Cooking time:

240 minutes

Preparation time:

20 minutes

Makes:

16 cups (4 L), for 8 servings

 
Roberto Caruso

Ingredients

• 4  turkey sausages or Cajun or hot Italian sausages
• 10 oz (300 g) ham steak
• 2  onions
• 4  garlic cloves or 2-1/2 tsp (12 mL) bottled chopped garlic
• 1  green pepper
• 2 cups (500 mL) long-grain white rice
• 28 oz (796 mL) can diced tomatoes
• 10 oz (284 mL) can undiluted chicken broth and 1 can water or 2 cups (500 mL) chicken bouillon
• 1 tsp (5 mL) each dried oregano leaves, salt and ground black pepper
• 1/2 tsp (2 mL) dried thyme leaves
• 2  bay leaves
• 454 g bag frozen uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined, about 1 lb (optional)
• 1 cup (250 mL) chopped fresh parsley

Save time with a slow cooker and enjoy a creole feast.

Instructions

• Set a large frying pan over medium heat. Cut each sausage in half. Squeeze meat from casings into pan. Discard casings. Using a fork, stir frequently to keep meat crumbly until no longer pink, 6 to 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile, coarsely chop ham and onions. Mince garlic. Core and seed green pepper, then chop into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces. Add sausage meat to bowl of slow cooker. Add ham, rice, onions, garlic, green pepper, tomatoes, broth, water, oregano, salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaves. Stir until evenly mixed. Cover and turn slow cooker to high. Cook until rice is done, 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low. Stir in frozen shrimp and continue cooking 40 more minutes. Stir in parsley.

Lean ham

Look for extra-lean ham at your supermarket. Three ounces (90 g) of extra-lean ham has about 4.7 grams of fat and 123 calories.

Nutrition (per Serving)

protein

33.3 g

fat

9 g

carbohydrates

48.4 g

fibre

2.5 g

iron

4.3 mg

calcium

115 mg

sodium

1765 mg

calories

413 

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