Gumbo

Name: Gumbo
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 70 min
Total time: 95 min
Yield: 6 pots
Cuisine: southern-us
Ingredients: 80 g Wheat flour; 80 ml Neutral oil; 2 piece Onion; 2 stalk Celery; 1 piece Bell pepper, green; 200 g Okra; 400 g Chicken; 300 g Prawn; 150 g Pork, andouille or smoked sausage; 4 clove Garlic; 300 g Rice, uncooked, to serve; 1.5 l Water; 1.5 tsp Salt

A dark roux, the trinity, and a pot that is Creole or Cajun depending on who is stirring — not a generic chilli.

Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: Gumbo.

0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.

Start cooking

Prep: 25 min
Cook: 1 hr 10 min
Total: 1 hr 35 min
Difficulty: Medium
Spice: Medium heat
Cost: Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price

Know it before you cook it

Source photograph of Gumbo. Not official I Want Some Food pixel artwork. — Photo: Kate via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY 2.0. Source

About

Gumbo starts with a roux you cook past blonde, often to chocolate, then onion, celery and green pepper, then stock and okra or filé, then chicken, sausage or shrimp. Rice on the side. This is a home pot, not a museum of every Gulf variant at once.

Ingredients

Servings

Wheat flour80 g
Neutral oil80 ml
Onion2
Celery2 stalk
Bell pepper, green1
Okra200 g
Chicken (optional)400 g
Prawn300 g
Pork, andouille or smoked sausage150 g
Garlic4 clove
Rice, uncooked, to serve300 g
Water1½ l
Salt7.4 ml

Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.

Steps

Step 1
Stir flour and oil over medium heat until the roux is the colour of milk chocolate, 15–20 minutes. Do not burn it.
20 min
Step 2
Onion, celery, pepper, garlic. Then stock, okra, chicken and sausage. Simmer 40 minutes. Shrimp in the last 5. Rice.
50 min

Adapt this recipe

The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.

Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 24 August.

Substitutions

Andouille → Any smoked sausage
Name it.

Tips

Filé (sassafras) off the heat is the other thickener. Okra is this pot.
A blonde roux is a different, lighter gumbo. Still a gumbo.

History & culture

Louisiana. West African okra (the name likely from ki ngombo), French roux, and the people who cooked it under conditions that should not be a fun fact.

African, French, Spanish and Native technique in one pot. Creole and Cajun versions argue about tomatoes and filé.

Regional variation

Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food. Not copied from another recipe site. Official recipe photography is pending. Photograph: Kate via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gumbo%20-%20Kate%202012.jpg