Slow Cooker Jambalaya that is Vegan, essentially hands-free and packed with so much flavor it’s in permanent dinner rotation in our household.
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan friendly
We’ve made several versions of jambalaya over the years. But this slow cooker jambalaya is the absolute best.
As you all know, I am a fan of simple culinary concoctions resulting in as few dishes to clean as possible. This is perhaps why slow cooker jambalaya and I are such good friends. Throw it in the pot and let the delicious flavors do all the work.
I’ve struggled for years to find a sausage that is vegetarian and ALSO gluten-free. Thank goodness over the years it seems someone has been listening to us because since we’ve moved I found one! Gluten-free vegan dreams really do come true.
I know we’ve got quite a few vegetarians who aren’t Celiac – and fortunately for you finding vegan/vegetarian sausages is much easier. I feel confident making recipes with vegetarian/vegan substitutes now that I can try it myself. Tell us in the comments below all about your favorite meat-free sausage!!
So here it goes, easy peasy.
How do we Make our Jambalaya Vegan/Vegetarian?
This part is SO easy, just like this recipe. The base, flavors and ingredients all are vegetarian. Include your favorite vegan/vegetarian sausage and voila! We’ve got vegetarian jambalaya … This makes me (and I suspect many others) pretty gosh darn happy.
Vegan Slow Cooker Jambalaya on a Budget
This makes a TON of jambalaya and there are leftovers for days. For those on a budget, this jambalaya is a dinner in itself. We paired it with a light lemon kale salad for some extra veggies.
The most expensive part was vegetarian sausage. This seriously fed our family of two for daysssss. Once we did the math, we realized the entire meal cost us $13 and that was dinner for 3-4 days. #BallersOnaBudget or as I’ve been saying #BOB 😉
How to make this jambalaya for our meat-eaters:
Now if you don’t follow a vegetarian diet or this isn’t for a meatless Monday dinner, simply swap the vegetarian/vegan versions with your favorite sausage and chicken stock instead of the vegetable broth. Everything else can be followed to a ‘T’.
We’ve made it both ways in our household – and both ways are delicious. Truthfully, I could hardly tell the difference.
Another option if you have a meat-eater in the house is to simply follow the instructions and then divide the jambalaya in half after cooking, stir in meat and meat-free sausage into separated dishes and you’ve got meat-free and meat dinner options! If you want to add some healthy crunch, throw some air fried mixed vegetables into the mix.
Slow Cooker Jambalaya Recipe (Vegan Jambalaya)
Main
Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Vegetarian, Vegan
American
Yield: 8
Prep Time:10 min
Cook Time:265 min
Total Time:275 min
Ingredients:
- 2 celery stalks, diced
- 1 small onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 2-3 cups meat-free sausage or smoked sausage alternative, chopped into quarters (about 16 ounces)
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1/2 Tablespoon smoked paprika
- 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 Tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
- 2 (15 oz) cans of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- 2 cups vegetable broth
- 2 cups uncooked white rice
Directions:
- 1. Add celery, onion, garlic, bell peppers, sausage, oregano, thyme, paprika, cayenne pepper, black pepper, diced tomatoes, parsley, and vegetable broth into large slow cooker. Stir together.
- 2. Place lid onto the slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4 hours. You want the liquid to be extremely hot and boiling. Stir uncooked rice into pot. Cover with lid and continue to cook on high for another 20-25 minutes. You may have to quickly fluff at the 20 minute and continue cooking another 5 minutes until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid.
- 3. Serve hot with additional fresh chopped parsley on top. Enjoy!
Author: Linnie
Recipe Video:
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 282
Other nutrition information: Total Fat: 2.7g , Saturated Fat: 1g , Cholesterol: 25mg , Sodium: 950mg , Potassium: 322mg , Total Carb: 51g , Dietary Fiber: 2.7g , Sugars: 7.5g , Protein: 11.9g
How much did you love this recipe?
Click a star to let me know:
(209 votes, average: 3.80 out of 5)
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Not sure what I’m doing wrong. This is the 3rd time I’ve tried. When I add the rice, it just doesnt get done! I do it while the dish is still hot, I put it on high… it takes more like an hour. How do I fix this?
When you are adding the rice you want to make sure you keep the lid off for the littlest amount of time possible. Trap and keep that steam and moisture in there. You may need to cook it a bit longer depending on your slow cooker cooker (it’s like an oven, times can vary) but I suspect there isn’t enough moisture being kept in the cooker and therefore is going to take longer to cook as well.
