As I write this, I am eating a hot bowl of Louisiana Gumbo with shrimp and sausage. This is a great meal for colder weather. I am not a big soup eater, but gumbo is winning me over. I did cheat and buy a box of mix. Here is the gumbo mix that I used:
The box's directions gave the option to use water or chicken stock. I used a mixture of both (more chicken stock than water). I think next time I would use more water than chicken stock because this batch was a little saltier than I prefer. I used Zatarain's brand of gumbo mix last time and I actually liked the flavor better. It had a little more spice. Which is surprising because I usually do not like spicy food.
The beauty of making gumbo is that you can put any kind of meat in it that you want. Last time I only chose shrimp, but this time I mixed in shrimp and sausage and liked it a lot better. I also added in fresh diced green onions. The batch I made last time was too soupy for my liking, so I added more rice to the mix. It helped thicken up this batch and I liked the consistency better. I would highly suggest adding about a quarter cup of rice if you want a consistency as shown on the box.
