Saturday, June 9, 2018

Sausage and Okra Purloo


Purloo is a hearty Southern dish of rice and meat cooked together. It's made differently, depending on the part of the South you're in and can be customized a million different ways. Because of that, it's also very easy to veganize. You can use any vegan meat substitute in this and it would work, but my favorite is sausage. I'm currently obsessed with Beyond Meat's new sausage, which comes in brat, Italian and hot Italian varieties. Any of them would work here, but the hot Italian was especially nice. The texture and flavor are uncanny and, because it has a casing, there's that "snap" that you get biting into sausage that the other vegan varieties lack. Any sausage would be good in this, though. I'm sort of a wuss about heat, so add some hot sauce or hotter peppers if you like. The "hot" Italian Beyond Meat sausage does not have much kick by itself, in my opinion. This purloo is a one-pot dinner, which is always a good thing.

Ingredients

1/2 sweet yellow onion, diced
1/2 poblano pepper, diced
2 vegan sausages, sliced
2 cups sliced okra
1 cup sweet corn, cut off the cob
1 cut short grain rice
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp basil
1/4 tsp marjoram
2 cups veggie broth

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees

In a dutch oven, deep cast iron skillet with a lid or other oven-safe pot, heat 2 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and poblano pepper and stir to coat. After a couple of minutes, add the sausage and stir to incorporate. Cook it for about 3 minutes, stirring often, until the sausage is browned a bit.

 Add the garlic and cook it a bit, being careful not to brown it. Add the spices, corn and okra and cook them for another couple minutes, then add the rice and stock. Stir it all up to incorporate.


Lower the oven temp to 325, put a lid on the pot and put it on the middle rack. Set the timer for 35 minutes. Don't stir it while it's in the oven. The rice should be perfectly done by this point. If it isn't, let it cook for another 5 minutes or so. Fluff it up with a fork and serve.