As promised in this post, every recipe I add to the blog in May will be compliant with Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat To Live plan. There are two phases in Eat to Live: a six-week weight loss period, and the “Life Plan” which is designed to keep the weight off and achieve maximum health and longevity. This recipe is allowed on the Life Plan.
Under Dr. Fuhrman’s “90% rule” for the Life Plan, processed foods or animal products should not exceed 10% of total calorie intake. Processed foods are low in nutrients and therefore should be eaten in small quantities and treated as more of a condiment to flavor vegetable dishes. He recommends women limit their intake of such foods to no more than 150 calories per day and 200 calories for men.
This recipe contains vegan sausage by Field Roast Grain Meat Company – the Mexican Chipotle flavor. This is obviously a processed product using wheat gluten, but its use in this recipe complies with the 90% rule. And a delicious one at that! This recipe makes about 10 servings and I used 3 sausages in the entire dish, so you’ll get about 1/3 of a sausage per serving. According to the package nutrition information, that means you get about 85 calories, 4 grams of fat (no trans fat), 175 mg of sodium, 3 g of sugar, 1 g of fiber, and 3 g of protein.
I made this dish without any oil (other than what is in the sausage) and I guarantee you won’t miss it! Dr. Fuhrman’s preferred method of cooking vegetables is to “steam fry” them. I put about 4 tablespoons of vegetable broth in the bottom of the pot to steam fry the veggies and by the time they start cooking down and releasing their juices, there’s little risk of the vegetables burning or sticking to the bottom. Dr. Fuhrman also recommends that no salt be added. For this dish, the sausage has enough sodium in it that you won’t need to add any more.
Dr. Fuhrman’s plan allows you to have 1 cup of starchy vegetables or whole grains a day. I used 1 cup of uncooked long grain brown rice in this recipe. As this dish serves about 10 people, each 1½ cup serving contains about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of cooked rice, so you don’t have to feel guilty about eating this as it’s mostly cooked veg. This freezes very well, so store it in single serving size containers and heat it up in no time!
Although I labeled this as a “main dish”, Dr. Fuhrman says that the true main dish for lunch and dinner should always be a large salad and to eat that before anything else. The salad pictured here with the jambalaya is made up of mixed greens, arugula, spinach, red onion, tomatoes, carrots, celery, black beans, and is topped with a ½ tablespoon of sunflower seeds. We make a huge bowl of salad on the weekend which lasts for about 3 – 4 days. For dressing, I prefer the simplicity of freshly squeezed lemon juice.
Ingredients (makes about 10-1½ cup servings)
3 spicy hot vegan sausages – cut into half-moons
1 large white or yellow onion – diced
1 green bell pepper – diced
1 red bell pepper – diced
3 stalks celery – diced
4 medium tomatoes – diced
3 garlic cloves – chopped
1 cup brown rice (uncooked)
2 ½ cups vegetable broth
1 tsp. cayenne pepper or Cajun/creole seasoning (I used The Spice Hunter’s salt free Cajun Creole Seasoning)
½ tsp. red chili pepper flakes
½ tsp. freshly ground pepper
For garnish:
1 bunch green onions – sliced
1 bunch flat leaf parsley – chopped
Directions
1. Chop up all ingredients before you start cooking. Store green onions and parsley in fridge until it’s time to serve.
2. In a large soup pot, pour just enough vegetable broth to cover the bottom of the pot (about 4 – 6 tablespoons). Add red chili pepper flakes, onions, celery and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. If food starts burning or sticking to the bottom, add just enough broth to prevent burning. Then cover and cook another 3 minutes.
3. Add green and red bell peppers and tomatoes. Stir, then cover and let cook over medium heat another 5 minutes.
4. Add sausage, cayenne pepper or Cajun-creole seasoning, black pepper, rice and vegetable broth. Mix well and bring to a full boil. Then reduce heat to low, making sure all rice is submerged in liquid, cover and let cook 30 – 40 minutes until rice is thoroughly cooked. (If using white rice, cut the cooking time to approximately 20 minutes.)
5. Remove from heat. Adjust spice if necessary. The sausage releases a lot of spice, so combined with the seasonings, it should be plenty hot. If you like it crazy spicy hot, feel free to add Tabasco sauce. Let sit in pot, covered, about 10 – 15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.
6. Garnish with plenty of green onions and parsley. Serve hot.
cheri says
Hi Amy, this looks like a very nutritious meal, good for you for sticking to the plan this month, your an inspiration. Have a great week-end!
Amy says
Thanks, Cheri!