New Year- Healthier Foods?

Well, with the new year I'm trying to start cooking some healthier foods- poached chicken, grilled vegetables and salads. But I still want some of my traditional home cooked favorites. I couldn't help but ask myself...If I make a roux without oil but still put the sausage in the gumbo is that healthy? I guess healthier is better than not healthy at all!

I started with a quick pan fry of the sausage, then added onions, peppers, celery and garlic and topped it off with an oven toasted roux and homemade turkey stock. Then added some seasonings from the pantry along with a little file from the New Orleans Farmers' Market. The result was a perfectly colored, great tasting gumbo with less fat than my original recipe. It probably would be considered healthy if I left out the sausage. But honestly, who wants gumbo with out sausage?

Turkey Stock-
The remains of our Christmas Turkey
2 onions, cut in half
1 head of garlic
2 leeks- tops only, reserve the white part for the gumbo or another dish
1 bell pepper, cut in half and seeds removed
3 carrots
2 jalapeno peppers, whole
4 ribs of celery
2 bay leaves
fresh herbs- thyme, marjoram, savory


Combine ingredients in a large stock pot. Add water until everything is covered. Bring mixture to a boil, Reduce heat and simmer for 2-3 hours. Let cool and then strain to separate the liquid. If you have time and feel like going through the trouble. Pick through the remaining mixture of vegetables and meat to reserve wanted parts for the gumbo.


Oven Toasted Roux

20 cups of flour or an entire 5lb bag of flour

Spread flour evenly on a large baking sheet or in a dutch oven. Bake at 350 for two hours, stirring every 20 minutes. Flour should be nutty in color. Continue to roast if you want it darker. Use flour in place of oil and flour based roux in recipes. I thought 20 cups was too much to start with, just in case and used only 3 cups...it worked perfectly. NO need to do the whole bag if you don't want to. But, I bet friends would love getting a whole jar of roux! It works great with whole wheat flour too.

Poached Chicken Breast
2 chicken breasts
1/2 lemon
herbs- thyme, fennel, oregano, savory

Fill a pot 1/2 with water, squeeze lemon juice into the water and throw the lemon in the water. Add herbs of your choice. Bring water to a boil, then add chicken breasts and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Then turn off heat and let the chicken breasts it in the water for 15 more minutes. Drain and use chicken breasts on salad or in chicken salad.