Where can I get the best vegetarian gumbo & red beans and rice? (New Orleans: home, restaurants)

[DownSouth88]

I've been looking at the menus for a lot of the "great" restaurants in town but all of the gumbo and red beans & rice I've seen comes with seafood/chicken and sausage, respectively. Which restaurants serve these dishes without the meat?

[mhounit]

This ought to be good .

[thepointykitty]

I'm vegetarian, and my husband and I are in the process of moving to New Orleans, too. I haven't found a whole lot of vegetarian "local" food, although there are many great Asian places, and I've been told about other good vegetarian restaurants. A lot of places will gladly make a veggie po-boy or muffuletta for you, though. (I love fried mushroom po-boys!)

I would very highly recommend the African restaurant on Royal Street, "Bennachin". The food is amazing, and should satisfy you when you're in a "beans & rice/ gumbo" type of mood. (Try the black-eyed pea fritters - they melt in your mouth!)

Fortunately my husband (who eats meat sometimes) is an amazing cook and makes vegetarian versions of anything I want. My incredibly Southern mom has adapted a bunch of family recipes for me as well, and they're fantastic. Opening a vegetarian restaurant serving traditional nola/southern food is one of our long-term goals.

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Depending on how strict you are, you might not be satisfied with what a restaurant will do. If they fry veggies, it may be on the grill where they cook meat. Soup make have a chicken or beef broth. Just ask to be sure if this matters to you.

[bustaduke]

Originally Posted by movinginjune2010

I've been looking at the menus for a lot of the "great" restaurants in town but all of the gumbo and red beans & rice I've seen comes with seafood/chicken and sausage, respectively. Which restaurants serve these dishes without the meat?

New Orleans Louisiana LA Vegetarian & Vegan Restaurants

This is a link for vegetarian - vege friendly restaurants in New Orleans.

I can't vouch for any because I'm a meat eater.

busta

[jacq63]

I can vouch for Cafe Bamboo, delicious food. I used to be vegetarian...then I visited New Orleans. Which is not to say the veg restaurant wasn't excellent..just that there was too much by way of temptation in seafood alone. I used to make veg versions of N.O cuisine at home, it was better than veg versions of non N.O cuisine. Good luck with the move, you lucky things!

[Nico82NO]

um... gumbo would just be water and white rice without the meat, oh and some okra or filé maybe some celery lol! do some research before asking that question. Most places will fix red beans without the meat if you ask and specifically state that you dont want sausage. Some places however cook the meat with it so its impossible to remove or seperate it.

But the gumbo thing?!?! gumbo is a meat stew... maybe you could make your own variety with greens instead of meat but the roux i think is made with broth from meats i think, i dunno though. It really is a meat stew though, so vegetarians... sorry its one thing you may never get a chance to taste. Unles you can settle for some seafood included, then maybe you can find somewheres that does a strict seafood gumbo but there is still the chance there is chicken in it and a whole bunch of other stuff you wont eat. Its pretty slow cooked too so id image tofu would just dissolve, which is the point, thats what happens to the okra in it.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by Nico82NO

um... gumbo would just be water and white rice without the meat, oh and some okra or filé maybe some celery lol! do some research before asking that question. Most places will fix red beans without the meat if you ask and specifically state that you dont want sausage. Some places however cook the meat with it so its impossible to remove or seperate it.

But the gumbo thing?!?! gumbo is a meat stew... maybe you could make your own variety with greens instead of meat but the roux i think is made with broth from meats i think, i dunno though. It really is a meat stew though, so vegetarians... sorry its one thing you may never get a chance to taste. Unles you can settle for some seafood included, then maybe you can find somewheres that does a strict seafood gumbo but there is still the chance there is chicken in it and a whole bunch of other stuff you wont eat. Its pretty slow cooked too so id image tofu would just dissolve, which is the point, thats what happens to the okra in it.

umm.. Gumbo Z'herbes.
Okra Gumbo... Green gumbo.
Afterall, it is Lent.

Creole Jambalaya can easily be made without meat and would probably taste the same. (I only like the cajun kind and can't picture it without meat)
You could make Shrimp Creole without the shrimp. A lot of dishes would come down to whether or not you eat dairy products as cream is the base of most creole dishes and the cajun ones depend heavily on meat. Finding these at a restaurants may be challenging, but isn't impossible.
Dooky Chase and several other restaurants offer "Green" Gumbo.
Bennachin on the corner of Gov. Nicholls and Royal serves West African, but it's very similar to New Orleans cuisine (it is where it mostly originated). The have a large vegetarian menu. If cooking at home you can make a lot of the dishes and just cut the meat.

[Nico82NO]

I'm not Catholic and I don't adhere to lent or other Catholic traditions, so I don't know much about meatless dishes for fridays. Although I thought Catholics could eat fish and seafood on fridays and during lent. Seems you wikipedia'd it too since they mention gumbo z'herbes, which is why I mentioned using greens, since ill admit I looked to see if there were other ways to prepare it. Gumbo is a derivation of either french or african word for okra, correct me if I'm wrong on that one, so "okra gumbo" is a bit redundant. File is sasafras if I'm not mistaken. So without other ingredients you may end up just making the roux? Is stock not used for the roux? I agree though that jambalaya and other dishes could be made without the meats.

[WestbankNOLA]

Originally Posted by Nico82NO

I'm not Catholic and I don't adhere to lent or other Catholic traditions, so I don't know much about meatless dishes for fridays. Although I thought Catholics could eat fish and seafood on fridays and during lent. Seems you wikipedia'd it too since they mention gumbo z'herbes, which is why I mentioned using greens, since ill admit I looked to see if there were other ways to prepare it. Gumbo is a derivation of either french or african word for okra, correct me if I'm wrong on that one, so "okra gumbo" is a bit redundant. File is sasafras if I'm not mistaken. So without other ingredients you may end up just making the roux? Is stock not used for the roux? I agree though that jambalaya and other dishes could be made without the meats.

Actually, I didn't have to wiki that. Any local should already know what it is. Green gumbo is more popular during Lent, that's why I mentioned that. I used the proper name for it (which is used somewhat in the city), because the OP may not be able to research "green gumbo" as easily.

Mostly anything in Louisiana with the term "French" is in name only, gumbo included. The term "okra gumbo" is more than common in New Orleans. It's Roux.. with Okra. Add file if you want. The Roux practically makes the gumbo anyway as the taste will depend on how you season it, moreso than what you put in it.