What I do. Have the rice measured out, lift the lid a bit just enough to get my spoon and rice in there, quickly pour into cooker, stir once or twice and cover immediately.
As I said your cooker might be a little bit more ‘weak’ when it comes to temperature as well so you may need to turn the heat up and cook a bit longer. Hope this helps! It’s honestly a FAVORITE recipe of ours so hopefully you can get it to work for you! 🙂
The same thing happened to me. It took my rice over 90 mins to cook. At this point I probably should have just put it in at the beginning.
I notice this recipe doesn’t have any salt- should I be adding salt?
We personally try to limit our added salt intake so either omit or go very low in additional salt to our dishes. The vegetable stock is rather salty that we use so if we do salt it’s minimal.. like a dash. If you’d like to add salt after tasting go ahead and add a little bit of salt! 🙂
Does this work with brown rice instead of white rice? I tried brown rice, tried cooking for an hour instead of 30 min and the rice still wasn’t done. The flavor was amazing though!
We have not tried this with brown rice. I suspect that you may need to add a splash of extra liquid and cook longer at a higher temperature next time with your slow cooker AND ALSO ensure that you don’t allow the heat and steam to escape when stirring in the rice.. Slow Cookers are much like ovens in that the cooking time and temperatures are not all the same across the board.
This recipe was not good. Put it in for an additional hour (cautious from the previous comment) and still the rice didn’t cook.
Ended up having to transfer to a saucepan and cooking with additional water like a risotto which meant loads of extra time at the stove which I didn’t want. Dinner ruined and time wasted.
Flavour was fine.
Sorry that this did not turn out for you! Slow Cookers are like ovens where cook time can and does vary. The biggest trouble that happens with this is allowing much of the heat and steam escape when adding the rice. You want to very quickly, pour rice in quickly stir and close back up immediately. It doesn’t sound like an important step but it is truly vital to make sure the steam stays inside the slowcooker to cook the rice.
Can you tell me what the exact kind of white rice to use? Minute rice, basmati, jasmine, short grain…maybe that is why it doesn’t cook correctly for everyone else.
I’ve used both basmati and short grain and it works out for me for those 🙂
I am trying this for the first time! Actually my first time using a slow cooker at all. I have white Arborio medium grain rice which unsure was correct. After reading comments I am concerned. Should I cook the rice separately and add to slow cooker at the very end for 10 minutes or so?
It’s might not be a bad idea to do this! That definitely should work. We’ve tried different varieties of rice since we posted this recipe and we personally can’t figure out the issue that some are having.
Dang… I wish I read through the replies.. Mine pot has been cooking for hours and the rice isn’t cooked.
Add a little extra splash of water and keep the LID ON. Slow Cooker times do seem to vary but the less you fuss with it the better to keep the steam in and give it time to cook.
I made this recipe and really enjoyed it. I have learned from previous tries (with other recipes which call for uncooked rice in the slow cooker) that adding the uncooked rice just doesn’t work for me. I did exactly as the recipe said but added cooked rice to the cooker with about ten minutes to go so that alll the ingredients could marry, and the result was great. Thanks.
What do you recommend if I don’t have celery?
You can omit if you don’t have it. Will be missing the flavor a bit but it won’t ruin the dish by any means.
wow this was so good!! i had to cook the rice a bit longer and add boiled water towards the end, but the rice cooked perfectly. I was wondering if this could be frozen?
I am making this tonight and am so excited. I have minute rice that I’m going to put in and hope for the best. Also, do you drain your tomatoes or leave all the juice?
I leave all the juices from the tomatoes. Let us know if it worked for your with the minute rice!
I am wanting to make this with cauliflower rice (we are limiting grains as well right now…) and I was wondering if you would suggest reducing the amount of liquid in the slow cooker??
Thanks so much!
Great taste! Would definitely cook again. However, I used brown jasmine rice and I had to add a half cup of boiling water an set it for 25 extra minutes.
I am allergic to Bell Peppers, so am thinking of substituting a Jalapeño and some zucchini. (I have no problem with hot peppers like jalapenos or seranos.) Would that work?
Or do you have another suggestion?
Have you ever added okra to this recipe?
When It says 1 serving what does that mean? 1 cup?
Great recipe! So many people complained they had problems with the rice cooking and I omitted the tomatoes in the recipe, so I added extra water (didn’t measure, just poured until it came up to the food line) and put the rice in for the last hour of cooking. Turned out amazing.