Easy Gumbo Recipe with Shrimp and Sausage

Name: Easy Gumbo Recipe with Shrimp and Sausage
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Ingredients: 1/3 cup all-purpose flour; 1/4 cup cooking oil; 1/2 cup sweet onion (chopped); 1/2 cup celery (chopped, about two good sized stalks.); 1/4 cup green pepper (chopped); 1/4 cup red pepper (chopped); 4 cloves garlic (minced); 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper; 1 Tablespoon Creole Seasoning (or Cajun seasoning); 3 cups chicken broth (heated); 1/2 pound shrimp (medium and deveined); 8 ounces andouille sausage (fully cooked); 1 1/2 cups sliced okra ( or one 10 ounce package frozen cut okra); 2 bay leaves; 3 cups hot cooked rice; Tabasco sauce

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This Easy Gumbo Recipe Has the Flavor of a gumbo that you’ve spent hours preparing. Ready in about 45 minutes, this is a straight forward, simple weeknight dinner recipe you’ll want to keep on your meal plan rotation. Bold with flavor this shrimp and sausage gumbo recipe will become one of your favorites.

Shrimp and Andouille Sausage Gumbo with Rice

This recipe was first published October, 2012 and updated October, 2020.

The weekend is over and lazy lingering meals will be replaced with quick work-week dinners. Cue this easy gumbo recipe please.

The reason I made this soup is because a true-blue gumbo is a process that can span over of a couple of days.

Someday when I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll take the time to do that. But in the meantime I wanted to challenge myself to come up with an easy gumbo recipe version that reminds me of the wonderful flavors we enjoyed in New Orleans.

Depending on how fast your can slice and dice, I’d say this is a 45 minute start to finish meal.

Okra, shrimp, red and green bell peppers swim in a broth colored with roux and flavored with onions, bay leaves, garlic and crushed red pepper,

And with a side of steamed white rice, you’ll be digging out your Louie Armstrong CD’s.

Let’s take a look at this easy shrimp sausage gumbo.

What Goes Into This Recipe

Mise en place. Always gather ingredients before starting any recipe. It will save you time and organize your mind.

Ingredients to make shrimp and andouille sausage gumbo

Green Bell Peppers, Red Bell Peppers, Onions and Celery are key ingredients to any gumbo soup recipe. They create a “sofrito” style beginning for this soup.
Okra: Gumbo wouldn’t be gumbo without sliced okra.
Chicken broth, oil and flour to make that traditional gumbo roux.
Andouille Sausage. Please seek out a quality well flavored andouille sausage. It’s a French smoked sausage with a wonderfully spicy flavor.

Ingredient Swaps

Don’t have shrimp on hand? Swap out shrimp for bite-sized chunks of chicken. Just add those uncooked chicken pieces to the gumbo at the same time as you add the sausage.
You can swap out Andouille Sausage for any smoked sausage. Kielbasa is a good choice here.

Step by Step Instructions, It’s Easy

In a large sauce pan, prepare the roux by combining flour and oil. cooking and stirring until roux becomes a beautiful dark red-ish brown.

Stirring chopped vegetables into a roux to make shrimp and sausage gumbo — Step 2

Stir in onion, celery, peppers, garlic, black pepper, and ground red pepper and cook for about 7 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Pro Tip Knife Skills: Always keep the hand that’s gripping the knife clean and dry. A wet hand could cause slips resulting in nicks or worse a nasty slice on your hand.

Stir in hot chicken broth, sausage, okra and bay leaves.
Bring to a good simmer and let cook 15 minutes.
In the meantime, cook the rice.
Drop in the shrimp and let them cook for two minutes.
Remove bay leaves and serve over rice.

Common Questions About This Easy Gumbo Recipe

How Do You Know When the Roux is Done?

Once you start cooking the roux, stir it often. The flour and oil mixture will turn to a red brown color and will take on a nut-like odor.

Whats The Difference Between Gumbo and Jambalaya?

It all has to due with the roux and the role of the rice. Gumbo builds its flavor upon the roux, and the roux will thicken it to a stew like texture. Gumbo is served with rice on the side, while with jambalaya, the rice is simmered in the soup.

What to Serve with Gumbo?

Rice is a traditional partner for gumbo. Start with this beautiful New Orleans recipe for Louisiana Sunburst Salad. A popular recipe made famous by the Palace Cafe in New Orleans. You could also serve it with Cornbread Muffins or try this Herbed Tomato Bread. And why not make a Chile Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Bourbon Frosting for dessert.

Can This Be Made Ahead?

The roux can be made 3 – 5 days in advance stored in an airtight contained.

Can I Use Different Seafood For This Recipe

Shrimp is a typical seafood ingredient in Gumbo. You can also use crab, white fish or crawfish.

Storage and Leftovers

With just the two of us, this easy gumbo recipe made plenty of welcome leftovers for next evening’s dinner.

When storing leftovers in the refrigerator, place rice and soup in separate containers, reheat separately and then bring them back together in the soup bowl. The texture of the rice is much happier that way. And only a gentle reheat of the soup is needed, we don’t want rubbery shrimp.
Because this gumbo contains shrimp, we don’t recommend keeping in the refrigerator for over two days.
You can freeze gumbo for up to six months. I like to use a gallon zip lock back. Just fill the bag with the gumbo to about two inches to the top. Squeeze the air out and make sure the bag is sealed well. Lay flat in freezer for maximum storage.
To reheat, let the gumbo thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Then gently reheat in a saucepan, over low heat.

Recipe for Easy Gumbo

easy gumbo recipe with shrimp and andouille sausage

I hope you give this easy Louisiana gumbo recipe a try. This hearty gumbo is a true melting pot meal that will transport you to Louisiana in just one bite. A top notch flavorful creole stew with origins from West Africa, Germany, French and Choctaw and has become a staple of Southern cooking.

So whether you’re looking for a dish to celebrate Marde Gras, or just a fun weekend meal, you and your family will find this easy gumbo recipe very satisfying.

More Super Easy Soup Recipes Ideas

And if you love soups as much as we do, you won’t want to miss my Soup Category. You’ll find tons of great soup recipes, including the most popular on my site for Anthony Bourdain’s New Mexico Style Chili.

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Shrimp and Sausage Easy Gumbo Recipe …It’s What’s for Dinner.

Lea Ann Brown

Why Trust These Recipes? Lea Ann Brown has lived, worked and played in Colorado for 45 years. She has immersed herself in the Colorado Culinary space, is a Culinary School Graduate and publishes her Colorado food Blog, Cooking On The Ranch.