Slow Cooker Vegan Super Grains Jambalaya Soup

This is a delicious, ultra healthy and highly spirited stew.  It is made extra healthy by using instead of the usual white rice Simply Nature brand Organic Super Grains from the Aldis Grocery Store. The mix consists of buckwheat, millet, red quinoa and white quinoa - all the trendy super foods health enthusiasts swear by. They are high in protein and fiber so what more could we want.

What is a jambalaya without the sausage but do not panic vegan practitioners, I found a good substitute. Artisan Tofurky Andouille Cajun Style Sausage which I bought from the Giant Eagle Grocery Store. It imparts a lot of flavor to the stew you would need only two sausages as I indicated in the recipe.  I used four when I first made this but I found that it dominated the stew too much but you can use that much if you like. It is made of tofu as the name of the brand indicates and I prefer to add it cubed rather than sliced since it is softer than the regular sausage and making it less obtrusive in size would make it being non meat less obvious. It also blends better as small cubes with the rest of the ingredients of the tomato based recipe. It is my preference but again if you want it to look more like the non vegan version, go for the slice size instead.

Nutritional facts and other information of the Tofurky sausage

I did not have the Cajun Seasoning listed in the recipe I obtained from an unnamed source who joined the McGinnis Sisters Souper Bowl contest held this past January of this year. I googled the recipe for the spice from Allrecipe.com and made a smaller batch of an adapted recipe just to equal about 2 tsp Cajun seasoning called for in the recipe. You can make a whole batch as indicated in the Allrecipes.com and store the rest for future use if you like. 

Slow Cooker Vegan Mixed Grain Jambalaya Soup

Adapted from a recipe submitted to the McGinnis Sisters Souper Bowl Contest, January 2017

• 2 vegan Andouille sausage, cubed or sliced (I used Artisan Tofurky Andouille Cajun Style Sausage)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 red or green pepper, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 cup super grains uncooked (I used Simply Nature super grain mix of buckwheat, millet, red quinoa and white quinoa)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 4 cups vegetable broth
• 1- 14 oz can smoked stewed tomatoes or other type of tomatoes
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning (or add 1/4 tsp each salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika and 1/8 tsp each black pepper, cayenne pepper, dried oregano, dried thyme) Note 1
• 5 scallions, chopped

Add all the ingredients except the scallions in the crock pot and mix.  Cook for 6 hours at high setting or 3 hours at low.  I cooked mine in an Aroma Brand rice cooker/slow cooker at slow cooker setting for 2 hours. Serve with scallions as a topping. 

Note 1

See the recipe of a big batch of Cajun seasoning from Allrecipes.com.