Jambalaya Rice Salad — The Cold Cajun Spring Salad

The first true warm weekend of the year landed in mid-April. Sixty-eight degrees on Saturday afternoon and seventy-two on Sunday, the dogwoods up the road starting to bud out their first white-pink edges, Mama’s back fully recovered and her schedule back to full hours at the diner, Cody six weeks from his TCC restaurant-arts certificate ceremony in mid-May. The four of us — including Aunt Linda who was down for the weekend with Roy in tow because Linda is now talking actively about wedding planning — sat on the back porch Saturday night for the first dinner outside since October. We ate roast chicken on paper plates because Mama insisted on simplicity, and we watched the sky go from blue to lavender to the kind of indigo that only happens on April evenings in central Oklahoma.

Sunday I made a jambalaya rice salad because the warm weather wanted a cold side dish and the household was tired of cold-weather food after a long winter of stews and braises and slow cookers and Dutch ovens. Jambalaya is traditionally a hot dish — rice cooked in seasoned stock with andouille and shrimp and chicken and the holy trinity, served warm out of the pot — but I’d been thinking for a few weeks about a cold-deconstruction version that would carry the same flavor profile in a spring salad context. The idea is the same flavors in a different mood: all the building blocks of jambalaya present, but reorganized into something cool and bright that you eat with a fork at room temperature on a porch.

I cooked two cups of long-grain white rice in chicken broth with a teaspoon of cajun seasoning to season it from the start, spread it on a sheet pan to cool quickly (hot rice tossed with cool ingredients cooks them; cool rice keeps the texture distinct), and refrigerated it for an hour. Twelve ounces of andouille sausage diced into quarter-inch coins and crisped in a dry skillet for ten minutes until the fat rendered and the edges browned. A pound of medium shrimp peeled and de-veined, tossed with a tablespoon of cajun seasoning, and quick-sautéed in a hot pan with a tablespoon of butter for ninety seconds a side until just opaque (over-cooked shrimp goes rubbery; quick-cook is the rule). Both proteins cooled completely.

The vegetables go in raw because the salad is cold and you want the bright crunch. The traditional Cajun holy trinity — yellow onion, celery, green bell pepper — finely diced into uniform quarter-inch dice. A cup of cherry tomatoes halved. A half-cup of fresh parsley chopped. A bunch of scallions, white and green parts, sliced thin on the bias. A jalapeño seeded and minced for a touch of heat. The combined raw vegetable mass is about three cups, which balances against the three cups of cooked rice and the two cups of meat-and-shrimp by volume.

The vinaigrette is what holds the whole thing together. Red wine vinegar (a quarter-cup), olive oil (a half-cup — the ratio is two-to-one, more vinegar-forward than a standard salad dressing because the rice will absorb some of the acidity and dampen it), two cloves of garlic grated on the microplane, two teaspoons of Dijon mustard, a teaspoon of cajun seasoning, a teaspoon of dried oregano, salt, pepper, a small spoonful of honey for balance. Whisked together in a jar until emulsified.

Everything tossed together in a large bowl. The vinaigrette goes on while the rice is still cool but not cold — cool rice absorbs the dressing better than ice-cold rice — and the salad rests in the fridge for an hour minimum so the flavors marry. The shrimp and the andouille get folded in last so they don’t break up. Plated on a bed of butter lettuce with a wedge of lemon on the side and a final sprinkle of fresh parsley.

The salad eats like jambalaya in a different mood — all the same flavor notes (the smoke from the andouille, the brine from the shrimp, the heat from the cajun seasoning, the freshness from the trinity, the acid from the vinegar) but reorganized into a cool, refreshing, summer-leaning shape. Mama said it was “the smartest thing you’ve done with Cajun food” over her second helping. Cody asked me at the table if I’d be willing to teach him the recipe properly because he wanted to add it to the cafe menu he was sketching out in his notebook for “Cody’s,” the lunch-only six-table cafe in Sapulpa he’s now talking about with the kind of specificity people use when they mean it. The cafe is now a real-enough thing to him that he’s sketching menus by hand at the kitchen table on the backs of envelopes. Sometimes his sketches list me as the pastry consultant. He won’t admit when I ask him about it, but he doesn’t deny it either.

Cool the rice on a sheet pan first. Vinaigrette while the rice is still cool but not cold. Here’s the salad.

Jambalaya Rice Salad

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 45 min | Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 1 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 6 oz andouille sausage, sliced into thin rounds
• 3 strips bacon, chopped
• 1 medium green bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, diced
• 1/2 cup celery, thinly sliced
• 3 green onions, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, drained
• 2 tsp Cajun seasoning
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Fresh parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

1. Cook the rice. Bring chicken broth to a boil in a medium saucepan. Stir in rice, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 18–20 minutes until broth is absorbed. Spread cooked rice onto a baking sheet to cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes.
2. Render the bacon and sausage. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook chopped bacon until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside, leaving 1 tbsp drippings in the pan. Add andouille sausage slices and cook 3–4 minutes until lightly browned. Remove and set aside with the bacon.
3. Sauté the vegetables. Add 1 tbsp olive oil to the same skillet over medium heat. Add bell peppers and celery; cook 4–5 minutes until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
4. Cook the shrimp. Add remaining olive oil to the skillet over medium-high heat. Season shrimp with 1 tsp Cajun seasoning and a pinch of salt. Cook shrimp 1–2 minutes per side until pink and just cooked through. Remove from heat.
5. Build the salad. To the large mixing bowl with the vegetables, add cooled rice, drained tomatoes, cooked bacon, and sausage. Drizzle with red wine vinegar and sprinkle with remaining Cajun seasoning, smoked paprika, and cayenne. Toss well to combine.
6. Add shrimp and finish. Fold shrimp and green onions gently into the salad. Taste and adjust salt, pepper, and heat. Garnish with fresh parsley. Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 390 | Protein: 26g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 38g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 820mg