Shrimp and Sausage Stew

Sausage and Shrimp Stew

O.k… it’s supposed to get cold here this week (high 60’s is cold here…lol) and I planned to make this on one of those days, but I changed around my weekly menu a bit and made this ‘cold day meal’ on a warm day – today! Uh oh.

It’s a “bowl-style” meal so we ate in front of the TV tonight holding scalding hot bowls of this stew on hot pads. I made it without the cajun seasoning, 1.) because I didn’t have any and 2.) I don’t like hot stuff, but my husband added cayenne pepper to his and liked the flavor a lot. I felt like it was missing something other than the heat and I think my mistake with this recipe was using a different type of sausage. You can try it and let me know what you think. I got the recipe here.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp. – olive oil

1- green bell pepper, deseeded and diced

1- small yellow onion (you know I used onion powder) 😉

2- stalks of celery (I didn’t have any so I used celery salt)

1- large carrot, peeled and diced

1 – clove garlic, minced

1- 8 ounce can of tomato sauce

1- 10 ounce can of tomato sauce with green chilies

2 links- smoked sausage, cut into round pieces – (I used the chicken apple sausage I had on hand.) *This may have been where I lost the flavor now that I think about it…?

2 cups- kale, chopped

1 cup – chicken stock

1 tsp.- cajun seasoning

1 lb.- shrimp, fully cooked, deveined and tails off

White Rice (or cauliflower rice if you’re watching your carbs… I should be, but didn’t feel like pulling out my food processor to make any… lazy.)

Directions:

In a large pan or Dutch oven, add your oil and heat over medium heat.

Add your green pepper, onion, celery, carrot and saute’ for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally

Add your garlic, cook until fragrant, about a minute

Add your tomato sauce and cook down by about 1/4, stir

Add tomato sauce with green chilies and cook down by about 1/4, stir. While it’s cooking, fry your sausage in a small frying pan

Add your cooked sausage

Add your kale and stir in and simmer for about 5 minutes until softened (I had my husband clean and de-stem the kale while I did everything else.)

Add the broth and bring to a boil

Add in the cajun seasoning (if using) and stir to mix well

Turn down the heat to simmer and cover for 50 minutes

Make your rice now and let sit (I used boil in the bag rice)

When the timer goes off at 50 minutes, throw in your shrimp (this should be fully cooked shrimp, so you are only warming it through the last 10 minutes) and stir

Pour stew in a bowl. Top with rice and sliced green onions. Serve on a hot pad and watch TV. LOL! 😉