Black Bean Jambalaya. Vegan. Gluten Free.

How was your weekend? Mine was good. Friday we headed out to Pittsburgh to tour the university with our oldest. We stayed over and Saturday was so much fun. The minute we stepped out of the car she looked at me with THAT look. That – “This is IT!!” look. My heart was elated and deflated simultaneously. The other schools we looked at were closer. I think I took comfort in that. The campus was electrified as they were getting ready to battle Notre Dame in football. School spirit was insane. We did our meetings and tour and then headed out with a friend of my daughter’s. We took him to center city and had lunch. Took him to stock up on some goodies for his dorm room and mainly picked his brain about everything Pitt. My daughter… sold!

Sunday we got up and ran and came home and did busy work. Before I knew it the day was almost half over and I needed to make dinner. I wasn’t going to the grocery store so I had to work with what I had on hand, which wasn’t much but a well-stocked pantry. I grabbed Mary Mattern’s Nom Yourself cookbook and went with this recipe slightly modified. It turned out beautifully with minimal effort. So good and perfect for busy weeknights and leftovers are perfect for lunch.
Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of TVP -textured vegetable protein

1/2 of a yellow onion, minced
2 tablespoons of smoked paprika
2 tablespoons of ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
Freshly cracked black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup of Roma tomatoes
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 cup of uncooked brown rice
4 cups of vegetable broth
1 can of black beans, drained and rinsed
Jalapeno for topping is optional

Directions:
In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil until hot. Add the TVP and onion and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring often. The TVP will brown up. Add the paprika, cumin, cayenne, oregano, garlic powder, pepper and salt. Cook for 2 minutes or so. Then add tomatoes and bell pepper. I broke up the tomatoes with the back of a spoon. Cook for 5 minutes.

Pour your rice into the pot and stir until well combined. Then add your broth and black beans and stir. Bring to a boil then reduce the heat to a simmer and cover. Cook for 1-2 hours on a very low heat.

Spoon into bowl and serve with a nice crusty bread. I topped our bowls with finely diced jalapeños.

After I ran a marathon distance on Thursday I opted to take Friday as an extra rest day. I finished out the week at 52 miles. I started back on Sunday with my new week.