Invisible Keto

Making real food for real people.

Cuisines → Creole →

Gumbo

"This is the best shit you ever made." — my 80-year-old Cleveland friend

There are as many gumbo recipes as there are ingredients in your fridge. So here I show how to make a Keto-friendly gumbo using one of my favorite recipes as an example. The rest is up to you and your fridge.

Gumbo is a Louisiana dish that developed in the 18th–19th centuries, rooted in a blend of culinary traditions:

  • West African: use of okra as a thickener (the word “gumbo” likely derives from a West African term for okra)
  • French: roux-based thickening and stew techniques
  • Spanish: influence via New Orleans cooking culture (similarities to dishes like paella)
  • Native American (Choctaw): use of filé powder (ground sassafras leaves) as a thickener and flavoring

Over time, gumbo became a flexible, regional dish reflecting available ingredients—rural vs. urban, coastal vs. inland—rather than a single fixed recipe.

In true gumbo tradition, this is a Sunday Gumbo built from what was in the fridge—chicken, sausage, seafood, and whatever else made sense.

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 6 cups crawfish or seafood stock (strongly preferred), or Chicken Stock.

    If you use a store bought stock, buy twice as much as needed and give it a serious reduction; you really want tasty stock for this dish.

  • 8 oz okra

  • Gumbo filé powder
  • steamed rice (for non-Keto guests)

Seafood and Meat

  • ½ lb Andouille sausage or Creole smoked sausage
  • 1 lb crawfish tail meat
  • ½ lb crab meat (lump or claw)
  • 3 oz smoked oysters in oil
  • 1½ lb chicken, cut up (I happened to have leftover Roast Chicken so I used that)

Holy Trinity

  • 1 large yellow onion, chopped
  • 1/2 cup celery, chopped
  • 1/2 cup green bell pepper, chopped

Roux

  • 1/2 cup neutral oil (avocado or light olive oil)
  • 1/2 cup super-fine almond flour
  • Pinch of cayenne, to taste
  • Pinch of thyme
  • Bay leaf

Method

Prep

  1. Slice the okra into 1/2-inch rounds and sauté the okra in a small amount of oil until the surface moisture cooks off and the slime reduces, about 5–7 minutes. This step reduces the okra’s natural thickening slime so it contributes body without becoming overly viscous.
  2. Slice sausage into ¼–½ inch rounds and brown in a pan.
  3. Put the chicken, okra, and sausage in the pot that will be used for the gumbo.

Roux

  1. Use the oil and almond flour to make a Roux in the same pan (see link for full instructions).
  2. Cook the roux to a medium-dark brown (the color of peanut butter or milk chocolate), which defines the depth of the gumbo.
  3. Add the Holy Trinity.
  4. Cook slowly until the vegetables are soft and transparent.
  5. Stir in the thyme, bay leaf, cayenne, and black pepper to taste.

Simmer

  1. Place the roux-vegetable mix into the pot with the meats and cover by one inch with stock. The gumbo should be slightly thinner than a stew but thicker than a soup; adjust with additional stock as needed.
  2. Simmer for one hour.

Make-ahead option: The gumbo base can be cooled and refrigerated overnight. This will deepen flavor. Reheat gently before proceeding.

Finish and Serve

  1. Reheat the gumbo base gently if prepared in advance. Then add the crawfish tail meat and cook for 5–10 minutes, just to heat through. Take the pot off heat.
  2. Stir in a small amount of the smoked oyster oil (1–2 teaspoons) and gently fold in the smoked oysters, to warm through without overcooking.
  3. Gently fold in the crab meat.
  4. Adjust the salt and let the gumbo sit for five minutes.
  5. Add a teaspoon of filé powder and stir it in well.
  6. Add optional hot sauce for some additional pop.

If you are serving to non-Keto guests, it's polite to provide a bowl of rice that they can spoon into the gumbo as desired.

Inspirations