Healthy Gluten-Free Jambalaya Pasta
Healthy gluten-free jambalaya pasta! Meaty, rich, and a little spicy. Bursting with delicious bell peppers, lean sausage, and shrimp. Love jambalaya but been eating too much rice during quarantine? Just looking for something different? This recipe is for you. Easier than regular jambalaya, low stress, done in about an hour.
This has more of a creole jambalaya flavor than a cajun one. Typically creole jambalaya contains tomatoes and cajun does not. This healthy gluten-free jambalaya pasta contains some marinara sauce. No particular kind, you can use any kind you like. This is a great recipe for using up that half a jar that's been sitting in the fridge for two weeks because you only need one cup!
This version is healthy because it uses lean chicken or turkey andouille sausage and shrimp for the meats. If you can't find (or really don't like) chicken or turkey andouille sausage you can substitute turkey kielbasa or regular andouille sausage. Plus, it uses chickpea-based pasta.
You can use any shape of pasta you'd like for this recipe. Penne, bowtie, elbow... There are now several different brands of chickpea pasta, and you can use whatever kind you like. I prefer Banza pasta (not sponsored). It has one of the most similar textures to regular pasta, plus I love how many shapes they have. If you can't find chickpea-based pasta you can sub some other kind of pasta. I also sometimes make this recipe with buckwheat-based pasta, which is also healthy!
You can control the spiciness of this recipe. Can't handle the heat? Replace the andouille sausage with keilbasa and don't add any hot sauce. Like things really spicy? Add your favorite hot sauce to taste. I'm somewhere in the middle, so I use a mild andouille and just a couple dashes of mild hot sauce.
Looking for a dessert to cool off your mouth after your jambalaya pasta? Check out this cool, creamy, low sugar cream cheese pie! https://bit.ly/31wEmt9
Ingredients
- 1 box chickpea pasta
- 2 1/2 tbsp garlic infused olive oil (or regular olive oil plus 1 minced clove of garlic)
- 10-12 oz chicken or turkey andouille sausage
- 1 large onion
- 3 stalks of celery
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup marinara sauce
- 2 bell peppers
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp oregano
- 2 tsp thyme
- 1/2 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp celery seed
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 2 tsp beef bullion
- to taste hot sauce (optional)
- 1 lb raw shrimp
- 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
- to taste hot sauce (optional)
Instructions
- Chop the onion and the celery. Slice the sausage.
- Add the onion, celery, and sausage along with two tablespoons of oil to a large skillet and turn the heat on high.
Cook, stirring often, until the sausage and onions are lightly browned. Whil it cooks roughly chop the bell peppers.
After it's browned, add the water, marinara sauce, bell peppers, bullion, paprika, oregano, thyme, black pepper, coriander, chili powder, and celery seed to the pan and stir. Turn the heat down to low and cook for 35 minutes, stirring occaisonally.
While the sausage mixture cooks, boil and drain the pasta and put the shrimp onto a sheet tray with 1/2 a tablespoon of oil, Worcestershire sauce, and smoked paprika. 
When the sausage mixture is almost done cooking, broil the shrimp for 3-5 minutes until they're cooked through.- Turn off the heat. Add the pasta and shrimp (along with any juices) to the sausage pan and mix.
Enjoy!