunt Vicki. It was introduced to us as a “seafood gumbo,” but what I’ve learned over the years is that this dish can easily be an “anything gumbo” instead. What that means is don’t go out and buy a bunch of new ingredients to make gumbo…instead try to use some of what you already have on hand. If you don’t have shrimp and crab well then throw in some leftover Thanksgiving turkey (if you still have some in the freezer like us). And if you don’t like bell peppers then just add more celery instead. My favorite dishes are the ones that are flexible so use this recipe as a guide and don’t be afraid to get creative. As long as you start with the suggested roux (butter and whole-wheat flour) it’s pretty hard to mess up.
Aunt Vicki’s Gumbo
My husband’s family is from New Orleans so they get all the credit for introducing me to the unique and flavorful cuisine of The Big Easy. From jambalaya to crawfish etouffee to seafood gumbo…many new dishes have been added to my list of “favorites” since my first visit to New Orleans almost 15 years ago.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup butter
- 2/3 cup whole-wheat flour
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1 onion, small, diced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 10-oz can stewed tomatoes, chopped with juice
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup flat beer, optional (can sub more stock instead)
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 teaspoon salt
- pepper, to taste
- 1 pinch thyme, dried
- ½ cup parsley, fresh, flat leaf, chopped
- ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¾ lb shrimp, raw, peeled
- ½ lb lump crab meat, cooked, shredded
- ½ pound sausage, browned and sliced or crumbled, andouille or other variety
- brown rice, cooked
For Serving (optional)
- Filé powder
- hot sauce
Instructions
- Add butter to large soup pot over medium heat. Once melted, sprinkle in flour and whisk together thoroughly. Keep whisking steadily over medium heat until mixture browns (about 10 – 15 minutes). This technique is called “making a roux.”
- Dump diced veggies, onion, and garlic into pot. Stir and cook over medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add stewed tomatoes with juice, stir once, and cover. Stir 3 – 4 times over next 15 minutes.
- Add chicken broth, 1 cup water, and 1 cup beer. Add all spices, stir once, and simmer uncovered for another 15 minutes.
- Add cooked sausage and seafood and cook on medium heat until shrimp is done all the way through.
- Serve over brown rice and sprinkle filé powder on top (optional). Provide hot sauce if desired.
And don't forget to freeze the leftovers!
Recipe Notes
We recommend organic ingredients when feasible.
Nutrition Facts
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We had this Gumbo soup and I made it with Lisa chicken broth and we loved it. My husband is asking me to make this again.
I made this and really enjoyed it but I am very confused. I have made roux lots of times but never have I cooked it for so long. Also, cooking the veggies in the roux seemed odd and it was no surprise to me that the roux was starting to stick to the pan well before the end of the suggested cooking time.
Next time, I am going to cook the veggies in the butter 1st, reduce both the butter and the flour by 1/2, and reduce the cooking time for the 1st two steps of cooking by 1/2. Fingers crossed.
I double the recipe the 1st time so that I would be able to freeze leftovers as suggested elsewhere. But then I realized my shrimp had been previously frozen so it probably wasn’t wise to freeze the gumbo. What are your thoughts on this? (it’s just not possible to get truly fresh shellfish here.)
Although my gumbo was much lighter in color than the one pictured above (not sure why), it was amazing! I’ve made dozens of your recipes, Lisa, and none have disappointed! Thank you for helping make the switch to whole foods easy…..and delicious!
This gumbo is AWESOME. By far the best recipe I have ever found online. Thank you sooooo much for posting! My husband calls it “the best thing I make.” I modify it a bit by doing the following:
1. I include 1 qt. of my mom’s home-grown, canned stewed tomatoes instead of the 10 oz called for; and then skip the water and the beer. I still include the chicken broth.
2. I do 1 lb. of sausage (either Italian or andouille) and 1 to 1.25 lbs of fresh shrimp.
I’ve never had any leftovers to freeze! Haha.
This is an amazing recipe!! I’ve made it several times for my family and they all enjoy it, including my very picky 6 and 8 year old. I ventured out and took it to a school fundraiser and it was a HUGE hit. We literally sold out of it in minutes!! Thank you for the consistency in all of your recipes. I am a big fan!
One of my favorite meals to make for the fall or in the winter! I absolutely love this recipe and make it often! I do highly recommend putting the can of beer in for a more authentic flavor in the gumbo. A great authentic New Orleans recipe!
This is my first time making a roux. It’s equal parts butter & flour – it doesn’t make a paste. Is that expected?
Hi Holly. We are rarely able to answer recipe questions in real time. How did it turn out? ~Amy
So good – thank you!!
Try grapeseed oil instead of the butter – works great!
I got a little ahead of myself and made this on Tuesday, thinking it was Mardis Gras. I was a week early (should look at my calendar more closely when I menu plan!) but I am seriously tempted to make this again next week! My dad makes a great gumbo (no tomatoes in his, though) and this was very similar to his. So good!!! I had some leftover shredded chicken so I threw that in, too. I will definitely make this again!
I made this Sunday and froze it for Friday night!
I’m making this now. It says to use I cup of water in the directions but it is not in the ingredients. Please advise! Of anyone can help that has made this that would be great. I spent a lot on crab and shrimp which I don’t usually do. I also have never made gumbo!
Can you suggest a heart healthy substitution for the butter?
I found a site where the guy tells how to make instant roué instead of flour and oil he used the microwave to
Brown the flour and then you don’t need the oil. U might want to google microwave roué
Don’t do roux in the microwave…just don’t…
Using flour and oil as a roux is a different dish than using a tomato based roux. Both are considered gumbo, but have totally different flavors. Don’t use the tomatoes if you are using a flour/oil roux.
Carol, I just saw a video clip where coconut oil may help reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer’s. I don’t know if you can cook with it, but it may be worth a shot.
Any heart healthy ways to remove the butter?
I’m surprised there aren’t more reviews on this dish. I had a bunch of leftover rice in the fridge I needed to use up, saw this recipe and thought I would make it. I have never had gumbo before, did not know what to expect. THIS IS DELICIOUS!!!! I did use less butter in the beginning than the recipe called for (Two thirds of a cup of butter is just an insane amount of butter… That’s almost two sticks! Woah!) In my version I added some leftover chicken and shrimp. Yum! I did notice a discrepancy in the directions, it says to add a cup of water, but there’s no cup of water in the ingredients. Hmmm. Anyway, it came out excellent! I’m a Yankee who can cook New Orleans food now! :D
I made this last night and it was SO GOOD! Thank you, thank you!! My husband and I loved it- he had two helpings! I didn’t have any crab, so just used shrimp and sausage. I’m not a big sausage eater, so I accidentally bought one that was really spicy so the kids were a little overwhelmed. My youngest one (3), still surprisingly ate it but the other two just picked out the shrimp. It was so rich and delicious, I can’t wait to make it again!!
This was great! I was very intimidated at first, but decided to go for it! The roux was the scariest for me. I am amazed at how simple it was to make and how great it taste!
I left out the beer, changed around the seafood, and used chicken sausage! Still tastse great!
Thank you!
I’ve looked at this recipe several times, but tonight was the first tome I tried it. I did it in the crock pot, for one, mostly because I had a plethora of garden okra that just had to be used. So that was the second change. Finaly, it was still pretty thin, so I thickened up the sausage drippings with flour before I added that at the end, and it made all the difference. Great recipe!
My grandmother always added coffee and Chocolate(just a little) to hers so I gave it a shot. Only about 1/2cup of coffee and about two bars of the cooking no sweet chocolate. It came out really good. I didn’t use the beer so it gave me the extra liquid needed. I traded out the crab for Squid, my husband loved it.
I use a gumbo recipe that I adapted from Justin Wilson’s Rabbit Gumbo. The only reason I adapted it, is that I did not have a good local source of rabbit up until very recently. It takes quite a bit longer than yours, and has no tomatoes in it, but other than the 2tbsp steak sauce (which could easily be substituted for 1-2 tbsp. tomato paste) it is totally real food. You just don’t get that kind of depth of flavor from processed food which is meant to be cooked quickly and ready in a hurry. It is worth every second put into it of the almost 3 hours it takes to make (a good 45 minutes of which is just making the milk to dark chocolate roux), it is that good!!!
My favorite roux is the dark roux! I am from south Louisiana (about 2 hours west of NOLA) and have never enjoyed gumbo with a tomato based roux as much as I have gumbos with a darker roux! And yes, making your own dark roux will take you several hours! That’s one reason I make a huge batch and then freeze it in smaller containers!